Wars by definition trigger huge changes that define the collapse of the old and the inauguration in new orders, values and sensitivities. One of the main European artistic movements to rise from the ashes of the devastation of World War II was CoBrA. Founded in 1948 this revolutionary group of young artists declared themselves to be completely free to use color and shape as they wished. major CoBrA artists Karel Appel to clear new paths with amazing paintings and visual revolution marking a new world order that resonated with the rising star of New York abstract expressionist and Art Brut in Paris. The new wave will not pass unnoticed by the likes of Affandi, the best known and largest abstract expressionist Indonesia.
The answer to the question of why Ouberg never achieved recognition during his lifetime is simple - he lived in Indonesia, away from the art scene in Europe for more 20 years. His stay in Indonesia would begin in 1916 when, at age 23, he was assigned to a teaching position in an elementary school in West Java. In the coming years, he led an itinerant life moving from station to station in West Sumatra. This would end after the wedding when he, his wife and their newborn daughter moved to Malang, a colonial hill station south of Surabaya in East Java.
Ouberg was a strange man when it came to colonial society. Although he was not politically active, he showed a deep sympathy for the suffering of the original Indonesians. Apart from his official duties, he spent most of his time with his family and largely avoided fellow Europeans which he felt were boars and cultural philistines with little interest in his passion - art. An active and talented designer of his youth, he would graduate in Surabaya to teach drawing in 1919. In his free time was limited he nevertheless managed to produce a number of promising sketch of Javanese peasants in a style influenced by Vincent Van Gogh.
It was only in the 1920s that Ouberg began to develop his own style driven by two main influences. The first were the dynamic modern European art movements, which he had long been following from afar. In 1923, on an official leave of absence, he would catch up and experiment with new trends, including Cubism while completing another art degree at The Hague. The second influence came as an epiphany triggered affinity to art and Javanese culture. On his return in Malang in 1925, he wrote: "Suddenly he caught. The art of the East, the art of the old Java. I forget this miserable little town with its electric light, its streets paved, its horrible European culture. "
Shortly after, the family would move in much more cosmopolitan capital Batavia where he taught the art in a prestigious high school. with a lot more time to practice the art, he also participated in the activities of the Art Circle Batavian (Bataviaasche Kunstkring), an association of artists and art lovers who promoted the arts in the capital of the Dutch East Indies. His circle of friends included Frank and Adolf Breetveld, two young artists who love to frequent Ouberg found the neo-Impressionist school "Beautiful Indies" empty and meaningless and half Indonesian painter Jan Frank Niemantsverdriet. the four often would travel together to paint landscapes and Ronggeng dance troupes seen by most Europeans as unsavory. Ouberg and his friends did not care about their opinions. At some point, it would even describe a business carried on in Europe as "a white fungus on the face of the rich Indonesian life." He was particularly vehement about the need to protect local cultures against Western contamination arguing "they are rooted in this land, and they belong to this earth; because they see it, hear it, smell it, feel it with all their senses. "
An unexpected mystical union between modern art and thought and ancient traditions of Indonesian art stimulate Ouberg to produce a surprising new series of modern art with Javanese masks in style which combines both abstract cubist and expressionist tendencies. Little known and rarely published, they are among the first modern works painted in Indonesia. like many artists of this period, he saw the other cultures masks as magical objects that the . describe as "frozen ecstasy" imbued with inherent powers "divine or demonic"
in the following decade Ouberg produce even more amazing paintings under the domination of two new European movements. - Surrealism and abstraction Its first meeting occurred in 1931 during another holiday in Holland he attended the exhibition L'Art Vivant in Brussels which included major works by Arp surrealists, Dali, De Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Léger, Miró and Picasso. The first abstract painter Kandinsky was also present. He described the impact as a "whiplash". The show also made him aware of the challenges of life so far from the center and the need to focus if he was really serious about the world-class art. In many respects Surrealism suited his magical-mythical Javanese rooted feelings. It would immediately set to work and start his first solo exhibition at the Gallery De Bois, Haarlem, the Netherlands in 1932, shortly before returning to a new assignment in Bandung.
another factor that affected his mental state and Art has been the rise of the Nazi party and fascism in Europe. Although rarely mentioned there was a small but noisy faction supporters NSB (the Dutch Nazi party) in the Dutch East Indies who, like Hitler denounced modern art as decadent and proscribed a radical cure - its destruction. Understanding of the situation led Ouberg to paint a series of dark surrealist works representing explosions and enigmatic images of dark scenery. Mercurial and highly experimental, in the second half of the 1930s, he focused on still lifes. Although the style was at least realistic appearance - the objects of this "assemblies" were bizarre and often imaginary half. Working completely divorced from the art scene, none of them has never been exposed to the country where they were made.
In 1939, at the age of 45 prematurely old artist boarded a ship for Holland never return to Indonesia again. He arrived in Europe with high hopes to devote himself to art and to find a more sensitive audience. The harsh reality of the world depression forced him to teach again. So, too, his vision of a dark explosion became real when the Germans invaded Holland in 1940. As Indonesia Ouberg continued working in solitary confinement. After the war, he would win the modest recognition in The Hague and at least among insiders was recognized as a seminal artist of importance. In the late 1940s, he will take part in several group exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. These would lead to him was invited in 1949 to join the newly formed Movement CoBrA. He refused because of antipathy towards groups. Nevertheless, they adopted him as one of them. Ouberg continued to amaze until his death at age 63 in 1956. He continued to consider himself a surrealist and Indonesia the earth had opened her mind and spirit.