Sidik W Martowidjojo’s Chinese Paintings within Postmodern Aesthetic

The New Order regime (1966-1998) banned every form of Chinese culture in Indonesia as a political policy. Indonesian Chinese painting maestro, Sidik W Martowidjojo (b. 1937) could only hold his first solo exhibition in 1998 right after the Reformation Era (1998-present). This study aims to analyze Martowidjojo’s artistic creation method and the aesthetic code of his painting, to later classify it in post-modern aesthetic discourse. This study uses a qualitative method. Martowidjojo’s painting will be analyzed using the critical performance, the structure of art criticism from Feldman. Te results showed that the unique feature of Martowidjojo’s painting lies in syncretism in his artistic creation method. Conclusion: Martowidjojo combines Eastern (Chinese) and Western (European-American) aesthetics by using specific materials used in Chinese painting: brushes (mao pi) and rice paper (xian zhi), combined with watercolors which is the medium of Western painting. Martowidjojo combines the typical subject matter of Chinese painting: landscapes of rivers and mountains but he paints it using Western perspective drawings. Martowidjojo’s Chinese painting has the characteristic of “internationalization”: his landscape paintings are not only representing the beauty of China landscape, but The method of artistic creation in Martowidjojo’s work is identical to one of the post-modern aesthetic idioms: eclecticism. Keywords: aesthetic, art, anti-China, Chinese painting, contemporary art, eclecticism, postmoder