Turning Black To Cash.(Arts)(Masriadi: Black Is My Last Weapon)

Byline: Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

An Indonesian artist catches fire--the latest example of the booming market in Southeast Asia.

Three years ago, paintings by the Indonesian artist I Nyoman Masriadi sold for about $10,000 to $15,000. That was before "Sudah Biasa di Telanjangi" ("Used to Being Stripped")--which depicts a black-skinned, heavily built man wearing pink ladies' underwear around his ankles--went for $540,000 at Christie's Hong Kong auction house in May, making Masriadi, now 34, the most highly paid living Indonesian artist. Buyers aren't the only ones to have swooned; critics have praised Masriadi's work for its instantly recognizable imagery--strongly influenced by the artist's passion for cybergaming and comics--and its social commentary.

The pace of Masriadi's rise has been unusual but not unique in the region. The Indonesians Rudi Mantofani, Agus Suwage and Handiwirman Saputra have also done very well at recent auctions, though the prices paid for the work of Mantofani, the second highest-paid Indonesian, remain well behind Masriadi's. Artists in Thailand and Malaysia are also enjoying a boom. Their success reflects collectors' rising appetite for Southeast Asian work, which still tends to go for a fraction of the price of Chinese art. Now the boom is creating new challenges for museums in the region, which can no longer afford many of the suddenly popular artists.

That's especially so in Masriadi's case. Until recently, interest in Indonesian art was confined to old masters such as Hendra Gunawan (1918-1983) and Affandi (1907-1990). The ponytailed, Bali-born Masriadi, who emerged from Yogyakarta's artistic community, may seem an unlikely star: he's an art-school dropout who admits to being addicted to videogames. And he seems surprised by his popularity. "I don't understand what all the fuss was about," he says of his recent sales.

That may be, but a new exhibit, "Masriadi: Black Is My Last Weapon," running until Nov. 9 at the Singapore Art Museum, highlights the problems his success has caused for museums. His first solo show, the exhibit spans Masriadi's 10-year career and explores the evolution of his signature black-skinned figures, a motif now widely copied by other Indonesian painters. The show also highlights ...