Kusuma Affandi

Affandi (1907 - 1990) Peloekis Goenadi (Painter Goenadi) Signed with artist�s monogram and dated �Djokdja 46� (upper middle); Titled (upper left) Oil on canvas 73.5 x 64.5 cm - Bob Urbain Dirix, Affandi - Prix International DaG Hammarskjoeld, 1976, illustrated on p.164. - Raka Sumichan & Umar Kayam, AFFANDI, Yayasan Bina Lestari Budaya, Jakarta, 1987, illustrated in color, p.24.

AFFANDI (Indonesian, 1907-1990) Fishing Boats signed with artist's monogram and dated '80' (lower left) oil on canvas 98 x 129 cm. (47 5?8 x 50 3?4 in.) Painted in 1980 Neka Art Gallery, Bali, Indonesia Private Collection, Amsterdam Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2005, Lot 118 Acquired from the above by the present owner This artwork is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity dated 14 January 1998 from Neka Art Affandi is widely accepted as one of the fathers of modern Indonesian painting, having painted and exhibited his works in several parts of the world, including India, Egypt, Japan, France and the United Kingdom. His paintings are widely considered to exemplify the compassion, humanity and liveliness he sees in the Indonesian people, especially the poor. The three lots in this sale characteristically show Affandi's unmistakeable style, with each textured stroke applied onto the canvas straight from the tube. The paintings, painted between the years 1957 and 1980, show his development as an artist after his return to Indonesia from India, and demonstrate the depth and breadth of Affandi's artistic vision, cementing his position as one of the most important Indonesian painters of the 20th Century. One of Affandi's most characteristic representations is that of the fishing boat - Indeed, 'it is as if Affandi in all these works was making these beach and boat scenes a metaphor for his anxiety in the face of life and nature'. Fishing Boats (Lot 229), painted in 1980, a mere ten years before his death is especially indicative of this introspective attitude, with the three boats on the sand, at rest, facing an infinite ocean. The Pig Seller from Bali (Lot 230) shows an ordinary Balinese man, provincial and in his elements, holding across his shoulders his source of livelihood, a pair of wild boars. The man's face, intensely coloured in red, illustrates the great force he is exerting, and the effect of the weight of the two pigs on the sinews of his body. The wild dog roaming behind the pig-seller provides the viewer with a good example of the way Affandi uses metaphor in the scenes he portrays; the forest surrounding the man is not welcoming and beautiful; instead, it is menacing and threatens the man's very survival but the dog, which appears frequently in Affandi's figurative paintings, is the man's companion. Besides the rarity of the subject, Balinese Scarecrows (Lot 231) by Affandi is also a superlative composition, full of dynamic action that goes beyond the visual. Music in Balinese life is integrated into everyday life, beginning with the traditional music of the Balinese gamelan to even scarecrows in the fields; from bamboo chimes and whirring clackers, to rusty tin cans and elaborate plastic bag mobiles, shaken by the farmers and the wind; all to rid the valuable rice fields of the birds. The sun in the upper half of the composition is the source of life for which the harvest season is dependent. The scarecrows in the field take the form of wayang puppets, integrating performance, sound and life into one. The picture signals the close relationship between music and life and the agricultural cycle in Bali.

