Umi's artistic career began with a study of the principles and techniques of artists and art lecturers at ITB,
Ahmad Sadali. She was also mentored by
A.D. Pirous,
Mochtar Apin,
Popo Iskandar,
Srihadi and Yusuf Affendi. During college, she often worked as a co-designer/designer in a group in the field of fine arts. After graduating, she painted several mural-drawing commissions for various institutions, such as the Pertamina Dumai Office, the Archive of the Indonesian Armed Forces in Bandung, and at the
Indonesian Parliament building MPR/DPR in Jakarta, where she supported the installation of her teacher Ahmad Sadali together with several other students. Wendy Sorensen was the wife of an important architect in Indonesian history, Abel Sorensen, who was appointed by President
Sukarno to design the
Hotel Indonesia for the 4th Asian Games in 1960. Umi Dachlan was among the 2nd generation Indonesian women artists, which sprung up during the 1960s. Together with Erna Pirous, the wife of A.D. Pirous,
Kartika Affandi, the daughter of Indonesia's premier Artist
Affandi, Rita Widagdo and Nunung WS, the group influenced modern Indonesian art. The book
Image and Abstraction that accompanied the first mayor exhibition of Umi Dachlan in 2000, showed a photo about the group of all 5 women painter during their trip to the Mills College Museum in Auckland, California in the 1990s. (Mamannoor, p. 32)
Early works (1962–1976) Umi Dachlan's early work was influenced by traditional
Batik paintings and tapestry works and landscape paintings. Helena Spanjaard describes her early work as abstract, lyrical compositions that are inspired by landscapes and a strong relation to her activities in textile design and collages. While Umi Dachlan was strongly influenced by her faculty at ITB, Bandung, she also had many artistic contacts with the second major arts center in Indonesia, the Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia (ASRI) at the
Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. Since establishment of the Republic of Indonesia after World War II, these two institutions reflected two poles of a discussions called "East versus West". She studied and traveled frequently abroad to advance her skills and experiences. In 1969 one of her first exhibitions abroad brought her, and several fellow painters, to New York as part of the delegation of the First Lady
Siti Hartinah, the wife of President
Suharto, for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the United Nations. During this trip, she was exposed to American art forms, including the Abstract expressionism, a post-World-War II art form that was well established by then. Major artists such as
Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko,
Willem de Kooning,
Franz Kline,
Frank Stella or
Robert Motherwell were at their prime, well known internationally. In 1970, Umi joined her teacher Ahmad Sadali as a staff member of the design team for the Indonesian Pavilion at the
Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. In 1971, Umi joined a group of 18 artists at the ITB that called itself
Group 18. They released a serigraph of screenprints to popularise their works and styles, which were shown at the Taman Izmail Marzuki Exhibition Hall in Jakarta. It is unknown if the choice of 18 artists was deliberate to reflect on
The Irascible 18, a group of 18 Abstract, Modernist artists in the 1950s in New York who rejected their representation by the art establishment at that time. However, today many of the members of
The rascible 18 belong to the most expensive artists worldwide, and similarly, the
Group 18 artists today belong to the most influential Indonesian artists since the World War II. Their paintings, statues and teachings are a quintessential cornerstone of modern Indonesian art. In 1974, the "East versus West" conflict and the focus on classical art forms such as paintings and sculptures led to the foundation of the
Indonesian New Art Movement, Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru which is seen as the start of Indonesian contemporary art. Many of the individual artists of the ITB did not see their work as a reflection if
East versus West, including A.D. Pirous and Umi Dachlan who was close with many of the ASRI Artists, such as
Fadjar Sidik,
Handrio and
Nasirun, the later owns several of her late works. Umi Dachlan also exhibited numerous times in Galleries and Museums in Yogyakarta since 1968, including at the
Affandi Museum. In these early years, it was mainly the guidance of the teachers Umi Dachlan as well as her artistic upbringing that formed her style. Especially in her landscape paintings, she uses a color palette and the space very similar to another leading Muslim woman artist, the Lebanese writer and abstract painter
Etel Adnan. Like Umi Dachlan, Etel Adnan created paintings and tapestries showing landscapes, that receive a growing worldwide recognition since the early 21st Century.
