A Sleeper

A Sleeper, attributed to I Made Satriawan, 1960, Mas, 22 x 22 x 24 cm, private collection

The subject is very simple: a young man with generous proportions is asleep. He is seated, his legs hidden beneath a sarong. His head is inclined on his shoulder.

As is often the case in Balinese sculpture, this piece is unsigned. However, according to the Indonesian dealer from whom I acquired it, it was created by a sculptor named I Made Satriawan during the 1960s, in the village of Mas. Its dimensions (22 x 22 x 24 cm, weighing 4.8 kg) make it one of the largest pieces in my collection. The wood, with its beautiful reddish hue, may be a variety of jackfruit.

This figure of a sleeping young man is a variation based on Ida Bagus Njana’s Sleeping Woman, originally created in 1956 in the same village of Mas, now housed at the Puri Lukisan Museum*. I have found no additional information about Satriawan, but this piece indicates a remarkably skilled sculptor with a precise knowledge of Njana’s work, or perhaps even direct contact with him, possibly as a student or collaborator.

The innovative quality of Njana’s sculpture lies in the fullness of the silhouette, but also in the suggestion of a gentle inward settling of the figure: the softness of the flesh and the way the head tilts onto the shoulder, seemingly ready to merge with the torso, convey the immersion into sleep with both whimsy and effectiveness. Satriawan preserves the impression of suppleness in the rendering of flesh, while opting for a more structured approach. The figure, developed as much in depth as in width, commands presence. The head stands out clearly from the shoulder, and its volume is defined with remarkable clarity. The modeling of the closed eyelids, nose, and mouth shows that the stylization is underpinned by a keen understanding of anatomy.

The rounded forms style often allows for a refined interplay with the properties of a wood chosen for its beauty. This is particularly true here. The reddish veins, in their orientation, seem to gently caress the surface of the body, forming a material and chromatic evocation of sleep that, like a flowing river, appears to carry the young sleeper’s mind into a dream beyond our reach.

* I do not have the rights to reproduce Njana’s sculpture here. A reproduction can be found on page 102 of Koos van Brakel’s Art Fallen From Heaven, Modern Balinese Sculpture (2022, LM Publishers), with commentary by Soemantri Widagdo.