The Glory of Batik

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The Danar Hadi Collection


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preface by

H. Santosa Doellah

text by

Judi Achjadi

The Danar Hadi Collection


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Many people have been involved in the making of this book.

First of all we would like to express our appreciation to:

Diana Kusuma Dewati Santosa and all levels of management at Batik

Danar Hadi, Mrs. Mariam Kartonagoro, Museum Batik Danar Hadi,

Mrs. Toetti T. Soerjanto, Asti Suryo Astuti and Aryo Prakoso Vidyarto.

Our very special gratitude goes to the lenders of images, old

photographs, and historical pictures which we were able to secure only

with the help of: Roger Tol of KITLV Jakarta for the Royal Netherlands

Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (Koninklijk Instituut

voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Netherlands Leiden),

and to Carmanita for the special image on page 64 (above left), and to

the Danar Hadi archives and Eddy Asa. Many other skilled and able

people and institutions lent to the success were involved in the making

of this book by providing valuable information including: Asmoro

Damais & Soedarmadji Damais, Sjamsidar Isa and KOMPAS archives.

To all above, as well as to those who are not mentioned, the publisher

would like to take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude. Every

effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in

this book at the time of going to press. The Publisher cannot be held

responsible for any inaccuracies or omissions. Readers are advised

to call the various institutions, if appropriate, to verify details.

PROJECT ADVISORSH. Santosa Doellah & Danarsih Santosa Doellah

EDITOR AND AUTHORJudi Achjadi

CONTRIBUTORHelly Minarti

EDITORIAL CONSULTANTJoop Av

CREATIVE DIRECTORRafli L. Sato

PROJECT TREASURYMariam Kartonagoro

MUSEUM RESOURCESToetti T. SoerjantoAsti Suryo Astuti

PHOTOGRAPHERSRidha N. Kusumabrata

Ibham Jasin

PRODUCTION & LAYOUTAri Widjanarko

Samsuri

Ardian Fajri

Published in 2011 byPT. BATIK DANAR HADI

Jl. Dr. Rajiman 164, Solo 57151Central Java

Tel. +62 271 644 125Fax. +62 271 634 876

www.danarhadibatik.com

Copyright 2010DANAR HADI

Designed and Produced byBAB PUBLISHING INDONESIA

Jl. Riau No. 4 - MentengJakarta 10350

Tel. +62 21 390 7441Fax. +62 21 390 7444

www.babpublishing.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedor transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording or any information storage andretrieval system, without permission of the copyright owners.

First Edition, 2011Printed and bound in Indonesia

ISBN 978-602-98697-0-5

Acknowledgments

Distributed by:

Asia PacificBerkeley Books Pte Ltd

Email: [email protected]: www.periplus.com

IndonesiaPT Java Books Indonesia

Email: [email protected]

JapanTuttle Publishing

Email: [email protected]

North America, Latin America and EuropeTuttle Publishing

Email: [email protected]: www.tuttlepublishing.com


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Contents6

Preface byH. Santosa Doellah

10

Chapter 1

Danar Hadi

50

Chapter 2

the CollectionCourt Batik ~ 66

Sudagaran Batik ~ 128

Coastal Batik ~ 156

Regional Style ~ 258

Nationalizing Batik ~ 292

322

AppendicesBibliography

Index

Photo Credits


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the

Glory

ofBatik

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7

the

Glory

ofBatik

I am eternally indebted to batik. Batik is the single denominator that connects me

to the past, present, and future. My grandmother introduced me to batik, the woman I

married shared my passion and collaborated with me in the founding of our batik house,

and now I am passing on the love of batik to my offspring.

In many ways, batik has surrounded my life and thus defined my existence. So,

here I am, feeling tremendously privileged to be able to present this book as a way ofexpressing my lifelong, life-affirming passion for batik. As the title suggests, the intention

is to celebrate the glory of batik which I am certain is how many people feel about this

marvellous cloth, among them my colleagues at Batik Danar Hadi.

What I am presenting here depicts only a fraction of the beauty of batik, around 300

cloths carefully selected to represent the best of the collection of an estimated 10,000

pieces. Put together in a particular order, they narrate the story of batik in Indonesia of

many periods. It is a cultural journey of an art form that is deeply embedded in the lives

of many fellow Indonesians.

