Affandi is one of the figures in the world of modern painters in Indonesia who adheres to pure expressionism, but initially Affandi’s career featured his works in photographic realist paintings, which means his paintings were like images taken from a camera.
In his works which use pastel paint, signs of psychological factors are not clearly revealed. Examples of Affandi’s works in pastel medium are “Kartika Affandi” (1939) and “Ibu” (1940).
The accuracy of his realist paintings shows how much he mastered this technique, but there are also realist paintings with rhythmic strokes that show traces of realist forms that lead to expressionism, as seen in the painting entitled “Self Portrait” (1944), using trailed watercolors. impressionist style, as well as in the oil painting “Learning Anatomy” (1948). It was in this painting that Affandi began to express his emotions through the objects he painted. He not only demonstrated his mastery of the visual impression of his objects, but his mastery of emotions and aesthetics began to be reflected in his paintings.
Affandi is a figure who does not discriminate between ethnic groups or origins. Affandi is known as an ordinary painter. Affandi is Affandi, he does not philosophize in his paintings, even though he paints beggars, homeless people or himself. Affandi simply describes life itself. The ideas and objects of his paintings are interrelated and he always explores the objects of his paintings before he paints them.
In the 1960s until the end of his life, Affandi applied a technique by directly squeezing paint from the tube onto the canvas. He discovered this technique accidentally, when he was finishing his painting, his brush suddenly broke, so to continue painting, Affandi immediately squeezed the paint from the tube onto the canvas, then used the back of his hand to produce curved lines.
Affandi places his creativity on satisfying emotions and instincts to create beauty that develops in a creation process that takes place spontaneously according to objects and the atmosphere and feelings at that time.
Affandi paints effectively. He completed each painting in a short time, this was an incomparable ability. He paints by squeezing paint directly from the tube onto the canvas. This reflects a mixture of instinct, taste, and awareness of the object.
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