Between Ethics and Aesthetics: A Curation Method for Contemporary Islamic Paintings in Indonesia

Abstract

This research explores the curation methods of contemporary Islamic painting in Indonesia, which lies in the midst of ethics and aesthetics. The emergence of this art as a phenomenon is rooted in Indonesia's post-colonial history and the establishment of academic art colleges with diverse cultural structures. The research creates a curation method that combines ethical and aesthetic elements in contemporary Indonesian Islamic painting.To investigate this, a qualitative descriptive method approach was used. Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews with artists and Islamic art curators, focusing on their curatorial philosophies and strategies. At the same time, a descriptive approach was employed through curatorial and content analysis of contemporary Indonesian Islamic painting exhibitions.The findings show that curators must balance the ethical foundation of creating art by Islamic law and embracing the evolving aesthetic concepts of contemporary painting. Curators use curatorial tools such as thematic arrangement, contextualization, and viewer segmentation to achieve this balance. Moreover, the curators emphasize the importance of curatorial reflexivity, in which the theme, form, and style of an artist's work are critically examined to ensure impartiality.The paper concludes that each exhibition can be classified into three main themes: calligraphic, representational, and nonrepresentational. These three main themes have been first used in the Fine Arts Exhibition of Istiqlal Festival II in 1995, which then have continued to evolve in terms of theme, form, and style according to the context in which the exhibition was held. This shows that the aesthetic value of a painting is constantly changing while still meeting the ethical boundaries of creation according to Islamic law. Thus, the method of curating contemporary Islamic paintings will continue to adapt to the conditions of the times.

Passing Down Traditions and Culture: Methods of Painting Education at the Jelekong Painting Center, Bandung, Indonesia

“…The political turmoil at that time provided political compartmentalization that led to the dissolution of the National Cultural Consultative Body formed by the government. At the same time, politically charged art institutions survived amid national upheaval (Cahyana, Dienaputra, and Nugraha, 2023). The government responded to the growth of artists' creativity by establishing the Jakarta Arts Center and Taman Ismail Marzuki with the Jakarta Arts Council in 1968, later followed by other cities in Indonesia.…”