AFFANDI (Indonesian, 1907-1990) Kolektor Dari Bali (The Collector From Bali) signed with artist's monogram; dated '1973' (centre right) oil on canvas 120 x 147 cm. (47 1?4 x 57 7?8 in.) Painted in 1973 Private Collection, Jakarta, Indonesia Considered within his lifetime to be the foremost artist of the expressionist movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Affandi was praised both within and outside of Indonesia. The renowned art critic Herbert Read had hailed Affandi as a painter who had succeeded in 'developing a new course of Expressionism'. New expressionism is indeed a description that is applicable to an understanding of Affandi's works in subsequent years, gaining for him a place of importance in world art history of the mid-20th Century. His works prior to 1970s were often feverishly colourful, and showed the artist's love of vitality and movement, often overwhelming the subject of his paintings with the dynamism of his brush strokes. His art is often described as a direct expression of his feelings, and certainly, his representation of nature and his surroundings are evocative and highly animated. The works of his initial years in the second half of the 1930s right up to the early 1950s were mainly focused upon portraiture and it was in portraiture that Affandi really first developed as an artist, and more of a naturalist before evolving his style to expressionism through the increasing vigour and expressiveness of his brushwork. Portraits of his friends, relatives and close family members were the domineering subjects of his artworks in his early career, which focused mainly on the day-to-day life of an Indonesia that was still under Dutch colonial rule. Pictures such as Maryati and Kartika (Fig. 1) which reveal so much the psychology and relationship between the sitters in the painting illustrate Affandi's oft-forgotten side as a humanist. His expressionism has been described as 'wild and demonic' and perhaps overemphasised to the neglect of other aspects of his persona as artist. When Affandi was given a scholarship to study at the prestigious Santiniketan Art School in India, he was exposed to environments and scenes outside of Indonesia and subsequently, his trips to Europe in the early 1950s allowed him to further widen his horizons and see paintings by European expressionist masters he admired. Art critic Astri Wright has commented: 'Affandi's style has been called expressionistic but to him his works were more true to the subject than any degree of photorealism could have been.' Capturing the Signs of the Natural Forces The success of Affandi's figurative works in depicting his subject's personality and emotions lies in his artistic concern to 'want to capture the signs of the natural forces.' Very much the key tenet in his works, his portraiture and his selfportraits are intricately linked. Affandi has famously said: 'When I paint, I always want to become one with the object I paint. I lose myself, and then there is a feeling as if I'm going to fight against something.' Painted during the peak of his career in the 1970s, Kolektor dari Bali(Lot 21) is an outstanding and extremely rare example of his portraiture where Affandi's pictorial interest goes beyond merely the figure to incorporate a visible aspect of the persona of his sitter. The number of documented Affandi portraits is few and far between, and almost definitely lesser than the number of self-portraits he produced in his lifetime.Yet amongst these portraitures, there is a distinct link - the vital presence of the artist seen through his paintings. Depicted to the right of the painted Balinese collector are two Barong paintings of Affandi, each one dated to 1973 too. Here, the relationship between life, art and collecting is reinforced. The Balinese collector comes into possession of two Barong paintings of Affandi in his patronage of the artist. In so doing, he reinforces the supernatural and cultural life of Bali which bestows upon the Barong, a lion-like character in the mythology of Bali, the supreme place of importance as the king of the spirits, the host of good and the enemy of Rangda, the demon queen. Between the Barong as inspiration and the patronage of the collector as sustenance is the artist, placed between these two vital sources. In other paintings of Affandi, notably the early work My Room in Ubud, Bali (Fig. 2), Affandi reinforces his profession as artist, choosing to re-paint some of his most striking early paintings hung on the walls of his painted Ubud room. Affandi never leaves his paintings out of the equation, each one of them reinforcing the presence of the artist, and an ingenious mode of allowing his collectors to see and be reminded of their relationship with Affandi himself through his paintings. Painting in the naturalist style, Affandi's eye for detail and skill in depicting the human body is second to none, and this is nowhere as perfectly illustrated as in Kolektor dari Bali. Affandi depicts his Balinese collector dressed in the complete Balinese male ceremonial attire, with an expressive udeng (head cloth) and a splendidly detailed batik sarong. In his demeanour and dress, the collector befits the paintings. The relationship between the artist and the collector is not a simple matter of buying and selling - rather, it involves a significant exchange of faith, with the artist transferring the responsibility of his work to his collector, who will then safekeep the painting for posterity. One recalls the iconic work of Flemish Baroque painter Cornelis de Baellieur, Interior of a Collector's Gallery and Objets d'Art (Fig. 3)- an evocation of a fashionable seventeenth-Century collector with representations of the artist's works owned by the said collector. In this particular painting, the collector is a proud custodian of his paintings and proudly shows them off to his guests. Slightly different in Affandi's painting is how he depicts the appreciation of his paintings not as a social event, but just the communion between collector and pictures. Doubtlessly for Affandi, this is the essential relationship that is most precious to the artist himself.

141 Affandi 1907 - 1990 Bebotoh Ayam (Man with Fighting Cockerel) signed and dated 1965 middle left oil on canvas 151.5 x 100 cm S$ 120,000 - 150,000 US$ 96,000 - 120,000 Provenance Formerly in the Collection of Marsekal Madya TNI H. Boediardjo, Minister of Communication and Information, 1968-1973 Sotheby's, Hong Kong, June 10, 2008, Lot 921

Affandi Perahu Kusamba 1973 oil on canvas 49 x 66 cm signed and dated (lower right) S$ 25,000 - 30,000 US$ 19,680 - 23,620 "Affandi's unusual personality and choice of vocation combined with his energetic but undeniable charisma to create a life which took on the stature of legend even in his own time. The widespread attention he received in the media caused people of all walks of life, urban and rural, Indonesian and foreign, to recognize his name and face and to make the pilgrimage to his colourful, self-built museum in Yogyakarta." - Astri Wright - Excerpts from a text by Astri Wright in the book Soul, Spirit, and Mountain: Preoccupation of Contemporary Indonesian Painters, 1994.