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Lot Essay
"Affandi would spend a long time looking for painting subjects, and then a long time studying the subject, probing into its being, until he felt he had become part of it. Only then would he start squeezing and smearing paint from the tubes on to the canvas, working it with his fingers, palms, wrists, and the back of his hands. Painting for Affandi was a process of fixing into colour and form the storm of energy from his emotions which had arisen through concentrating on something which had initially inspired him." (Astri Wright, Soul, Spirit, and Mountain: Preoccupations of Contemporary Indonesian Painters, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1994, 112).
Astri Wright described the process after the interview with the artist when the writer saw a work of the artist, of which the creating process related to him. "Against the wall near us, up on a ledge, the canvas he had painted that very morning sat drying. It depicted a man selling balloons, a playful cloud of coloured spheres above his head. Affandi had seen him at the Sekaten night fair and had become so enamoured with the sight that he had asked this man to come to the gallery the next day. After spending a couple of hours painting him, he had bought all his balloons as recompense for the trouble" (Ibid, p. 111-112)
It is no doubt that Affandi painted from Life. The familiarity he has with his subjects endowed his works with a sense of intimacy and passion that overwhelms the viewers. The tree house is a recurring theme with the artist. For many friends and close associates of the artist, the tree house which the artist used occasionally as his studio was a most familiar subject, both in the painting as well as in the actual life of the artist. Many would remember the artist speaking affectionately of the house and seeking reposes and solace in it.
The way that the tree house is represented many times in the oeuvres revealed much of how the artist felt. It is indeed very rarely that one saw the interior of the tree house represented but it is always hidden amidst the thick branches and foliages of the banyan tree, which is always painted as a splendidly grown and overwhelmingly sheltering cover over the house. One could imagine the cool the artist enjoyed as he lazed in the tree house, taking his afternoon nap as he listened on to the rustling of the leaves as the breeze whistled through.
A great sense of rhythm is created with this present canvas that is in spite of the sebaceous nature of the subject. The artist decided to restrict his palette to yellow, green, orange and black. In the busy masses of swirling movement as created by the thick impasto technique of Affandi, a sense of spontaneity is infused as Affandi suggests, with the freely applied paint, the movement of wind and the ruffling of the foliages, thus creating a vivid scene that is with a sense of intimacy and involvement that is equivalent to an effect of a snapshot.
Astri Wright described the process after the interview with the artist when the writer saw a work of the artist, of which the creating process related to him. "Against the wall near us, up on a ledge, the canvas he had painted that very morning sat drying. It depicted a man selling balloons, a playful cloud of coloured spheres above his head. Affandi had seen him at the Sekaten night fair and had become so enamoured with the sight that he had asked this man to come to the gallery the next day. After spending a couple of hours painting him, he had bought all his balloons as recompense for the trouble" (Ibid, p. 111-112)
It is no doubt that Affandi painted from Life. The familiarity he has with his subjects endowed his works with a sense of intimacy and passion that overwhelms the viewers. The tree house is a recurring theme with the artist. For many friends and close associates of the artist, the tree house which the artist used occasionally as his studio was a most familiar subject, both in the painting as well as in the actual life of the artist. Many would remember the artist speaking affectionately of the house and seeking reposes and solace in it.
The way that the tree house is represented many times in the oeuvres revealed much of how the artist felt. It is indeed very rarely that one saw the interior of the tree house represented but it is always hidden amidst the thick branches and foliages of the banyan tree, which is always painted as a splendidly grown and overwhelmingly sheltering cover over the house. One could imagine the cool the artist enjoyed as he lazed in the tree house, taking his afternoon nap as he listened on to the rustling of the leaves as the breeze whistled through.
A great sense of rhythm is created with this present canvas that is in spite of the sebaceous nature of the subject. The artist decided to restrict his palette to yellow, green, orange and black. In the busy masses of swirling movement as created by the thick impasto technique of Affandi, a sense of spontaneity is infused as Affandi suggests, with the freely applied paint, the movement of wind and the ruffling of the foliages, thus creating a vivid scene that is with a sense of intimacy and involvement that is equivalent to an effect of a snapshot.