Image size: 62.5 x 49.5 cm,
Image size: 62.0 x 49.0 cm (with border 85 x 72cm)
Originally from Cirebon, Haryadi Suadi is a well-known printmaker trained at the art training institution in Bandung where he studied printmtmaking under the tutelage of Mochtar Apin from the late 1950s until mid-1960s. Unlike the earliest generation of Bandung artists, such as Apin, Ahmad Sadali, and A.D. Pirous who worked closely with Western abstraction, Haryadi's prints engaged more closely with the works of Japanese printmaker, Shiko Munakata, and local languages of representation informed by Javanese and Cirebonese cultural and material tradition. This print shows Haryadi's early experimentation with calligraphic form that is likely informed by Munakata's rich exploration of textuality and calligraphy in his woodblock prints. In Haryadi's print, the space is roughly divided by four distinct yet overlapping and resonant calligraphic lines with varying thickness and textures. One perhaps could delineate some recognizable structures that might mimic both Chinese and Arabic characters. The left-bottom part of the composition showcases much thinner and fluid lines with some characters resembling Arabic letters.
