Basuki Resobowo

Basoeki Resobowo (Perfected Spelling: Basuki Resobowo; 18 February 1916 – 5 January 1999) was an Indonesian painter. Born to a transmigrant father in Sumatra, from a young age he showed interest in the visual arts but was taught to be a teacher. After a short time at a Taman Siswa school in Batavia (now Jakarta), he studied design and worked as a surveyor while producing sketches and book covers. He only acted in a single film, Kedok Ketawa, but remained close to the acting community, first as a set designer during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies then for Perfini in the early 1950s. During the 1940s and 50s Resobowo became recognised as a painter, working with such artists as Trisno Sumardjo and Oesman Effandi. By the late 1950s he was head of the visual arts department of the Institute for the People's Culture. However, the political climate of Indonesia soon made Resobowo's leftist leanings dangerous, and he went into exile beginning in the 1960s, ultimately settling in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. There he wrote extensively on art until his death.