The Art House of Bagong Kussudiarjo

Bagong Kussudiadja was born on 9 October 1928 inYogyakarta.He was raised in an artisticfamily and village inYogyakarta. At first he learned about dancing and painting fro his elder brother. Since he was young he also learned to dance classical Javanese dances from GPH Tejokusumo and became a specialist for the role of the ape in Ramayana epic. He also learned to dance form Ni Ketut Renengin Kedaton,Denpasar. He learnedaboutartsfrom Sudiarja,Hendra Gunawan, Kusnadi, and Affandi. He was known as a dancer and since1954 he visited many countries for art missions. Since 1947 he started painting and exhibit his works for the first time in 1950 in Yogyakarta.

In 1956 he obtained a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundations to study dances in Martha Graham Modern Dance School, New York.Hestudiedmany kindsofethnic dancesinIndonesia and world's dancesin Europe and India.He founded the Center for Dance Training (PLY) in Yogyakarta in 1957/1958. He created new dances and perform them in Indonesia and abroad. In 1971 he founded the Banjar Barong and pioneered the birth of batik painting arts.

In 1978 he founded the Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja (Bagong Kussudiardja House ofArt) as an institute for fine art training, which has been developing up to present. Many of his dances are monumental and controversial. The Semar Dance performed in the 1996 Art Summit Contemporary Dance and Music gained great attention. Bagong Kussudiardja also became acoreographer specializing in colossal dances involving thousands of dancers. He had a chance to study fine arts in Indonesia Art Academy (ASRI) in Yogyakarta and Japanese traditional painting in Kyoto University, Japan.

He earned national and international awards. The Indonesian Government gave him The Art Award. The Asian Award was also granted to him. Awards such as a gold medal from John Pope II of Vatican, a gold medal from the Bangladesh Government, an award from the Yogyakarta Province Government for winning the 2nd Painting Biennial were also obtained. Nearby his House ofArts he built his Art Gallery.