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Lot Essay
For a 'people's artist' it is most appropriate to depict the subject of the common men, at the end of a day's hard work, got together for a drink of tuak, a local rice wine for the Indonesian people.
People roaming the streets of Indonesia were not the conventional subject matter for paintings in the colonial Dutch East Indies. The beauty of the country remained the greatest inspiration for foreign artists and a handful of indigenous artists working in the first half of the 20th century. They commonly depicted the beautiful dancers, lush tropical vegetation and the majestic portraitures works as the Mooie Indie (Beautiful Indonesia) school, whose artists were obsessed with the idealised image of the country, and oblivious to the harsh realities of a country stricken poverty and corruption.
For Affandi, his inspiration comes constantly from the people he knows in street and he painted them with his fervent brush strokes, inundating his subjects with such emotions that every work screams out the personality of the artist.
In the present lot, at a glance, the characteristic swirling and deftly applied paint are taking precedence of the subjects hence the composition assumes an immediate sense of rhythm and movement. As the viewer pauses for a moment and one realises that one is with a gay company of relaxed people who is in the mood for drinking and conversation. A lighthearted mood is suggested on the gleeful expression on the man on the far left while the man in the centre is sober by comparison, almost pensive. The characters are balanced with two of the men in the foreground and the other two at the side and behind, giving a perspective to the canvas, seemingly inviting the viewer to join in the crowd as there's more room.
This is a work which Affandi pays tribute to the common people and toasting to their joie de vivre, for the people in the street.
People roaming the streets of Indonesia were not the conventional subject matter for paintings in the colonial Dutch East Indies. The beauty of the country remained the greatest inspiration for foreign artists and a handful of indigenous artists working in the first half of the 20th century. They commonly depicted the beautiful dancers, lush tropical vegetation and the majestic portraitures works as the Mooie Indie (Beautiful Indonesia) school, whose artists were obsessed with the idealised image of the country, and oblivious to the harsh realities of a country stricken poverty and corruption.
For Affandi, his inspiration comes constantly from the people he knows in street and he painted them with his fervent brush strokes, inundating his subjects with such emotions that every work screams out the personality of the artist.
In the present lot, at a glance, the characteristic swirling and deftly applied paint are taking precedence of the subjects hence the composition assumes an immediate sense of rhythm and movement. As the viewer pauses for a moment and one realises that one is with a gay company of relaxed people who is in the mood for drinking and conversation. A lighthearted mood is suggested on the gleeful expression on the man on the far left while the man in the centre is sober by comparison, almost pensive. The characters are balanced with two of the men in the foreground and the other two at the side and behind, giving a perspective to the canvas, seemingly inviting the viewer to join in the crowd as there's more room.
This is a work which Affandi pays tribute to the common people and toasting to their joie de vivre, for the people in the street.