Menonton Sirkus exemplifies Haji Widayat’s crowded tapestry of rural Javanese life in a mock-fantasy realm, often with animals thrown in for good measure, like a horse, monkey, tiger, lion, elephant, dog, rabbit, birds etc. His style, often with a veneer of tawny brown, is aptly dubbed Magical Decorative or Mysticism. In his 2007 retrospective, Widayat Between Worlds, in the Singapore Art Museum, the then director Kwok Kian Chow pointed out how “highly individualistic’ Widayat was, defying art-historical models like the Mooi-Indie (Beautiful Indies) trend of his time, primarily “how he syncretised the nature of Javanese culture and how the practice celebrates multi-culturalism by embracing both Western and Asian inspirations.” Widayat was a surveyor and map-maker before he became an artist. He was a late-starter in art, graduating from the Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts (Asri) in Yogyakarta in 1949, at the age of 31, and he lectured in his alma mater for more than 30 years. Apart from paintings, he also delved into sculptures and ceramics. In the more recent Sotheby’s HK Oct 2021 auction, Widayat’s Terang Bulan Di Rimba sold for HK$1,250,000 (RM672,373) premium.