This collection has accompanied me on my own journey and will to the end. It is my

hope that you will be inspired as much as I have been all these years by these many

pieces of batik!

Prefaceby H. Santosa Doellah

FOLLOWING PAGE:

Rectangular cloth, kain panjang

Surakarta

Pattern: Parang seling by Danar Hadi

Cotton; wax-drawn by hand

246 x 103 cm.

Danar Hadi produces batik based on old designs and

mixed styles. In this example, a diagonal court pattern from

Surakarta is combined with a floral motif inspired by the

European-influenced batik of the court of the Mangkunegara.

OPPOSITE: H. Santosa Doellah and his beautiful wife, Danarsih Hadiprijono, discuss batik over afternoon tea

in their magnificent residence in Solo, Central Java.


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DanarH

adi

OPPOSITE: Today, batik is being made in industrial environments, including the hand-waxed type. Several

women sit on a low stool around a pan of molten wax that they share. Each silently concentrates on her own

work for a time, and then takes time out to chat with her friends before going back to work. The women are

generally paid by finished piece and not a daily wage. The Danar Hadi workshop, Solo.

Batik is a technique used for decorating woven cloth with colored patterns; it

is also the cloth decorated in this way. Long before the archipelago became

known as Indonesia, the batik of Java was a much-admired fabric in Europe,

Japan, and mixed-Chinese communities in coastal southeastern Asia. It served as the

inspiration for the batik tradition in Malaysia and also the contemporary traditions that

developed in France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany after the World Expositions

in Europe at the turn of the 20thcentury, a time when collections began entering European

museums. Extolled by admirers all over the world, Javanese batik has been glorified by

Indonesians as a national icon and a fixed part of the national identity.

Despite collections of batik in museums throughout the world dating back to the mid-

19thcentury, the finest examples are still to be found in private and public collections in

Indonesia. This is especially true of pieces inherited from mothers and grandmothers,

for it is the women who have been the most involved with the making and wearing of

batik through the centuries. The role of men has traditionally been as designers and

managers-cum-merchants, until the wax-printing stamp was introduced in the mid-19th

century and chemical dyes at the end of the 19thcentury. No longer were dye recipes the

secret preserve of women, although their delicate handwork continued to be essential

Introductionby Judi Achjadi and Helly Minarti


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for hand-waxing. What was deemed heavy work became the domain of men: handling

heavy waxing stamps, dealing with heavy bundles of cloth in the dye vats, organizing

large stables of batik workers.

One very important batik collection in Indonesia began with inheritance, the Danar Hadi

batik collection in Solo, Central Java. Danar Hadi is a batik enterprise whose owners came

from families who were involved either in the supply of raw materials or the making of batik.

From simple beginnings in the late 1960s, the business grew to Indonesias most prolific

batik industry today, producing not only real batik (patterned through the use of manually

applied wax to resist dye) but also textiles mechanically printed with batik patterns. Today,

it is Indonesias top batik business and the only one owned by Javanese.

The city of Solo, home of the Susuhunan of Surakarta, whose forefathers were once

termed Emperor of Java, is the unchallenged center of batik-making in Indonesia. Hence,

it is now known as City of Batik, a tagline that is now formally attached to the citys

formal identity, as the visitor immediately notices from banners and posters at the airport.

Batik-making and batik-wearing are inextricably embedded in the citys lifestyle, as the

first-time tourist can easily see.

Alighting from the airplane, one is usually welcomed by someone clad in batik shirt or

dress. Walking through the lounge, one cannot help glancing at window displays showing

off the finest of the stores merchandise. Batik adorns not only people, but also the

interiors of offices, grand hotels, and even humble dwellings, in the form of wall hangings,

tablecloths, and cushion covers.

BELOW:Princes and high officials wearing formal dress relax over tea after a reception at the Netherlands-In-

dies governors residence in Yogyakarta in the 1930s. Each one wears a batikked skirt-cloth, patola trousers,

and gold-embroidered velvet jackets in accordance to his status.

ABOVE: A batik worker, perhaps of Arab or Gujarati descent,stamps wax on to cloth. The stamp, canting cap, was

introduced in the mid-19thcentury to speed up the waxing

process to keep production numbers up in line with the grow-

ing demand for batik. Examples of stamp-waxed batik are to

be seen on the wall. Stamp-waxing batik is mens work.


