The Neglected Dimension

The Neglected Dimension offers an insight into a moment in Southeast Asian modern art when a group of artists from the city of Bandung, Indonesia reimagined Arabic calligraphic writing. At the heart of this effort was an art school at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), which stood at the forefront of experimentations with forms of Islamic spirituality and abstraction. This exhibition catalogue introduces Ahmad Sadali (1924–1987), A.D. Pirous (b. 1932), Haryadi Suadi (1938–2016), and Arahmaiani (b. 1961), four artists associated with modernist artistic training in Bandung, Indonesia, a key site where experimentations with Arabic calligraphy and different forms of abstraction took place. Togeher, they represent three generations of artistic training at ITB, as well as distinct approaches to calligraphic abstraction that reflect changing values, identities and conventions in Indonesia from the 1970s to the present.