Jean Couteau: A Loyal Indonesia Visual Arts Writer

How are you? Do you still write?” said Jean Couteau in a friendly manner, when I visited her simple home on the bank of river Ayung in North Denpasar.

“I am fine, Mr. Jean. I sure continue to write,” I said.

“Ehm, it’s good. Although we know that too be a writer we must be ready to always be poor,” said Jean laughing. I was also laughed, of course with a bitter tone.

Ehm, what else can we do, becoming a writer is a choice and I want to stick to that. Jean Couteau has loyally been in this profession since many years ago. Jean likes to write many things related to arts, tourism, social and cultural matters.

He started his writing career when he was a student. He has had many curatorial articles and introductions to fine arts exhibition, loose articles in  national and international various mass media, seminar papers or a complete writing in the form of books on creative process and the achievements of several artists.

Many talented youth of Bali become famous and ‘best selling’ in the fine arts market and one of the ways is through their writings. Yet, Jean Couteau continues to lead a simple life, as if luxury is never written in his fate. This becomes very ironical when he is compared to those that he orbited; they live a luxurious life.

Jean has lived in Bali since more than 27 years ago. He mingles closely with Balinese artists and intellectuals. He speaks Balinese and Indonesian fluently.

He received a master’s degree in the field of Sociology from the University of Sorbonne, France. His PhD was from EHESS (a branch of Sorbonne); his thesis was on the iconography of Balinese pictures.

That afternoon we were having a chat under the shades of a suar tree. There was a sound of water running through rooms in rocks. This famous fine arts curator and critic hailing from France were only wearing a white T-shirt and short pants. His pale face looked tired, although he kept giving his friendly smile.

We talked about the recent discourse of Indonesian fine arts. Jean said that Indonesian fine artists, especially the young ones did not seem to have a strong foundation in the midst of globalization and contemporary discourse. For instance, most of young fine artists are following the trend of Chinese fine arts.

Just following the trend of a best selling fine art has a negative impact on effort to dig into the depth of a work and on creativity. Jean says that young fine artists are too stunned with global icons and forget about local elements and icons of their own culture. “Market is too strong as compared to self-expression,” he said.

The biggest problem relating to Indonesian fine arts, according to Jean, is that there is no representative fine arts museum. It is time for Indonesia to have a structured fine arts museum for displaying the complete works of Indonesian artists. A museum plays an important role in establishing the history of  Indonesian fine arts. “The museum curator should be clear and structured,” he said.