Vanessa Singgih Pranoto

Jeffrey Say

Art Interpretation and Aesthetics

11 November 2010

AFFANDI:

Aesthetic Analysis on “Self-Portrait III” (1975)

Introduction

Affandi is one of the most established painters in

Indonesia’s art scene. He is also known as the father of

Indonesia’s modern painting. With his signature painting

technique, Affandi open the “window” of the world to the

concept of a brand new realism with his state of mind of

expression and intuition. This paper will talk about the

quality of Affandi’s “Self-Portrait III” on aesthetic and

emotion context in comparison with Collingwood’s theory

and other paintings in the same era.

The Emotional or Expressive Qualities Of The Work

Being an artist to Affandi is like a taxi driver. He has to learn how to ‘drive’ well

in order to delight the ‘passenger’. This expressionist painter’s ideology goes on

the same direction of Collingwood’s theory of art as an amusement. On his first

few years of painting, Affandi, a self-taught expressionist painter, exploring his

knowledge of painting by making self-portraits to seek for existence. One of the

well-known works of his is “Self-Portrait III” (1975). Deriving from an

occurrence that happened in Bandung in 1935 that he was banned for entering

an exhibition in Bandung, he keeps wondering what is wrong with his face,

“What’s wrong with my look?”. Nevertheless that curiosity became a turning

point for Affandi to set his firm line of his artistic direction in painting.1 As

written on Ovi Magazine about Collingwood ideology about R.G. Collingwood

1 Jim Supangkat, “Reanalyzing Affandi,” Affandi Volume I 2007.

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Illustration 1“Self-Portrait III” (1975)

AffandiOil on Canvas

Illustration II“Total Eclipse I” (1983). Affandi

Oil on Canvas

theory of arts as Expression and Fantasia, artist, becoming aware that they are in

the grip of an emotion, they give form to it via the work of art they create. 2

“Self-Portrait III” is one of the self-portraits that Affandi made during re-

affirming his artistic attitude until his death. This painting reflected Affandi’s

smiling face assembled with many curve lines and colors. According to Jim

Supangkat on his article about Affandi, the analysis of Affandi’s self-portraits

brought to light why these self-potraits from the “keynote” for this “tune of

expressions” as a whole (2007:64). It explains why Affandi consistently returned

to self-portraits when he felt that he was failing with his painting – it was as if by

doing this, he could fine-tune his emotional tones. This shows how tension

between the social reality, the face, spiritual selfishness, existence, and art

expressions form the basis of Affandi’s work (Ibid.). Therefore, Affandi’s self-

portrait a long the road of his career life can be seen as the essence of his artistic

development.

Achieving the Emotional Qualities

The emotional quality of “Self-Portrait III” can be seen with the line works

and the color that Affandi used. The vigorous curve lines that he made reflected

on emotion state that he feels when he tried to “say” what he saw on the canvas.

Not only in this painting, a lot of Affandi’s painting shown a huge complexion of

emotions as well. His belief of nature force drove him to express the reality into a

phenomenal mind-set. Sun was his depiction of the nature forces that he belief in

on some of his self-portrait, including “Self-Portrait III”.

“I like the sun, so I paint the sun. It is a

symbol of my life. It is like a god.  It should be

burning, and hot like the painting. If I only

painted one sun, it is not hot enough,  so I paint

another; two suns, three suns or four. It

depends on the sense of heat that  I want to

convey.” (Affandi)

2 Emanuel L. Paparella, “R. G. Collingwood's Theory of Art as Expression and Fantasia”, Ovi Magazine. 2010. http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/3838

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Affandi also believe that the best teacher of this belief is also the experience

itself. Owing to the fact that Affandi lived and doing his paintings at Cirebon and

Yogyakarta, Javanese culture took big part of influencing his approach on done

his painting. One of them is wayang kulit or Shadow Puppet. He was enjoying

wayang kulit most of his time. wayang kulit is one of the ancient traditional art

form that can be found in Java, Indonesia. wayang kulit purely inspires his curve

line works on most of his artwork. If we look carefully, wayang kulit rarely use

straight lines.3 By this major influence on his painting style, Affandi manages to

voice the Eastern and Indonesian worldview that strives for stability and balance

between the individual and the universe.4

Tangible Signs of Emotion Quality and How It Affects the Artwork Itself

Art proper is distinguished by a particular and unique emotion, not

possessed by either craft of art as amusement.5 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 (Wright 1994:112). This inventor of the smear and squeeze

technique often utilized lines and vibrant colors to express what he felt about the

object. According to Astri Wright on Soul, Spirit, and Mountain (1994), Affandi

would spend a long time looking for the painting subjects, and then a long time

studying on the object, probing into its being, until he felt he had become part of

it (112). This statement advocates Wu Shuang statement on how Affandi most of

the time uses his impulse and instinct to paint.6 By using the paint tube and his

hand as the brush itself, the emotion that he felt for the object directly

transmitted to the canvas. Collingwood also mentioned that artists explore

carefully the particularity of their emotion, taking pain to understand it as a

particular specific instance it is. In other words, artists are more interested than

most of us in deciphering their emotions. 7

3 “Affandi Speaks”, 2010. http://www.age.jp/~pranoto/bookenglish/007.htm4 Bambang Asrini Widjanarko, “Affandi: The Never–Ending Legend,” 2007, The Magazine of Garuda Indonesia, May. 2010. http://www.affandiartgallery.com/GarudaM.html5 “Arts Theories and Arts Histories” 2010. 6 Wu Shuang, “Affandi Vs. Van Gogh,” 2007, Wu Shuang, 27th May. 2010. http://boonscafe.com/wushuang/?p=647 Emanuel L. Paparella, “R. G. Collingwood's Theory of Art as Expression and Fantasia”, Ovi Magazine. 2010. http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/3838

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The nature or surrounding who once one of his primary object for expression,

changes how Affandi paint his artwork. Different from his previous self-portraits,

which are more compact in composition, on “Self-Portrait III”, Affandi pictured

himself with a lot of spaced line works to create his face and his expression.

