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拍品专文
"I am the luckiest man in the world because when I paint, I am completely happy. When I paint, the only things that exist are God, the subject, and myself" – Affandi
Duck Hunter is a full-figure portrait of a game hunter, immortalized by Affandi in the midst of his daily routine at a point of triumph after successfully capturing game. The Duck Hunter depicts one of Affandi’s favorite themes, local life and hunting and fishing imagery. He enjoyed painting the local laboring man and his humble habits, people whom he believed were typical to the Southeast Asian way of life. Here, we also see Affandi’s attempt to convey the attitude and personality of the hunter at work, emphasizing his strong posture and determined stride. It is evident that the painter was truly fascinated by the relationship of art and life, and the spiritual qualities of material world. We ultimately see an interaction between man and nature in this piece, whereby man is dependent on the food that nature provides.
Depictions of laboring men in action and in their environment were also common in European painting throughout 19th and early 20th century. However, where artists like Edvard Munch painted such scenes to stress unescapable hardship and gloomy poverty, Affandi glorifies the beauty of effort and his paintings convey a sense of hope of ascension from poverty to dignity.
Affandi was obsessed with the inner essence and qualities of the subjects around him, and craved to translate also his own emotions into the paintwork. Moreover, the painting particularly demonstrates the effectiveness of his fluid and spontaneous method of painting, while at the same time the composition of the single figure remains coherent and powerful. In the midst of forward action, the oversized and dominant figure attracts full light on his muscular and fresh body. Marcel Duchamp had explored ways of depicting continuous movement in through cubism. His painting Descending Nude had shocked the public when it was first showed at the Armory Show in New York, as minimal and simple geometrical yellow forms would revolutionize our conception of movement in painting. Here, Affandi successfully translates immediate motion through thick and swirling bright impastos on the body, in sharp contrast with a fuzzier and more subdued dark background.
The artist’s connection with his work is particularly prevalent in this painting, where one can sense his dynamic yet controlled hand gestures directly applied to the canvas through his fingers. The Gutai movement would much later on explore and analyze the role of the artist’s intervention on his art. The performance of making art would become part of the work itself, and Kazuo Shiraga in particular reflected on the artist’s immediate action on painting, by getting rid of the brush and painting directly with his feet. Affandi’s fingers are a solid vector for his strong and deep emotions for humanity, and although his performance is a personal one, it is intimately imbedded in this painting.
Affandi is credited with introducing Indonesian art to the global Modernism art movement, due to his plethora of highly expressionistic and semi-abstract works. This outstanding artist never received formal art training, and instead was motivated solely by his passion for art and his own creative diligence. He remained a modest artist who has since won countless recognitions, awards and titles for his artistic achievements.
It is an honour therefore to present these two early and excellent Affandi lots from Brazil: his paintings are seldom found so far abroad and they are an indicator of the extent of interest that Affandi paintings attract around the world today.
Duck Hunter is a full-figure portrait of a game hunter, immortalized by Affandi in the midst of his daily routine at a point of triumph after successfully capturing game. The Duck Hunter depicts one of Affandi’s favorite themes, local life and hunting and fishing imagery. He enjoyed painting the local laboring man and his humble habits, people whom he believed were typical to the Southeast Asian way of life. Here, we also see Affandi’s attempt to convey the attitude and personality of the hunter at work, emphasizing his strong posture and determined stride. It is evident that the painter was truly fascinated by the relationship of art and life, and the spiritual qualities of material world. We ultimately see an interaction between man and nature in this piece, whereby man is dependent on the food that nature provides.
Depictions of laboring men in action and in their environment were also common in European painting throughout 19th and early 20th century. However, where artists like Edvard Munch painted such scenes to stress unescapable hardship and gloomy poverty, Affandi glorifies the beauty of effort and his paintings convey a sense of hope of ascension from poverty to dignity.
Affandi was obsessed with the inner essence and qualities of the subjects around him, and craved to translate also his own emotions into the paintwork. Moreover, the painting particularly demonstrates the effectiveness of his fluid and spontaneous method of painting, while at the same time the composition of the single figure remains coherent and powerful. In the midst of forward action, the oversized and dominant figure attracts full light on his muscular and fresh body. Marcel Duchamp had explored ways of depicting continuous movement in through cubism. His painting Descending Nude had shocked the public when it was first showed at the Armory Show in New York, as minimal and simple geometrical yellow forms would revolutionize our conception of movement in painting. Here, Affandi successfully translates immediate motion through thick and swirling bright impastos on the body, in sharp contrast with a fuzzier and more subdued dark background.
The artist’s connection with his work is particularly prevalent in this painting, where one can sense his dynamic yet controlled hand gestures directly applied to the canvas through his fingers. The Gutai movement would much later on explore and analyze the role of the artist’s intervention on his art. The performance of making art would become part of the work itself, and Kazuo Shiraga in particular reflected on the artist’s immediate action on painting, by getting rid of the brush and painting directly with his feet. Affandi’s fingers are a solid vector for his strong and deep emotions for humanity, and although his performance is a personal one, it is intimately imbedded in this painting.
Affandi is credited with introducing Indonesian art to the global Modernism art movement, due to his plethora of highly expressionistic and semi-abstract works. This outstanding artist never received formal art training, and instead was motivated solely by his passion for art and his own creative diligence. He remained a modest artist who has since won countless recognitions, awards and titles for his artistic achievements.
It is an honour therefore to present these two early and excellent Affandi lots from Brazil: his paintings are seldom found so far abroad and they are an indicator of the extent of interest that Affandi paintings attract around the world today.