He is best known for his vivid visual
impressions of landscapes and historical
architectural monuments particularly those surviving
in locations throughout
Indonesia, the land where he was born in 1938.
A child of Dutch parents, John entered
the world in the city of Sukabumi, and
spent his early years on a tea plantation in West Java,
where his father had
been hired as administrateur. Following the tribulation
of the Pacific War, the
van der Sterren family decided to emigrate to New Zealand,
where John received
his formal education; once graduated he entered the
world of advertising in Auckland.
This in fact was the profession that eventually brought
him back to Indonesia, where
he returned in 1983.
Precisely ten years later, John held his solo exhibition
in Jakarta, at the Duta Fine Arts
Foundation, a leading showcase which over several decades
has featured numerous
emerging artists, as well as recognized international
masters. On that occasion, keen
interest among art lovers gave John van der Sterren
the confidence to concentrate
more and more on developing his own strongly original
style of painting.
John van der Sterren works out of a conservative artistic
tradition, in which good
painting stems directly from good drawing. He does not
choose paint on location,
rather preferring to create bold black and white sketches.
He customarily works
in charcoal or pen and ink, and the resultant drawings
serve later to inspire the
creation of paintings, which he passionately fashions
in his in Central Java studio.
These drawings, fashioned from the visual and emotional
experience of the location,
help the artist to not only capture the structure of
a scene but also to embody the
essence of its spirit, unencumbered by any temptation
to slavishly follow an initial
visual impression. The artist is thus free to commit
a creation to canvas, working
in his own Fauvist style.
* From "Old Surabaya", Sketchbook by the artist
John van der Sterren. Text by Byron
Black, Hexart Publishers, Jakarta, 2004.
This exhibition was held on 15 January 2004 - 27 February 2004
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