The Birth of New Expressionism and an Intermezzo
The Birth of New Expressionism and an Intermezzo
Bambang Bujono
Award but Not the Grand Prix
Affandi was musing in front of Max Ernst’s painting, Polish Rider, which won the grand prix in Venice Biennale 1954. Max Ernst was one of Dadaist activists and surrealists whose works were deeply imaginative and fantastic, blurring the boundaries of near and far, the real and the imaginary. Max Ernst’s works, writes Paul Eluard, “[were] no far – through the bird – from cloud to the man; [were] not far – through the images – from man to his visions, from the nature of real things to the nature of imagined things.”[i]
Affandi, one of whose works won a prize in Biennale, though not the first one, did not say anything about the Polish Rider. A few years later he met Wing Kardjo, an Indonesian poet, in Paris. It was to him that he conveyed what he was pondering about before the Polish Rider. Had he been born in Europe, he said, he would have become a much greater painter on account of a mature tradition of the art of painting (in Europe).[ii]
Venice Biennale 1954 presented art works that represented the four mainstream styles considered as representative of the period, i.e. realism, expressionism, surrealism, and abstractism.[iii] This was the result of curacy led by Rodolfo Pallucini, a fine arts historian, who was also the director of Venice Biennale. He was said to be an expert in the history of the fine arts of the middle ages and the modern ones, whose accuracy in seeing attributions and artistic context of works of art was nearly unrivaled. This is why the invitation to Affandi to join Venice Biennale 1954 was an indirect appreciation from the world of mainstream fine arts for Affandi’s works in the early 1950s that had been made in India and Europe – and it turned out that one of several of his self-portrait paintings, i.e. Bistro in Paris and A Man in Bistro received an award. These were Affandi’s works, paintings created from lines as a result of
Bambang Bujono
Award but Not the Grand Prix
Affandi was musing in front of Max Ernst’s painting, Polish Rider, which won the grand prix in Venice Biennale 1954. Max Ernst was one of Dadaist activists and surrealists whose works were deeply imaginative and fantastic, blurring the boundaries of near and far, the real and the imaginary. Max Ernst’s works, writes Paul Eluard, “[were] no far – through the bird – from cloud to the man; [were] not far – through the images – from man to his visions, from the nature of real things to the nature of imagined things.”[i]
Affandi, one of whose works won a prize in Biennale, though not the first one, did not say anything about the Polish Rider. A few years later he met Wing Kardjo, an Indonesian poet, in Paris. It was to him that he conveyed what he was pondering about before the Polish Rider. Had he been born in Europe, he said, he would have become a much greater painter on account of a mature tradition of the art of painting (in Europe).[ii]
Venice Biennale 1954 presented art works that represented the four mainstream styles considered as representative of the period, i.e. realism, expressionism, surrealism, and abstractism.[iii] This was the result of curacy led by Rodolfo Pallucini, a fine arts historian, who was also the director of Venice Biennale. He was said to be an expert in the history of the fine arts of the middle ages and the modern ones, whose accuracy in seeing attributions and artistic context of works of art was nearly unrivaled. This is why the invitation to Affandi to join Venice Biennale 1954 was an indirect appreciation from the world of mainstream fine arts for Affandi’s works in the early 1950s that had been made in India and Europe – and it turned out that one of several of his self-portrait paintings, i.e. Bistro in Paris and A Man in Bistro received an award. These were Affandi’s works, paintings created from lines as a result of