Mid-career works (1977–1987) Her later travel and studies took her to Asia and Europe, including The Netherlands, France and Spain, where she absorbed European art and culture. From 1977 to 1979, Umi studied in Amsterdam at the
Gerrit Rietveld Academie. During this stay, she also enrolled as a student at the
Design Academy Eindhoven. In addition to her studies abroad, her mid-career work was strongly influenced by her senior fellow teachers
Ahmad Sadali and
A.D. Pirous. Umi is thus the heir to the abstraction tradition of "Sekolah Bandung" pioneered by A.D. Pirous and Achmad Sadali. This is clearly seen in his works which emerged as an attempt to achieve Sadali's aesthetic perfection. Umi and Sadali's closeness, both in terms of approach and aesthetic image, is undeniable, and his trademark is reminiscent of Sadali. In her paintings, like Sadali's, Umi uses spontaneous color application with several layers of paint. The Australian Art Historian, Prof. Astri Wright describes the style of Umi Dachlan's in 1998 as "The purest abstract painter among the present generation of Indonesian women artists":''Umi Dachlan's monumentally balanced compositions and her use of gold bear witness to her expertise. She is clearly indebted to Sadali she has now adapted as her own. Umi's range and pallet, however, distinguish her work from her tutor's in numerous ways. A strong relationship between her art and textile design is visible in her lyrical compositions, mostly inspired by landscapes.'' While Umi rejected the strict religious traditions of her family in her early years, they played an important spiritual and religious role in her mid- and late-career works and life. The relationship between her Muslim religion and her Art are described in the book of her friends, E. and M. Bollansee: ''"Umi Dachlan's work is influenced by religion. Harmony and submission to Allah are prevalent as her work really is a tribute to the Great Creator."'' Her works during this period reflect tenets of Islamic philosophy and are expressed through her spiritual relationship with nature and music. Especially during this period, her work has been compared with European painters such as
Antoni Tàpies,
Jean Fautrier and
Pablo Picasso, and most notably with
Mark Rothko, because she used a similar metaphysical and spiritual approach in her paintings as Rothko used for his deeply spiritual works. Umi was probably unaware of this comparison, seeking her own, independent abstract imaginations.
Late works (1988–2009) After the death of her mentor Ahmad Sadali in 1987, she developed into her own style. In 1992, she went on the Hajj in Mekka, where she experienced the desert. After these experiences, she added warmer and more earthy colors to her artistic palette, such as ochre. An abstract theme in her late work were "pillars", a theme that had also been used repeatedly by her mentors such as A.D. Pirous and Sadali. Her painting
Five Pillars seems to reflect the
Five Pillars of Islam. Her warmer, earthy color palette is reminiscent of the great Spanish Abstract Expressionist Antoni Tàpies. Another visible artistic change was the larger number of figurative paintings, such as her
Matador series, relating to the
corridas, which had fascinated her. In 2000, the art critic and artist,
Mamannoor wrote a book that accompanied a large Solo exhibition by Umi Dachlan in the Andi Galeri in Jakarta. Four different of her matador works, and in total 75 of her works are shown in the Mamannoor publication. Her colleague A.D. Pirous described the style of Umi Dachlan's paintings as a tendency to express an abstract-contemplative visual language in a painting:
"She can be very engrossed and carried into the fields of color, into shapes and lines that can take us to a visible world that is familiar with a sense of contemplation, a sense of solemnity, whether cheerful, sad or contemplative. She likes to reveal shapes, which want to drag us into other experiences that are hidden beneath the surface." Between 1993 and 2007, Umi painted at least 15
Matador works, which are among her most desired paintings. The theme depicts the fight between a bull and a matador, which she experienced during her visits in Spain. She used the theme to depict Dis-Harmony in the world, e.g. showing the uneven power in civilization. The majority of the work if Umi Dachlan are oil and acrylic paintings, of which almost 200 have been published in books and catalogues. The vast majority of these paintings are abstract, with about 30 known figurative paintings, which include her
Matador series as well as several portraits and landscapes. In addition, in her early works she painted several murals and few collages and textile works, 4 of which are known as of 2021. Although Umi Dachlan used sketches to depict her paintings, very few are known today. Since more than 20 years, the works of Umi Dachlan have been auctioned by major international auction houses, including Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's, and they have a common presence in Indonesian, Singaporean and Hong Kong Auctions Houses. == Awards ==