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| Wisdom of the East, fresco mural in Jefferson Hall, East-West Center, Honolulu, by Affandi (Javanese, 1907-1990), 1967 |
Affandi (1907 – May 23, 1990) was born in Cirebon, West Java, as the son of R. Koesoema, who was a surveyor at a local sugar factory. Affandi finished his upper secondary school in Jakarta,
but he forsook his study for the desire to become an artist. Affandi
taught himself how to paint since 1934. He married Maryati, a fellow
artist, and one of his children, Kartika also became an artist.
Early life
Affandi was born in 1907, in Cirebon. His father was R. Koesoemah.
When he was child, his father wanted him to be a doctor; however,
Affandi was interested in drawing.
Artistic career
In the 1950s, Affandi began to create expressionistic paintings. Carrying the First Grandchild
(1953) was the piece that marked his newfound style: "squeezing the
tube." Affandi paints by directly squeezing the paint out of its tube.
He came across this technique by accident, when he intended to draw a
line one day. As he lost his patience when he sought for the missing
pencil, he applied the paint directly from its tube. The resulting
effect, as he found out, was that the painting object appeared more
alive. He also felt more freedom to express his feelings when he used
his own hands, instead of a paint brush. In certain respects, he has
acknowledged similarities with Vincent van Gogh.
As a renowned artist, Affandi participated in various exhibitions
abroad. Besides India, he has also displayed his works in the biennale
in Brazil (1952), Venice (1954), and won an award therein), and São Paulo
(1956). In 1957, he received a scholarship from the United States
government to study the methods of arts education. He was appointed as
Honorary Professor in Painting by Ohio State University in Columbus in the United States. In 1974, he received an honorary doctorate from University of Singapore, the Peace Award from the Dag Hammarskjoeld Foundation in 1977, and the title of Grand Maestro in Florence, Italy.
Like most of his contemporaries, Affandi grew up largely off from the
mainstream of modern art. Not until late 1930s were the first
exhibitions of the major Western artists – from Gauguin to Kandinsky and Picasso – held in Batavia (today’s Jakarta).
Affandi, the third son of a minor government employee of North Java,
began to draw as a child, being particularly fascinated by the Javanese wayang, or shadow-play. He followed his family to Bandung
and then to Batavia, honing his native skill at drawing and then at
oil-painting. By the time he began painting seriously, in 1940, he had
at various times been a housepainter, a cinema ticket-collector and then
a billboard artist. He would save the paints left over from the posters
and his other jobs and do landscapes. Soon he was exhibiting – and,
more marvellously to him – actually selling. With his wife’s consent, he
decided to devote the first ten days of each month to his trade, and
the remaining 20 to his art.
His only teachers were a few reproductions he saw in copies of
Studio, an art magazine of London. He felt a kinship with the
Impressionists, with Goya and with Edvard Munch, and the earlier Masters, Breughel,
Hieronymus Bosch and Botticelli. Traces of their influence started to
show in his paintings. But the grim realities around Affandi made an
even greater mark on him. In Yogjakarta one day, just after the Pacific
War, Affandi sat painting a market place where folk were grubbing about,
half-starved and half-naked. Infuriated at his seeming unconcern, a
youth threw dust at the artist and his canvas, shouting: “This man is
mad! While our people are naked he paints them on canvas and makes a bad
painting we cannot understand.”
Affandi himself says: “One day an art collector looked in my studio
and said he couldn’t select any of my paintings because the paintings he
saw hurt his feelings. He asked me why I didn’t make paintings of
beautiful objects: landscapes, girls, and so forth. I too like beautiful
things, but they do not necessary provide inspiration for my wok. Mu
subjects are expressive rather than beautiful. I paint suffering – an
old woman, a beggar, a black mountain ... My great wish is that people
learn a little from my work.
“I do know the danger of doing paintings with this in mind. I have no
intention of becoming a social propagandist, and I must be careful. One
day, in India, visiting a village with my Daughter Kartika, I saw a dead body covered by a mattress. Kartika
said, ‘That’s a good subject for you.’ I felt very touched by what we
had seen, but I told her I would not paint it. My next painting was of a
flower, in reality very fresh, but which on my canvas lacked all life.”
Some of Affandi’s most creative years were spent in India, where he
travelled and painted from 1949 to 1951. From there he went to Europe,
showing his paintings at the major capitals (among them Paris, London, Brussels, Rome).
He has visited the United States thrice, teaching at Ohio State
University and painting a mural at the East-West Center in Hawaii. He
has shown also at the São Paulo Biennale and travelled through Asia, and
was planning for a trip around the world, to do a series of paintings
for an art collector in Japan.
Museum
In Yogjakarta, where he has lived since 1945, Affandi designed for
himself a free-form house that has become a stopping place for tourists
as well as tourists visiting the old town. The place also functions as a
museum to display his paintings. The museum has around 250 of Affandi's
paintings.
Affandi says that he was struck with the idea for its architecture
one day during a rainstorm. He had been walking in the surroundings
hills, and tool shelter under a huge tree with large leaves. The roof of
Affandi’s house is shaped like a leaf from this tree, and the high
single room sits elevated on structures that resemble two tree trunks.
Additional support is provided by the tree trunks richly carved by the
famous Balinese sculptor, Nyoman Tjokot.
Affandi has two wives. The only child from his first marriage,
Kartika, has become a painter herself. A few years back, the artist took
a second wife, who has borne him three children. One of his more
memorable paintings shows him nude, holding a newborn grandchild, under a
blue sky filled with stars.
Regrettably, the high air humidity and temperature are causing
concerns about the condition of the paintings. The Affandi Foundation,
who manages the museum, finds it difficult to manage the museum
properly, due to a lack of funds and revenue.
Before passing away, Affandi spent a lot of time sitting around in
his own museum, observing his paintings. He said once, "I want to die in
simplicity without giving anyone unnecessary trouble, so I could go
home to Him in peace."
After suffering a complication of illnesses, on Wednesday, the May
23, 1990, Affandi died. He is now buried in the museum complex, as he
wished to always be surrounded by his family and his works.
References
- East-West Center, East-West Treasures, Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, East-West Center, Honolulu, 2010, p. 8-9.
- Tim Narasi (2009). 100 Tokoh Yang Mengubah Indonesia (Revised ed.). Narasi. ISBN 9789791681537.
