Abdul Djalil Pirous

Prof. Emeritus Drs.

Since the early 21st Century, a growing international interest in Indonesian modern and abstract art has brought painters such as A.D. Pirous, Ahmad Sadali, Fadjar Sidik, Popo Iskandar and Umi Dachlan to the international art market.

Of the various topics that Pirous discusses in his work other than natural objects, landscapes, daily life, animal figures, abstracts and others, calligraphy works that take up Pirous's time, energy and thoughts.

Abdul Djalil Pirous (born March 11, 1932), known as A.D. Pirous, is an Indonesian fine arts artist and lecturer.

During the 1950s, the Art Faculty at ITB had been criticised as a "laboratory of the West", but this new development demonstrated that the East/West dichotomy was not really relevant to their art.

Pirous designed the ornamentation for the building of the Bank Indonesia in Padang, among other architectural projects.

In 1953 he saw an exhibition in Medan of Indonesia's leading modern artists, and this inspired him to take up art as a career.

In 1955 he moved to Bandung to study art at ITB.

Together with Ahmad Sadali and Umi Dachlan, he was an integral part of The Bandung School from the 1960s onwards.

He pioneered the use of Arabic religious calligraphy and Acehnese ethnic ornaments in modern Indonesian art, and is particularly noted for the spiritual nature of his work.

Abdul Djalil Pirous, known as A.D. Pirous, was born in Meulaboh, Aceh.

His birth name was Abdul Djalil Syaifuddin, a name given to him by a religious teacher who boarded with the family.

His father was Mauna 'Pirous' Noor Mohamad, of Gujerati descent and his mother was Hamidah, from Meulaboh.

Pirous' early life experience was during the late Dutch colonial period and the Japanese occupation of Indonesia.

At the end of World War II he went to Medan for his education.

In Bandung, Pirous joined the artists' collective Sanggar Seniman, and had his first work exhibited with this group in 1960.

His has had five solo exhibitions, including: Retrospective Exhibition I for works 1960–1985, at the Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta in 1985 and Retrospective II for works from 1985 to 2002, at the Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta in 2002.

His painting style is easily recognisable as the textures and colours are very elaborate and detailed.

He paints by coating the colours with alabaster paste and a palette knife.

In 1964, he completed his education at the Department of Fine Arts, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), where he was a student of Ries Mulder, the influential Dutch painter and lecturer.

Between 1964 and 2002, he worked at the FDSR-ITB, the Fine Arts and Design Faculty of the ITB-Bandung.

Thereafter, he continued his studies in printmaking and graphic design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester New York, United States (1969).

By the 1970s, he was exhibiting regularly nationally and internationally.

For the first time since the birth of Pirous's etching work featuring Arabic calligraphy, Surah Al-Ikhlas: Pure Faith (1970), the term 'calligraphy' 'Islam' in Indonesia (two terms that stand alone and accompany 'art' and 'modern' painting) attached to Pirous.

Pirous started his Islamic calligraphy work when he saw the exhibition of ceramic fragments, ancient Islamic manuscripts, Al-Qur'an Calligraphy and miniature paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States in 1970.

Seeing these objects reminded Pirous of his hometown in Aceh.

This was a revelation that his own traditions could serve as the basis of his art, alongside the art of the West that he had studied under Mulder.

Working with Ahmad Sadali and Umi Dachlan, Pirous emphasised a strong Indonesian and religious component in the Abstract Art that was taught at ITB.

He is a pioneer in graphic design education at the Fine Arts Institute of Technology in Bandung, and the founder of an art and design studio called Decenta (1973–1983).

A.D. Pirous is married to Erna Garnasih Pirous, and the couple have three children.

He is one of the leading modern Abstract artists in Indonesia.

In 1973, A.D. Pirous founded the Decenta Design Studio, an abbreviation from Design Center Association together with Adriaan Palar, T. Sutanto and G. Sidharta.

He served as the first Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design ITB (1984-1990), and was inaugurated as a professor at ITB in 1994.

A.D. Pirous is married to Ernah Garmasih Pirous, an accomplished painter herself.

Erna studied at the ITB as well as in France, and she belongs to the second generation of Indonesian modern women artists.

A.D. and Erna Pirous have three children, Mida Meutia, Iwan Meulia, and Raihan Muerila.

The couple have lived in Bandung since their marriage.

In 1994 Pirous founded the gallery Serambi Pirous.

They built a new larger home in Bandung 2003, and moved the "Serambi Pirous" to there in 2017.

Pirous began to work as an artist when he was still in Medan, making cartoons, movie posters and portraits to help pay for his education.