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Lot Essay
"Affandi’s style has been called expressionistic but to him his works were more true to the subject than any degree of photorealism could have been – an honesty which had more to do with emotional experience rather than with intellectual analysis." - Astri Wright, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Victoria
In Men with Fighting Roosters we see Affandi’s signature style ignite the drama and mood of the scene, translating it from a real life outdoor observation to one on canvas. The rooster is an emblematic and frequent subject across Affandi’s oeuvre, perhaps due to the fact that cock fighting was a popular recreational activity in many Southeast Asian communities, and one that is associated with pride and masculinity. The array of emotions present in such scenes therefore gave Affandi countless opportunities to display his unique artistic interpretations. Notorious for applying paint straight from the tube onto the canvas, Affandi through this method is able to make spontaneous and curvilinear markings in this piece to convey the clashing movements of the man and the rooster. More still, he often used his bare fingers, hands, palms and even wrists to further emphasize the swirling patterns, which again increases the effect of his work on the viewer.
His style is fiercely expressionistic and his colour palette is non-naturalistic; suggesting that it is emotions and feelings that dominate the focus of this piece, rather than the accurate representation of it. Affandi himself was a man of strong emotion and personality: it is noted that he often stayed close to the ground while painting, and would complete an entire artwork at once, to then lay back on the ground out of sheer exhaustion afterwards.
Men with Fighting Roosters is infused with spontaneity and depth. There is a sense of rapidity in the artist’s movements, yet the light is strategically localized on focused features of the painting. The center of the composition is intentionally left empty of both colour and surface impasto to help the viewer transfer his attention to the powerful white rooster at the top of the painting. Undulated strikes of gold highlight a sense of movement of the human figures; while one man’s strong arms maintain the dominant rooster in place, the other tries to catch the other rooster disappearing into darkness.
Affandi’s strong references to Impressionist movements are particularly visible in this painting by his rendition of light and movement through dynamic strokes, bold and unrealistic colours and thick impasto differentiating each layer of colour as they are applied on the canvas. Beyond technique, the Impressionists also focused on depicting common scenes of daily life at fleeting moments, where the subject is not posing. Chaim Soutine and Emil Nolde’s tormented modes of expression transpire mainly through their use of bold colours and thick impastos to highlight specific characteristics of their subjects.
In Men with Fighting Roosters, while there is a sense of immediacy and physicality due to highly expressive strokes applied from the artist’s hand directly onto the canvas, the painting also mirrors the artist’s unique vision of his own culture. From a common scene in Indonesia, he is able to convey character and authenticity, not only of the figures, but also of the animals, through his own prism. One gains new awareness of one’s cultural background and language when exposed to foreign environments, Affandi’s experience is no exception and his newly found vision of Indonesia after his travels transpires in this painting, where the mundane becomes a story worth sharing with the rest of the world. The collector rightfully recognized the exceptional in this painting with a sensitivity going beyond cultural borders.
In Men with Fighting Roosters we see Affandi’s signature style ignite the drama and mood of the scene, translating it from a real life outdoor observation to one on canvas. The rooster is an emblematic and frequent subject across Affandi’s oeuvre, perhaps due to the fact that cock fighting was a popular recreational activity in many Southeast Asian communities, and one that is associated with pride and masculinity. The array of emotions present in such scenes therefore gave Affandi countless opportunities to display his unique artistic interpretations. Notorious for applying paint straight from the tube onto the canvas, Affandi through this method is able to make spontaneous and curvilinear markings in this piece to convey the clashing movements of the man and the rooster. More still, he often used his bare fingers, hands, palms and even wrists to further emphasize the swirling patterns, which again increases the effect of his work on the viewer.
His style is fiercely expressionistic and his colour palette is non-naturalistic; suggesting that it is emotions and feelings that dominate the focus of this piece, rather than the accurate representation of it. Affandi himself was a man of strong emotion and personality: it is noted that he often stayed close to the ground while painting, and would complete an entire artwork at once, to then lay back on the ground out of sheer exhaustion afterwards.
Men with Fighting Roosters is infused with spontaneity and depth. There is a sense of rapidity in the artist’s movements, yet the light is strategically localized on focused features of the painting. The center of the composition is intentionally left empty of both colour and surface impasto to help the viewer transfer his attention to the powerful white rooster at the top of the painting. Undulated strikes of gold highlight a sense of movement of the human figures; while one man’s strong arms maintain the dominant rooster in place, the other tries to catch the other rooster disappearing into darkness.
Affandi’s strong references to Impressionist movements are particularly visible in this painting by his rendition of light and movement through dynamic strokes, bold and unrealistic colours and thick impasto differentiating each layer of colour as they are applied on the canvas. Beyond technique, the Impressionists also focused on depicting common scenes of daily life at fleeting moments, where the subject is not posing. Chaim Soutine and Emil Nolde’s tormented modes of expression transpire mainly through their use of bold colours and thick impastos to highlight specific characteristics of their subjects.
In Men with Fighting Roosters, while there is a sense of immediacy and physicality due to highly expressive strokes applied from the artist’s hand directly onto the canvas, the painting also mirrors the artist’s unique vision of his own culture. From a common scene in Indonesia, he is able to convey character and authenticity, not only of the figures, but also of the animals, through his own prism. One gains new awareness of one’s cultural background and language when exposed to foreign environments, Affandi’s experience is no exception and his newly found vision of Indonesia after his travels transpires in this painting, where the mundane becomes a story worth sharing with the rest of the world. The collector rightfully recognized the exceptional in this painting with a sensitivity going beyond cultural borders.