{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":3517,"auction_id":6,"set_id":8,"lot_number":"118","artist":"Affandi (1907 - 1990)","title":"Blooming Sunflowers","starting_price":5000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1980 (upper left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"45\" x 55\" (114 cm x 140 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, Indonesia","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Affandi is Indonesia’s most cherished modernist. He is the epitome of Southeast Asian Expressionism in the mid-20th century. He was born in 1907 in Cirebon, West Java. His father, R. Koesoema, a surveyor at a local sugar factory, wanted him to be a doctor. But even at an early age, Affandi began showing his passion for the arts in the most not uncommon way for a child—drawing.<br /><br />Affandi first worked as a teacher, housepainter, ticket collector at a local movie theater, and painter of movie ads in the mid-1930s. He would eventually pursue painting as a profession, emerging as a self-taught artist with no prior formal art schooling; he learned from reading copies of Studio, a London-based art magazine, and seeing reproductions of paintings by numerous European masters.<br /><br />Affandi lived at the time of Indonesian art’s transition from the traditionalist Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies), which dominated during the first decades of the 20th century, to the Impressionist/Expressionist-influenced artists who rejected the romanticism of the Mooie Indie and espoused a modernist, more realistic, and expressive depiction of their country that reflects its realities and everyday activities. This nationalist, avant-garde movement, which sprang in the aftermath of Indonesian independence from the Dutch, was led by Sindudarsono Sudjojono, the Father of Indonesian Modern Art, and Affandi (he was active in the Indonesian Revolution, painting works that encouraged his countrymen to take up arms against the Dutch).<br /><br />Affandi’s earliest works are characterized by their photographic realism until he transitioned to an expressionist language with imprints of impressionism in the 1950s. This transition was engendered by Affandi joining the Kelompok Lima Bandung (The Bandung Group of Five), composed of him (the group’s chairman), Hendra Gunawan, Barli Sasmitawinata, Sudarso, and Wahdi Sumanta. They spurred the development of modernism in Indonesia and are thus highly regarded as the “Five Maestros of Modern Indonesian Art.”<br /><br />This quintessential 1980 work, Blooming Sunflowers, represents Affandi’s unorthodox technique from the 1950s until his death in 1990: painting directly from the tube. Affandi discovered this technique one day while completing a painting; his brush suddenly broke in two. Worrying about interrupting the splurge of his creative juices, Affandi had to improvise by squeezing the paint from the tube directly into the canvas, then using the back of his hand to produce the curvy lines.<br /><br />In the TIME magazine issue dated January 12, 1953, Affandi’s painting technique is described as follows: “Affandi never learned to use a palette, dislikes brushes. Instead, he squeezes paint onto his thumb, then smears it around the canvas. He will often spend a week studying a subject, but the actual painting seldom takes longer than 90 furious minutes. ‘After about an hour,’ he says, ‘I usually feel my emotions declining. It’s better to stop then. The painting is finished.’”<br /><br />Blooming Sunflowers depicts a field of sunflowers clustered together so closely as if in an act of solidarity and harmony, evoking Indonesia’s identity as a collectivist society. The sun, a recurring motif in Affandi’s art, with its visible spikes of radiance that seemingly penetrate the flowers, symbolize its vital role in sustaining and nourishing life. The composition possesses the compelling intensity of dynamic strokes that capture the artist’s creative instincts, authentic rawness, and free-flowing radiant energy. By employing non-naturalistic colors, an expressionist attribute, Affandi effectively engenders and then exalts the gush of unbridled emotions.<br /><br />The French painter and art critic Jean Couteau, as cited by the book Affandi (Volume II), notes that “Affandi has a unique approach to painting flowers. He always draws them on the spot where they are growing rather than in a vase. The yellow of the sunflowers looks vibrant... Affandi painted his love for yellow and the sunflower as well, which reminds him of the sun, the source of human life.”<br /><br />Affandi created over 2,000 paintings in his lifetime, including cement and clay sculptures. He was a well- traveled artist who had the opportunity to represent his country in Sao Paulo (1952, 1956), Venice (1956), and Sydney Biennales (1973). In his prime, Affandi mounted exhibitions in major European, North American, and Asian cities. In 1957, the US government awarded him a scholarship to study art education. He was eventually appointed a visiting professor at the Ohio State University’s Art Department in 1962. Affandi was a 1974 recipient of an honorary doctorate from the National University of Singapore, one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions.<br /><br />Upon his death in 1990, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., mounted a posthumous exhibition in honor of his profound contributions to Indonesian modern art. Affandi’s remains lie in state at his museum complex in Yogyakarta, as he wished that his beloved family and adored works may always surround him. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":6000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":6000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":7008000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":3753,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/118.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":3758,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/118a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":117,"next":119,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}