Research on the commission work, especially from Lee Man Fong as one of the court painters in the Soekarno era, usually has little discourse and discussion in the context of the history of modern Indonesian art. Historically he made a giant panel painting of Margasatwa dan Puspita Indonesia (Flora and Fauna of Indonesia) sized 4 m height to 10.85 m wide as a commission work representing the significant habitat of flora and fauna of Indonesia at the Grand Hotel Indonesia in 1962. His ideas, techniques, and triptych curve form of painting were different from conventional paintings placement. The concept and process of its implementation have portrayed an influence of the patron's ideological role that encourages to accommodate new public space within the framework of formation of identity, tradition, and collective knowledge of national consciousness. The present research focuses on analyzing the relationship between motives, space, and identity formation through interviews, tracing primary-secondary sources, observation, and interpretation of artworks. The results of this study indicate that there are impacts of socio-historical, cultural, and national fusion changes during the development of the guided democracy period in Indonesia which have a strong influence on artists, patronages, site locations, and art production. The original idea of commission work was initiated by Soekarno who decided the subject (title) of the artwork and size (had to be the biggest painting of all Indonesia), then the idea was produced as a panel painting by Lee Man Fong himself who also supported by four assistants for the operational organization. An artistic visualization and space construction of this panel painting represent the life of tropical flora and fauna from the perspective of Chinese-Indonesian diaspora painters to beautify the Hotel Indonesia building as a city landmark and celebrate international sports events of the 4th Asian Games in 1964.

No abstract