Affandi

Formerly in the Collection of the late Mr. Alex Papadimitriou
Christie's Singapore, 27 March 1994, Lot 42

This work is in good overall condition as viewed. There is very slight cracking to pigments at areas of thick impasto, consistent with the age of the work and only visible upon very close inpsection. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals minor areas of restoration at the edges of the work and a few minor spots at the bottom of the work. Framed.
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Affandi preferred to call himself a tukang gambar (one who draws), as opposed to a plukis (one who paints). Choosing to “draw” with his bare hands, his artworks have always made a statement with their pictorial script. An emotional painter, Affandi’s works are heartfelt expressions, for he only painted what he observed, and never approached the works from a philosophical or analytical starting point. Instead he focused his attention on discovering and rediscovering new feelings from the same experimental subjects, which ultimately represented his never-ending fascination with certain themes.

Throughout his career the artist found solace in self-portraiture, as a way to observe human existence through his own studied paradigms. The earliest works of such nature show the artist experimenting with realism to capture his everyday thoughts and emotions. Affandi’s self-portraits are a documentation of his life as a maturing artist, and reveal the themes that would come to later influence his creative patterns.

Executed in 1965, after his successful journeys abroad, this painting demonstrates his newfound confidence evident in the bold and dynamic strokes squeezed directly from the paint tubes. The impastos on the surface form a high level of lyricism, and the canvas is brought to life with a mere five colors: red, green yellow, white and black. Portraying himself as a man with unkempt hair and a penetrating gaze, Affandi perceived his own portraits as visual statements of national pride, and proud declarations of self-identity. His fascination with self-portraiture should not be seen as an obsession though, but rather as a visual meditation of the physical world that he inhabited. Many of the works were accompanied with images of the sun, a symbol the artist believed to best represent himself as a man, for it was the natural source of his energy and wisdom.