Misbach Tamrin


Misbach Tamrin is an Indonesian artist.

Brief biography

In 1964, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Indonesia in Yogyakarta. In 1961, together with other students created the art workshop "Bumi Tarung" in Yogyakarta. In addition to painting, he created sculptures, bas-reliefs for monuments. Since 1958, he began to take part in exhibitions at home and abroad. In 1962, with a floating exhibition on board the ship "Tampomas" he visited many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
He participated in the activities of the People's Cultural Association, which was under the auspices of the Communist Party of Indonesia. After the events of September 30, 1965 he was arrested and imprisoned until 1978 in Banjarmasin. Many pictures of the early period were lost.
After release from prison he continued painting. In 2008 he organized an exhibition "Bumi Tarung Workshop", and in 2011 the exhibition "50 Years of Bumi Tarung Workshop" in which artists who previously belonged to this group took part. In 2015, his solo retrospective exhibition was held at the National Gallery of Indonesia in Jakarta . In 2017, he took part in the exhibition "City of thousand rivers".
The artist's paintings are monumental, created mainly in a realistic manner, some, especially of the early period are with a touch of impressionism. The main themes: the life of the common people, patriotism, revolution, history, September 30, 1965 events. He wrote and published several books on the art of Indonesia.
Several paintings by Misbach Tamrin are kept in the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art. In 2018, the Moscow publishing house Klyuch-S published an anthology of Malay virtual poetry "The Guests of the Sunset" in which the cover design was based upon artist's painting.

Main pictures