DB Museum Enlivens Art Rooms In Jakarta

The owner of the Dheye Bastian Museum, Raden Rahmat Bastian, and his collection of paintings. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Indonesia still lacks art museums, both public and private.

In fact, art museums serve to present, care for, and preserve works of art, as well as promote them to the public.

Art museums can be public or private, which distinguishes from ownership of their collectibles.

Featuring fine art works, such as paintings, statues, installations, photography, and other media art.

On the other hand, other challenges arise, that art museum managers and owners are also experiencing anxiety due to the lack of museum enthusiasts.

Despite this fact, it did not dampen Rahmat Bastian's move to open the Dheye Bastian (DB) Museum.

An art museum in the Pondok Indah area that just opened in November 2024 at the Kertanegara Resital Center, Jakarta featured the musician Jogja Hip Hop Foundation.

"There is still a lack of public interest in visiting art museums, not to hinder our intention to continue educating the public about art. That is precisely where challenges and satisfaction lies, if we can provide legacy as well as education to the public, especially young people, to be closer to the art world," said the owner of the DB Museum, Raden Rahmat Bastian, Friday, February 7th.

In the DB Museum, he presented a collection of paintings belonging to him and his late brother to serve as art education media to the public.

According to him, the collections exhibited at the DB Museum are quite diverse, because their families have different painting tastes.

This is reflected in the collection in the DB Museum, both in terms of the artist's work and the category of paintings, which are quite diverse, although in quantity, not too much. However, the quality and diversity of existing collections of paintings, there is no doubt, because they are collections collected over the decades.

He also realized that the museum has a function to help visitors learn more about favorite artists or find new artists.

"That's why we collect modern and contemporary painting works. Our collections are also diverse, ranging from the works of Indonesian, British, American, South Korean to Chinese artists. There are also paintings of maestros who are new artists but whose works deserve appreciation," he explained.

One of the standards for choosing a collection of paintings at the DB Museum is that it must be the work of artists who have exhibited overseas for at least 10 years.

"This means that their work has gone ahead of buana, the consistency of painting is also measurable, and their work is known to global art lovers," added the man who is also the owner of the Apik Gallery.

The coal entrepreneur, CEO of PT Kahayarera Kotawaringin Rahmat (KKR) also admitted to cooperating with the famous art curator, Kuss Indarto, to curate all works of art in his museum.

"Under the auspices of the Dhanapala Indonesia Foundation, we hope that our art museum can be a reference for art lovers to add more wisdom to the world of painting, both modern and contemporary," he hoped.

Most importantly, he continued, the collection of paintings in the DB Museum is authentic or genuine and is privately owned.

"Not an asphalt item (original but fake-Red) and not a loan collection of people who are recognized as belonging to the museum," he said seriously.

In the future, apart from continuing to add museum collections, Rahmat plans to form a curatorial board.

"DB Museum is also collaborating with KKR and the art curator Kuss Indarto will publish a book entitled "Encyclopedia of Visual Art", he concluded.