10.12.1948–12.06.2018
Freddy Sofian
Freddy Sofian (1948–2018) was born and died in Bandung. He studied at the Rangga Djempol Studio under Barli Sasmitawinata, showed a composition of broken chairs at the 1979 New Art Movement exhibition, and later became an abstract painter. He held six solo exhibitions, from Ubud to Kuala Lumpur, and signed the 2005 manifesto of abstract artists in Jakarta.
Biography
In 1979, at an exhibition of the Indonesian New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru), Freddy Sofian showed a composition of broken chairs. It was neither a canvas nor a print but an assembled object, and it sits awkwardly with what he would later be known for, abstract painting.
He was born on 10 December 1948 in Bandung, in the west of the island of Java. From 1970 to 1975 he worked at the Rangga Djempol Studio under Barli Sasmitawinata, a well-known Bandung painter and teacher. Little else is known about these years: where he studied before the studio and how he earned a living, I have not been able to establish. After the New Art Movement, his next steps can be traced through his exhibitions. His first solo show was held in 1994 in Ubud, on Bali, and a year later his trip to Europe came to an end: from 1993 to 1995 he worked in the Netherlands, Germany and France. In 1998 he showed work in Kuala Lumpur and in the same year began working at the Red Point studio in Bandung. After that the exhibitions follow one another: Jakarta in 1999, Bandung in 2000, Jakarta again in 2002 and Bandung in 2013. In all, there were six solo exhibitions. Besides these, he took part in more than thirty group shows in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, the United States, South Korea and Singapore. From 1996 to 2000 he exhibited at the International Festival of Arts in Ipoh, Malaysia, and in 2016 he took part in the Langkawi Art Biennale, an international contemporary art biennial.
Among his notable works are “The Lion Dance” (2000), “Abstract Bandung” (2002), “Silver Landscape” (2015) and “Unity” (2015). Besides his abstract paintings, he is known as a master of graphics; to my mind, this side of his work gets less attention than it deserves, though it is hard to judge from titles alone.
On 17 June 2005 Sofian signed the “Abstract Manifesto”, a declaration by abstract artists in Jakarta. The group that formed around the manifesto has held exhibitions in Jakarta every year since.
Freddy Sofian died on 12 June 2018 in Bandung, where he was born.
Profile notes