There is always a charm of Indonesia that makes anyone always long for it. Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists never get tired of visiting this beloved country. Only in Indonesia, you can enjoy the green and beautiful Bali rice fields and taste various Indonesian cuisines.

You can also see various traditional arts such as batik works by famous batik artists. Their batik is well known in Indonesia and also available in foreign markets. Let’s talk about who the batik artist figures are.

1. Santosa Doellah

Santosa, the founder of Batik Danar Hadi, is the grandson of RH Wongsodinomo. Since childhood, Santosa has been introduced to various suitable batik motifs and follows the manufacturing process, starting from canting (a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax in the batik-making), the coloring process, and nglorot (the process of removing wax).

Santosa founded Batik Danar Hadi in Solo in 1967. The name Danar Hadi itself was taken from the name of his wife. In addition, he also founded batik villages in Singosaren and Sragen. His batik is very famous and being exported to foreign countries like Japan, Italy, and the United States.

2. Iwan Tirta

Iwan Tirta died in 2010 after dedicating his whole life to batik. Iwan Tirta is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, who continued his education at Yale University, United States. The beginning of his love for batik began when he received Rockefeller funds.

Since then, Iwan Tirta has studied Surakarta batik art. The batik he designed was famous in the U.S, and during the APEC event in 1994, the state officials wore his batik. Iwan Tirta is one of the leading figures in batik art.

3. KRT Hardjonagoro (Go Tik Swan)

Go Tik Swan whose real name is KRT Hardjonagoro has a grandfather who is a batik entrepreneur in Solo. No wonder he was used to the batik making process since he was a kid. He even established good relations with his batik workers.

His childhood inspired Swan to pursue Indonesian batik and become one of the pioneers. He also began to create batik with new patterns such as batik Pusaka. His role was increasingly recognized when President Soekarno wanted a local batik that could be a representation of Indonesia.

In the 1960s, Go Tik Swan also designed batik which was famous among the world’s top-class women. From there, batik became more and more prominent in the world. Swan made more than 200 Indonesian batik patterns during his lifetime. Amazing!

After learning the hard work of Indonesian batik figures, we feel even more proud of this Indonesian art. We should appreciate and preserve it. 

Do you already have batik cloth made by one of the famous batik artists above? What kind of batik pattern do you like?