Affandi Speaks
 (1907-1990) 

 INTRODUCTION:

 ===============
 

 
  Affandi was the first Indonesian artist
  to develop and gain international
  acclaim from his individualistic,
  expressionist style.
  In the 1940's, he was very much
  involved with the formation of artists'
  communities in Yogyakarta (along
  with Soedjojono and Hendra 
  Gunawan).

  These community groups later became
  significant art teaching institutions.
  In the 1950's he travelled and exhibited
  in India and Europe, and was highly
  successful.
  His art changed radically; abandoning
  strong linear brush strokes, with a  
  high level of realism- to using a brush
  along with fingers, hands, and palm,
  with a high level of individual
  expression. 

  In 1962, he was one of the first
  Indonesian artists to develop a
  gallery/personal art museum/house
  concept in  167 Jalan Solo, Yogyakarta.
  It set the standard for what artists could do
  for themselves. Affandi is admired by many
  Indonesian artists. Some of whom still copy
  an Affandi style  called ‘Affandi-ism’ even
  15 years after his death.
 



Potret Istriku Maryati,
(Portrait of My Wife, Maryati), 1938
 pastel on paper.

An example of experimentation
 with many kinds of mediums,
using family portraits and nudes
as models.
 




































 

ART HISTORY AND THE ARTIST:

============================

CHRIS: What modern artists do you like?
AFFANDI: There are some critics who write that I am too influenced by Van Gogh.
Others say that Affandi and Van Gogh travel on the same boat; the boat of
expressionism. These writers say that there is an intersection point between the two artists.

My thinking on the whole is that Affandi is Affandi, and Van Gogh
is Van Gogh. One leaves it for the people to choose.

Among the expressionists whom I like very much, is Edvard Munch.
Another artist I like is Toulouse Lautrec. I don't much like the paintings
of Renoir. I feel that Renoir's art is too soft. I do not have an idealistic
quarrel with Renoir as an artist. You see, just because I don't like the art,
it does not mean that it is bad. 

CHRIS: How does the individual artist deal with art history?
AFFANDI: Regardless of the answers to the questions asked about
Indonesian art history, it still depends on the painter himself- on
what the painter really wants. It is difficult to know the truth or
motivations about art or about other painters in art history:
but if it is about me, of course, I know. Whatever ‘Modern Art’ is in
Indonesia, or in Europe, it still depends on people- the artists themselves
as individuals. That is the truth.

In this more modern world, some artists in Indonesia do not want to be left behind;
they do not want to fail and do not want to miss out in expanding their artistic ideals.
Furthermore, remember that some clever individual artists (before scientists had
been into space) had already travelled to space within their imagination. Ha! Ya!
(laughs at the thought).

Also, there is much rivalry, argument, wars, suffering and people
who really need basic things. I think that rather than going to do the
modern thing and go into space, one might consider what the artist
can do here on earth, where the needs of the people are so self-evident.
Yes. Don't you agree?  

CHRIS: Sure. Are you suggesting that modern and more traditional art are
an answer to poverty?
AFFANDI: No. For example, I do the art, not because I like to be rich,
not because I like to be famous, but because I have to. It is, I don't know
how you call it in English, but we call it “Panggilan Jiwa - the calling of the soul.”
Whether I get a name or not, whether my painting is sold or not, really does
not matter. To do the painting is the thing. I have to do it.

 
 CHRIS: What were your school days like?
 Were your parents supportive of your art
 career?
 AFFANDI: I failed my SMR exams. My
 parents then said “Well, boy, try for one
 more year, and then maybe you
 might pass and go on to university.
 Perhaps you can become an engineer like
 your brothers, or maybe something else,
 like a doctor.” At that time there were
 three in my family. My two elder brothers,
 then myself, number three. My two brothers
 were rich and had a good position in society
 because they were well paid engineers.

 My suggestion to my parents was that
 instead of pushing me to engineering, they
 could send me to an art school in Europe.
 They became angry. My father said
 “I don't want to spend money on you,
 so that you can become a poor artist.”

 So I left the school to look for a job to
 survive. I was a school teacher for few
 months; also a ticket collector at a
 Bandung cinema. Often I would paint
 the big paintings used as movie advertising.
 The canvas size was huge; but it was
 relatively easy to make as they
 provided me with a photo of the subject.
 It is likely that this period in my life later
 made it difficult for me to make small
 paintings.
 I am too used to making big pictures.
 



Potret bersama anakku Kartika,
(Portrait With My Daughter, Kartika) 1939
 Oil on canvas.
As a child, Kartika was too restless
to sit even for a little while,
let alone be painted.

 

CHRIS: All the 'isms' like Expressionism, Surrealism, Realism, Abstraction,
Modernism and Post Modernism really worry me, because they label an
artist, who then enters a cage.
AFFANDI: Yes. The art historians just want to talk about something,
but what is in a name actually? Not much.

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