Nearing the 1980s, Affandi’s self-portrait gradually becomes increasingly

transparent, in a way that the painting looks as if Affandi is disappearing in his

struggle with the nature (Samichan, 2007:64). It seems that Nature has change

him from existence seeker to one of the man who want to disappear with nature

in the end. The composition of “Self-Portrait III” is less condensed from the

previous works that are more energetic with fully loaded composition and

colours on the canvas. Affandi seldom leave a single space on his canvas. It could

be shown on his self-portrait from 1966. The mixture of vibrant red, dark brown

and green colour filled the entire canvas with strong expression on the

expression of his face. The curly lines are a little bit arranged to depict his self-

expression.

Affandi’s Emotional State

Affandi admitted that he is a kind of person who hates a straight likeness

to reality.8 That explains why he often paints or draws using a bunch of line

works that is inspired by wayang kulit. This also can be shown on self-portraits

that he did, including “Self-Portrait III” (1975). For him, the most important thing

of the drawing is the subject itself. Affandi believe in his intuition. With this

intuition, he sorted out the reality surrounding him to find “aesthetic objects”

which then became the basis for his expressions.9 In a process that certainly he

himself was not aware of, his perceptions in reality entered the realm of

sensitivity. Affandi always wants to know and get into his object of painting and

become one with it. He will loss himself and then there were a feeling as if he will

going to fight against something. Fight against the reality that is what he means.

Along the journey of his artist life, he always came with this undeniably art

works that are out of the box, out of the usual interpretation. His depiction of his

8 “Affandi Speaks”, 2010. http://www.age.jp/~pranoto/bookenglish/007.htm9 Jim Supangkat, “Reanalyzing Affandi,” Affandi Volume I 2007.

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surrounding is highly influenced by wayang kulit. Affandi once mentioned that he

wants to capture the sign that natural force shown in his painting, that is why he

always feel that he have not done nothing great on creating an artwork. He has

not capture anything yet, that is why he feels that he has to learn a lot more.

Conclusion

In my own interpretation, Affandi’s “Self-Portrait III” (1975) has a quite

loose energy on it if comparing to his previous artwork. I feel that he on a

difficult situation but what he tries to always do is smile. By painting, he feels

very happy and there are just only him, God, and the object. Affandi, to me, is

considered as a total expressionist artist rather than modern artist. It is true that

he started the modern movement of painting in Indonesia, but I can feel a lot

more emotions and expressions on his complex way to draw using curve line.

There are some rhythmic inside the lines that he created on his “Self-Portrait”

(1975).

To Conclude, Affandi on his way of finding the true direction of his work

did not perceived the reality as the real one, as a naturalist but his art is beyond

real. Hence, the depiction of reality in his painting find shape without having

been planned before, along with the R.G. Collingwood’s theory about artist and

craft man. An artist does not plan on what he or she want to make, and that is

what Affandi done to expressed his feeling of the object that he paint.

Illustrations Cited

Affandi. Self-Portrait III. 1975. Affandi Art Gallery, Indonesia. Affandi. Vol. 1.

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Jakarta: Bina Lestari Budaya Foundation, 2007. 121. Print.

Affandi. Total Eclipse I. 1983. Affandi Art Gallery, Indonesia. Affandi. Vol. 1.

Jakarta: Bina Lestari Budaya Foundation, 2007. 65. Print.

Works Cited

"Affandi Speaks." Interview. Affandi Speaks. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

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<http://www.age.jp/~pranoto/bookenglish/007.htm>.

Kemp, Gary. "Collingwood's Aesthetics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)."

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collingwood-aesthetics/#ArtAmu>.

Paparella, Emanuel L. "Ovi Magazine : R.G. Collingwood's Theory of Art as

Expression and Fantasia by Emanuel L. Paparella." Ovi Magazine. 29 Dec.

2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

Shuang, Wu. "Wu Shuang » Affandi vs. Van Gogh." | Art in Singapore Reviewed.

Wu Shuang, 28 May 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

<http://boonscafe.com/wushuang/?p=64>.

Supangkat, Jim, and Sardjana Sumichan. Affandi. Vol. 1. Jakarta: Bina Lestari

Budaya Foundation, 2007. Print.

Widjanarko, Bambang Asrini.

"The Magazine Of Garuda Indonesia." Affandi ArtGallery ::: Exclusive

Dealer of Affandi's Graphic Art. Affandi Art Gallery, 2007. Web. 11 Nov.

2010. <http://www.affandiartgallery.com/GarudaM.html>.

Wright, Astri. Soul, Spirit, and Mountain: Preoccupations of Contemporary

Indonesian Painters. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.

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