Elliott Inger McCabe - Batik, traditional textiles of Indonesia: from the Rudolf Smend & Donald Harper collections

Acknowledgments

Annegret Haake

Antje Solau

Bill Caskey

Bonnie Corwin

Brigitte Khan Majlis

Brigitte Willach

Cinta and Ardiyanto Pranata

Claudius and Gerda Giese

Claus von Zitzewitz

Constance de Monbrison

Dale C. Gluckman

Daniel Gundlach

Doddy Soepardi

Donald Breyer

Donald Harper, Na Le, Duc, Sana, Baron

Erhard Wesser

Eric Oey

Haryani Winotosastro

Hennie Stolk

Heribert Amann

Ibu Misari

Ibu Munir Darwis

Imelda Akmal

Inger McCabe Elliott

Iwan Tirta

Jacqueline Simcox

Jan Konietzko

Jonathan Hope

Jrn-Holger Sprde and Kartini

Judo Suwidji

Krysztof Musia

Leo Haks

Margit Zara Krpata

Maria Wroska-Friend and Tony Friend

Martin Schalbruch

Mulyadi Utomo

Museum Tekstil (Jakarta Textile Museum)

Nyoman Sukayahadi

Peter Lee

Petra Martin

Smend Family

Sonja Mohr

Susanne Mattern

Thomas Murray

Ulrike Strunden

Wolfgang Thesen

Batik Collections

Claudius Giese

p.

Annegret Haake

p.

Donald Harper

pp.

Rudolf Smend

pp.

Mulyadi Utomo

pp.

Select Bibliography

Achjadi, Judi, Batik: Javas Gift to the World, Textiles Asia , Vol. 3, No. 3, 2012.

_____, The Glory of Batik: The Danar Hadi Collection , Batik Danar Hadi, Surakarta, 2011.

Av, Joop (ed.), Grand Batik Interiors , Bab Publishing Indonesia, Jakarta, 2007.

Barnes, Ruth, Textiles in the Department of Indo-Pacific Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Textiles Asia , Vol. 6, No. 1, 2014.

Barnes, Ruth, and Mary Hunt Kahlenberg (eds.), Five Centuries of Indonesian Textile s: The Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection , DelMonico BooksPrestel, Munich, New York, London, 2010.

Chong, Alan, et al. (eds.), Devotion and Desire: Cross-Cultural Art in Asia, New Acquisitions of the Asian Civilisations Museum , Singapore, 2013.

Cutsem-Vanderstraete, Anne van, et al., Magie van de Vrouw: Magic of Women, Textiles and Jewelry from Indonesia , Stichting Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, 2012.

Damais, Asmoro, Wastra Batik Karya Hardjonagoro Go Tik Swan, 19561966 , Buku Katalogus Pameran, Jakarta, 2009.

Haake, Annegret, Batik Jawa: Metode, Simbolik, Sejarah, Balai Besar Kerajinan Batik Yogyakarta , Yogyakarta, 2015.

Heringa, Rens, Nini Towoks Spinning Wheel: Cloth and the Cycle of Life in Kerek, Java , Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, 2010.

Hoopen, Peter ten, Woven Languages: Indonesian Ikat Textiles from the Peter ten Hoopen Collection , Museo do Oriente exhibition catalogue, Fundaao Oriente, Lisbon, 2014.

Ishwara, Helen; L. R. Supriyapto Yahya; Xenia Moeis; Hartono Sumarsono, Benang Raja: Menyimpul Keelokan Batik Pesisir , Jakarta, 2013.

_____, Batik Pesisir Pusaka Indonesia: Koleksi Hartono Sumarsono , Gramedia, Jakarta, 2011.

Iskandar, Neneng, Batik Indonesia dan Sang Empu: Go Tik Swan Panembahan Hardjonagoro , Tim Buku Srihana, Jakarta, 2008.

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Lee, Chor Lin, Batik: Creating an Identity , National Museum of Singapore and Editions Didier Millet, Singapore, 2007.

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Majlis, Brigitte Khan, The Art of Indonesian Textiles: The E. M. Bakwin Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago , New Haven, 2007.

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_____, Batik of Pasisir: A Symphony of Colours and Patterns, in Christianto Dadang et al., Batik of Java: Politics and Poetics, Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, Caloundra, Australia, 2010.

_____, Sztuka Woskiem Pisana: Batik Indonezji I Polsce (Art Drawn with Wax: Batik in Indonesia and Poland), Gondwana Publishing, Warsaw, 2008.

_____, Textiles for Gods and People from the Krzyzstof Musia Balinese Art Collection , Central Museum of Textiles, odz, 2015.

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_____, My Batik Story: A Silent Labor of Love , Gramedia, Jakarta, 2010.

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Only titles published post-2005

My Introduction to the World of Batik

Donald Harper

In the early 1970s, I was working in Amsterdam for a small scientific publishing company, a subsidiary of Elsevier Publishing, which published a wide variety of books and other materials in both Dutch and English. One day, a newly released book, Three Faces of Indonesia: A Photographic Essay by Co Rentmeester , landed on my desk. The jacket carried a stunning photograph of a lush, green rice paddy. The scene was so compelling that I eagerly opened the book to see what lay between the covers.

To cut a long story short, that was the day a whole new world opened before me and marked one of the most important turning points in my life. After examining the book, I decided then and there to make an extended journey to Indonesia and do whatever it would take to make that dream come true. The first priority was to save as much money as possible, so for the next year I stopped going to my favorite Amsterdam pubs and lived like a hermit.

Eventually, when I felt I had enough funds to last for at least a year, I resigned from Elsevier. My boss was surprised that I wanted to leave such a good, well-paying job and urged me to just take a leave of absence. But being young and adventurous, I had a feeling that better things lay ahead. I bid farewell to Holland and headed for Yogyakarta in Central Java via Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

On my journey south from Chiang Mai to Jakarta, a leisurely trip that lasted more than two months, I decided to visit a seaside village just outside of Kota Bharu on the east coast of Malaysia that had a famous beach called the Beach of Passionate Love, the name of which has since been diluted to the more culturally acceptable Moonlight Beach. It was there that I got my first whiff of molten beeswax permeating the air, which I soon discovered was the unmistakable smell of batik being produced somewhere in the vicinity. Wandering around the village, I saw hundreds of freshly made batik cloths drying on clothes lines in the wind. That was the day I discovered batik.

I dont recall exactly why I deliberately chose to start my Indonesian adventure in the Central Javanese city of Yogyakarta rather than the more seductive and trendy Bali, but I had read that Yogya was a highly regarded place in its own right and considered by many to be the cultural capital of Java. It was also one of the most important centers of traditional batik production in Indonesia.