Beban Berat (Heavy Load) illustrates a woman carrying a heavy load on her head, common in many parts of the world. Dedicated to the artist’s child, on the reverse of the canvas, a message reads: “Untuk Anak Saya Wardiningsih” (For My Child Wardiningsih), as encouragement and motivation. He conveys that there will be challenges and obstacles in life and to face them strongly and to overcome them bravely. Executed in the manner of Primitivism, the artist employs various shapes and colours – predominantly red and black with white background - to depict the ancient practice of carrying. This tradition is commonly seen in Bali where the ladies would carry offerings in this manner. On the lower left of the canvas, the artist has inscribed the title in a primeval manner. Widayat was one of the influential Javanese painters of the 20th century, creating artworks that illustrate dense jungles, exotic animals and primitive life forms infused with myths and fantasy. His works evoke deep spirituality and meaning, in which his fantasy world is drawn from Javanese legends and Judeo-Islamic narrative of human genesis and creation he had heard as a child. Having first developed a naturalism style closer to the Bandung School, Widayat also took stylistic cues from the Yogyakarta School before developing his own style, mixing indigenous primitive art and decorative elements of batik. In the 1940s, he abandoned his love of painting to seek a career first as a surveyor in the rubber plantations in the dense Sumatran jungles, then as a mapmaker for a railway company. Later, many of his paintings, full of plants, exotic birds and wild animals, would draw on these jungle memories. After independence in 1949, he decided to study art seriously, joining the first cohort of the newly created Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts (ASRI) in Yogyakarta at age 31. There, under the tutelage of celebrated painters like Hendra Gunawan, Sudjojono, Kusnadi and Kartono Yudhokusumo, he was encouraged to explore the idea of national identity. In 2007, Singapore Art Museum presented a major retrospective exhibition of the artist titled Widayat Between Worlds: A Retrospective curated by Joanna Lee.