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DanarH

adi

LEFT:


Surakarta

Pattern: Parang sondher glebag

by Danar Hadi


246 x 104 cm.

Glebagindicates alternate rows

of patterning, often the parang

alternated with a non-parang

pattern arranged in parallel

diagonal bands. In this case,

the second pattern consists of

pairs of fluttering butterflies,

while the parangis made up of

a gracefully rendered leaf.

LEFT:

Left: Rectangular cloth, kain

panjang

Surakarta

Pattern: Parangbarongseling

gandasuliby Danar Hadi


244 x 103 cm.

Bands of gently undulating,

creamy parang barong(barong

=large) have been alternated

with dark-hued bands of the

gandasuli, a sweet-smelling

flower represented by tiny white

blossoms and spiky leaflets.

LEFT:


Surakarta

Pattern: Parang peniti

tumaruntunby Danar Hadi


245 x 102 cm.

Tumaruntunrefers to descending

order, or in this case size:

11different widths of the parang

penitiare arranged in descending

and ascending order, from the

narrowest to the widest. This

appears to be a fairly recent trend

in parangpatterning.


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LEFT:


Surakarta

Pattern: Tambal pamilutoby Danar Hadi


243 x 103 cm.

Tambalmeans patch; the pattern has the appearanceof a patchwork. It is made up of equal-sized rectangles,

each partitioned diagonally into two quadrilateral figures of

equal size. Arranged in diagonal rows, the top half of each

rectangle is filled with a geometric pattern and the bottom

half with a floral pattern. All diagonal lines slope in the same

direction, so that there is a streaked effect created by the

lighter-hued portions of the patterns.

LEFT:


Surakarta

Pattern: Sekar jagadby Danar Hadi


249 x 103 cm.

Sekar jagadtranslates as flower of the universe, which

accounts for the domination of floral motifs or sekarin this

rendition of a very popular pattern. It is believed that theword sekarin this pattern name began as kaart, locally

pronounced kar, which means map, in which case the

name was translated as map of the universe, but through

generations of non-Dutch speakers degenerated into kar

which was assumed to derive from sekar, flower.


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DanarH

adi

A ride downtown reveals more batik stores, with the Klewer market a mecca for

those patient and curious enough to rummage through huge piles of batik, from printed

imitations to real handmade batik. The section of the town known as Laweyan is filled

with batik workshops; it is the place where many of the batik enterprises started off as

family home-industries, imbuing the area with a special character that does not appear to

have changed much in decades. More small batik workshops are to be found in villages

surrounding Surakarta, catering not only to domestic but also to international markets,

such as South Africa.

Life in contemporary Solo appears to beat to the rhythm of its recent past. It is a city

pulsating with the paradox of two very different worlds, a serene and highly refined royal

court tradition and a dynamic, modern enterpreneurship. In between, batik is often found

feeding the refinement of the former and the exuberance of the latter. A much newer facet

of life is the effort to put Solo on the national cultural map. Competing with the reputation

of the neighboring province of Yogyakarta, a Sultanate, as a much more popular touristdestination and cultural hub, Solo has been busy at work improving its infrastructure.

One outstanding result is the newly rebuilt airport, arguably the best in Central Java,

including Yogyakarta. It has also developed a cultural calendar of events that range from

an International Music Festival to a Batik Carnival. The signs of early cosmopolitan life

are getting stronger: more starred hotels, new and arty budget hotels, and large shopping

malls. And everywhere Solos special kind of batik is in evidence.

LEFT:


Surakarta

Pattern: Sari ngrembaka by Danar Hadi


246 x 104 cm.

The original sari ngrembakawas created by the court-

dancer-cum-batik-artist Nyai Bei Mardusari of the Court of

the Mangkunegara in Solo. Nyai Bei claimed to have beeninspired by the European cornucopia, which seeped into

Javanese art (and especially batik) at the end of the 19th

century. Copying antique patterns is an old practice that has

resulted in their perpetuation. Whereas the original consisted

of two bands of the same motif on different backgrounds,

this version by Danar Hadi has replaced one row with a

handsome meander of Art Nouveau/Jugendstil origin and

added light blue to the color scheme.

The Glory of Batik

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