Evolution of the Modern Batik Technique

International Wed 19-12-2007

Evolution of the Modern Batik Technique
By Henry Lomu Kibuuka

As an enthusiast of the Modern Batik style, we are inviting you on an historical journey in art, that visits the past, pauses in the present, and continues long into the future. On this voyage, you’re going to discover how, over millenniums, a simple traditional art craft has evolved into an art form embraced by respected artists and collectors around the world.

The freedom and immediacy of working with wax and dyes on fabric is similar to that of watercolour painting or acrylic painting. Batik is an ancient craft and the effect that can be achieved through resist dyeing often results in amazing unpredictable texture and tones.

Batik designs can be as complicated or simple as the artist’s desires. They can be realistic and pictorial or purely expressive (abstract). The main goal, when working with modern batik art, is to enjoy the medium and allow the versatility of wax and dyes to reveal itself gradually to you on fabric (cotton).

Although experts disagree as to the precise origins of batik, samples of dye resistance patterns on cloth can be traced back thousands of years ago to Egypt and the Middle East.

Samples have also been found in Turkey, India, China, Japan and West Africa from past centuries. Although in these countries, people were using the technique of dye resisting decoration, within the textile realm, none had developed the batik art form up to the 1960’s as the highly developed intricate batik found on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Batik Arrived in Uganda, East Africa in the 1960’s. Throughout history, drama and intrigue permeated the world of art, playing a major role in the development of some of the most extraordinary breakthrough in artist expression. A prime example of this is the Renaissance period. Without exception, the evolving of Modern Batik style was accelerated in the 1970’s from its entry into East Africa in the early 1960’s.

At the height of the regime of Ugandan's dictator Idi Amin, many of the best known and respected members of the Ugandan art community moved to Nairobi, Kenya. They craved to work in more peaceful surroundings. Once settled, batiks became their main source of income. Their works provided tourists with meaningful mementos of their adventurous trip to East Africa.

At this pivotal period in the evolution of the Modern Batik style, we would be amiss in ignoring the works of two talented Ugandan artists, brothers Henry Lutalo Lumu and David Kibuuka, whose extraordinary innovations and refi nements would truly revolutionize batik art in East Africa and take it to a higher level. These innovations provided the art community unique techniques which would open up endless possibilities for their individual artistic expression.

David Kibuuka

David had been painting from an early age in Uganda. His talents became quickly apparent at the age of 11 as he was able to sell his paintings professionally in art galleries, such as Nomo Gallery. At the time, David’s strength was pencil drawing and water color. His first introduction to batik was from his secondary school art teacher, Joseph Mungaya, who worked in the traditional batik style.

This was the fi rst time David would see art being created on fabric with the use of wax and dyes. As Mr. Mungaya finished a series of batiks he was obligated to send them to Nairobi, Kenya to be sold to local tourists.

This practice was becoming more and more necessary, for by now, Idi Amin had seriously disrupted the normal lifestyle of the average Ugandan. The citizenry’s future was becoming progressively bleaker.

Modern Batik by David Kibuuka

So critical was the situation, David, the youngest of 11 children and in his teens decided to leave Uganda to live in Nairobi. Just one year after being introduced to batik art he was now in a foreign country caring for himself by the only means he knew how, by selling his batiks. This would be his sole source of support, right through the completion of his art college education.

David’s artistic range included his exquisite pencil drawings, water colors. It wasn’t his wonderful pencil sketches neither his beautiful water colors that would alter his life’s journey as dramatically as the traditional batik did. Modern Batik Art would be instrumental in bringing his work to the attention of art lovers and collectors internationally.

Nairobi, Kenya

At this juncture of our journey it would be advantageous for us to stop and reflect on how the Modern Batik style was dramatically altered over a period of 13 years. This period spans the time of David’s arrival in Kenya in 1977 until his graduation from Ontario College of Art and Design in Canada in 1988. One year after David’s arrival, his older brother Henry Lutalo Lumu, joined David.

While in Kenya, Henry developed new techniques that would revolutionize the art of batik painting. Using the same traditional materials of waterbased dyes, wax and fabric that were used in the traditional Indonesian batik, Henry applied the colors in reverse order, starting with darker hues and ending with light.

Also, importantly, instead of using dyes in full strength by mereLY dipping the fabric in them, he controlled the gradual dilution of the same dyes and applied them to the fabric using paintbrushes.

This revolutionary approach allowed Henry to create detailed, refi ned images with dramatically enhanced tonality, shading and depth. David Kibuuka, working closely with his brother, introduced an additional technique to this medium called ‘fragmentation.’

This modifi cation added increasing background depth, broadness and a richer palette of colours to the batik art painting, allowing this novel fi ne art medium to yield control, detail and richness comparable to oil, acrylic and watercolour painting. These modifi cations have given Modern Batik Art extraordinary fl exibility.

David Kibuuka’s conclusion of the rapid development and acceleration of the modern batik technique during the Kenyan (Nairobi) era was brought up by these factors.

a. Because the gallery art dealers and tourist curio art dealers control all the outlets, they pay very little money for the batiks, thus forcing artists to produce batiks in huge numbers in order for them to make a living. Usually, the numbers were from 80 to 300 batiks a month.

b. A number of Ugandan and Kenyan artists who were involved in supplying tourist batik market produced intense competition among artists that different style and technique began to emerge. There were three batik categories, a) Super realistic batiks, b) Semi-abstract batiks, Traditional batiks. And from all this emerged fragmentation and toning (Modern Batik Art) which is still evolving to this present day.

Other notable Ugandan and Kenyan batik artists during the 80’s were Wasswa, Senkoto, Mutyaba, Sekanwagi, Lukenze, Mugalula, Mungaya, Lubega, Nyanzi and Gogo,who all contributed to the expansion of Modern Batik Art.

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