Put any other artist in an exhibit with Pablo Picasso, and you’ve put them in the shadow of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Indonesian artist Jumaadi, however, is not to be overshadowed. Paired with Picasso’s collection of photogravure images in the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s fall 2014 exhibit, Jumaadi’s paintings, drawings and shadow puppets commanded attention and consideration.
Jumaadi’s collection, forgive me not to miss you not, produced during his two-month residency with the Halsey, included shadow puppet theater – one of the principal means for Indonesians to share their stories from generation to generation – as well as multimedia images combining fragments of stories, memories and experiences to evoke a sense of longing and otherworldliness.
For Picasso’s part, Diurnes – a 1962 collaboration with photographer André Villers – consists of a box containing 30 black-and-white photograms in which Picasso superimposed and applied paper cut-outs of figures to recreate his mythical imagery over the landscapes that Villers captured. The result is a playful interplay of backgrounds and figures that both complement and contradict one another at the same time.
“I think Picasso would have loved being in the same exhibition as shadow puppets,” says Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey Institute. “Picasso and Jumaadi together bridge seemingly disparate realms.”
And that bridge allows both artists to shine.
