LEKRA, Aesthetics and the Politics of Indonesian Art

Abstract: The art of Amrus Natalsya demonstrates the relationship between the politics espoused by LEKRA—Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, The Institute of People's Culture—and aesthetic values in art. LEKRA's slogan "politics is the commander" did not mean the imposition of a single form of socialist realism in art. Retrospective assumptions about the nature of LEKRA art have been framed by the traumatic anti-communist killings that began in October 1965 and the subsequent imprisonment of artists such as Amrus. Amrus and his contemporaries worked in a context where many streams of art co-existed, particularly before the early 1960s. LEKRA painters and sculptors did not turn their backs on modernism, but rather engaged with a plurality of forms. This pluralistic approach reflected the cosmopolitan internationalism of their movement.