affandi maestro from yogyakarta

Affandi is one of Indonesia’s most well known painters. He was one of the founding members of PERSAGI, an association of Indonesian artists. He also founded two arts organization in the late 1940’s: “Community Artists” and “People’s Artists.” In the 1950’s he traveled across India on a grant from the Indian government. He held a number of one-man exhibitions there, and in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, where he continued his travels. Although he was self-taught, upon his return to Indonesia in 1955 he began to teach painting at the Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta.
Affandi later traveled to Honolulu to participate in the first East-West Centre Artist-in-Residence program. He has received awards for his work, including an Indonesian Art Award from the Ministry of Education and Culture in 1969 and an Indonesian Government Gold Medal in 1978.







Affandi (1907-1990; Cirebon, West Java) was a self-taught artist. From 1951-1956 he travelled and held exhibition throughout India, the United Kingdom, Holland Belgium, France, and Italy, later he taught painting sculpture at the Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia (ASRI, Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts) in Yogyakarta, Central Java.

In 1973 The Museum Affandi was established on the grounds of his residence in Yogyakarta. Affandi's highly expressionistic and dynamic works have very thick applications of paint squeezed directly from the tube with color fields smeared by hand.


Awards Affandi received : Piagam Anugerah Seni (Indonesia, 1969), honorary doctorate (University of Singapore, 1974), Dag Hammarskjoeld, International Peace Prize (Florence, Italy, 1997), Bintang Jasa Utama (Indonesia, 1978). Collection: East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii). Exhibitions: Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1966), East-West Center (Honolulu, 1988), Festival of Indonesia (U.S.A., 1990-1992), Gate Foundation (Amsterdam, Holland , 1993), Singapore Art Museum (1994), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, 1996) Indonesia-Japan Friendship festival (Morioka, Tokyo, 1997), ASEAN Masterworks (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1997-1998).

the art of Affandi

Of the various art forms popular throughout Indonesia, and particularly in Bali, painting is the one most influenced by both western ideas and demand. Yet until the start of this century, the portrayal of Hindu epics was the dominating form.

Generally, artists were not afforded room for personal expression, as their designs followed strict aesthetic and religions guidelines. However, this trend began to change at the beginning of the 20th century with the arrival of European painters, as artists formed unique and hybridized styles.

The use of Asian symbols in the works of, amongst others, Paul Gauguin, Toulouse Lautrec and Camille Pissaro, created interest and fascination with Asian-influenced art.
European painters traveled to Bali to experience the culture first-hand, and some never returned.

Ubud’s international fame as Bali’s preeminent city for art can be traced and accredited to the arrival of German painter Walter Spies, and Dutch painter Rudolf Bonnet.
Together, with Indonesian artist Gede Agung Sukawati, the last “king” of Ubud, they established the Pitamaha Group. This institution was formed to legitimize and institutionalize Indonesian art while encouraging Balinese artists to both grow and diverge from traditional painting. The development of diverse and individualized styles can be seen in works of the varied artists displayed on this site.

garuda, the mythological bird of hindu folklore

a bridge in new york

cart drawn horses

wooden boat and fisherman

"affandi painted his master piece" painted by an artist depicting the maestro at work, by squeezing directly from the tube and smeared it with his hand over the canvas.

Affandi potrait, in his early career Affandi paint in realism until he found his own style of expressionism. these only a few of Affandi paintings, I hope you can share with us more of Affandi works available on the net, if you know this information, please   submitting the link in the comment area, it would be very helpful for others to find Affandi works. The maestro is gone leaving legacy lots of his paintings in collectors hand from New York to Singapore.