Azmir’s journey as a sculptor has started since the New Order era. He admitted that he had long dreamed of becoming an artist. Thus, after high school, he decided to continue his studies at ASRI (Indonesian Fine Arts Academy) which is now known as ISI (Indonesian Arts Institute) Yogyakarta. In 1973, Azmir chose to major in painting.
However, he abandoned his ambition to become a painter a year later. He then pursued sculpting in 1974, after being influenced by Edhi Soenarso, Indonesian maestro sculptor. Azmir himself chose to specialize in realism. His inspiration largely came from Edhi Soenarso and French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
For Azmir, sculpture doesn’t just contain artistic value, but also historical value for the nation. “Through sculpture I can immortalize the national heroes, their shape, face, attitude, movement, body proportions into a three-dimensional work of art. So, people can see, wow, this is what my heroes look like,” he explained. (Dumaz Artadi)