History of Southeast Asian Art
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
DFA2203: History of Southeast Asian Art
“A monographic study of one artist or on a particular theme or aspect of his/her artistic practice.”
Study of ‘Affandi’
Muhammad Rahimin Bin Misnam
F13FA0154 [FA2C]
Lecturer: Mr Chua Poh Leng
23 Mar – 3 April 2015
There are few notable artists based in Indonesia and among them were even Dutch-born Indonesian painters. Though there are only but a few, one artist caught my attention from his major works. His name was Affandi. Originated from Cirebon, West Java, and born in 1907, he began his life as an artist in the 1950s.
Affandi does not have any connection to art other than himself. His passion of art breeds from within him just one day in his teenage years. His father, R. Koesoema, was a humble surveyor at a local sugar factory and as any typical father would during that time; his father had high hopes of him of becoming a doctor, a seemingly opposite profession from what he wanted. However, this child has strong interest in the art culture, or more prominently, in drawing. With that in mind, and his view set to being an artist, Affandi gave up his studies right after finishing his upper secondary school in Jakarta to become an artist. This was rather a harsh road for him to achieve as he has no background or any network to support him in this endeavor. With this unwavering dedication to arts, Affandi began teaching himself how to paint in the beginning of 1934 after which he has grasped the basics skills and was ready to move on to a new medium.
Around the 1950s, Affandi began to exude some interest in the style of the Expressionists. His early works of this style began in the medium of oil painting. Through the further experimentation and exploration of the style, the piece titled ‘Carrying the First Grandchild (1953)’ was marked as one of his first few artwork that contained his newfound style – ‘squeezing the tube’. What this basically means was he
DFA2203: History of Southeast Asian Art
“A monographic study of one artist or on a particular theme or aspect of his/her artistic practice.”
Study of ‘Affandi’
Muhammad Rahimin Bin Misnam
F13FA0154 [FA2C]
Lecturer: Mr Chua Poh Leng
23 Mar – 3 April 2015
There are few notable artists based in Indonesia and among them were even Dutch-born Indonesian painters. Though there are only but a few, one artist caught my attention from his major works. His name was Affandi. Originated from Cirebon, West Java, and born in 1907, he began his life as an artist in the 1950s.
Affandi does not have any connection to art other than himself. His passion of art breeds from within him just one day in his teenage years. His father, R. Koesoema, was a humble surveyor at a local sugar factory and as any typical father would during that time; his father had high hopes of him of becoming a doctor, a seemingly opposite profession from what he wanted. However, this child has strong interest in the art culture, or more prominently, in drawing. With that in mind, and his view set to being an artist, Affandi gave up his studies right after finishing his upper secondary school in Jakarta to become an artist. This was rather a harsh road for him to achieve as he has no background or any network to support him in this endeavor. With this unwavering dedication to arts, Affandi began teaching himself how to paint in the beginning of 1934 after which he has grasped the basics skills and was ready to move on to a new medium.
Around the 1950s, Affandi began to exude some interest in the style of the Expressionists. His early works of this style began in the medium of oil painting. Through the further experimentation and exploration of the style, the piece titled ‘Carrying the First Grandchild (1953)’ was marked as one of his first few artwork that contained his newfound style – ‘squeezing the tube’. What this basically means was he
Bibliography: East-West Center, East-West Treasures, Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, East-West Center, Honolulu, 2010, p. 8-9. – 25/03/2015, 6:05pm Tim Narasi (2009). 100 Tokoh Yang Mengubah Indonesia (Revised ed.). Narasi. ISBN 9789791681537. – 1/04/2015, 6:06pm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affandi - 1/04/2015, 6:07pm http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/25/obituaries/affandi-painter-83.html - 1/04/2015, 7:08pm http://www.affandi.org/ - 1/04/2015, 7:09pm