Affandi Speaks- Page Eight

 
 THE ARTIST SELLING HIS
 WORK:

 =================
 CHRIS: Should an artist keep pictures
 for their own museum? Should you sell
 paintings that you like? 
 AFFANDI: Sometimes I have sold paintings
 which I like. Well, at the time I received the
 money, it was all right.
 I gave the money to my wife and she
 bought food, but then the food lasted only
 a few days. After that, I looked at the space
 where the painting had hung,
 looked at the empty space and reflected on
 the painting that had gone.

 Sometimes I like to paint the subject again,
 to fill the now empty wall. I feel the desire
 to paint it again because I get confused,
 and feel as if I had never painted the sold
 picture- that it was a dream it was ever
 painted. 

 CHRIS: If you feel very close to a picture,
 can you say "not for sale" or increase
 the price?
 AFFANDI: Yes I suppose. My thinking is
 this: if the doctor cures me and I give him
 a painting in thanks, the issue is not the
 worth of the painting, but the worth of
 my life. For me, the painting might have
 been worth a million dollars, only because
 for me, my life is worth more than
 a million dollars, and I would like to live
 longer.
 



Pria Bali Dengan Pakaian Adat,
(Balinese Man in Traditional Clothes)
 1973,
 Oil on canvas

He’s a collector, shown here
with his painting
collection in the background.

When I was a young artist, I learnt to do batik painting in school. While practicing batik paintings, I sold them for a cheap price.
For handicrafts, there are no sensational prices. Many people want to pay the price of your painting.
There is no price printed in your head. It is invented, beginning from zero to unlimited. That's true.
 

SUBJECT- MATTERS OF NUDES AND SUFFERING:

============================================

CHRIS: How did this nude painting happen?
AFFANDI: This nude, I will never exhibit. I made it only for myself.
It happened like this; when I was in Bangkok, Thailand, I saw American soldiers who
were fighting in the Korean War. Once a week, when we were free, we went to the cinema.
I saw an American Negro who was with two Thai girls coming into the cinema. I wondered
what it must be like and if he was sleeping with one of them; one small girl with one giant black-man!
From that idea, I got this picture; it might be hard on the black man or the girl, but for me,
I had to express my feelings.  

CHRIS: Some paintings have a moral theme, one you've called ‘The Suffering Bamboo’.
AFFANDI: Yes, and also ‘The Suffering Rice-Field’. A few weeks ago, I was painting some suffering bamboo.
We have had long periods here, with little rain. It was very hot, and water was scarce.
So when I was looking for a subject, I saw in the village, a bamboo tree. I was touched.
It was so dry that there were no leaves; not even a single leaf. It was very bare, only a
bamboo trunk which was no longer green. I was touched with the perceived suffering of the bamboo.

ART AND RELIGION:

=================

CHRIS: Do you think that the art-calling is religious?
AFFANDI: If you think about it, art that is related to religion is mostly traditional.
This does not mean it is bad. Borobodur's art, for example, was made by many artists.
It is a collective work of art. Nowadays, you will hardly ever find such collective art beauty.
However, modern art has developed not as a religious, but as an individual art. 

 
 CHRIS: How about the effect of
 religion later in life?
 As time passed and I got older, I began
 to think more and more about religion.
 Recently, about three years ago (1979),
 I got the idea of becoming a haji.
 Before I went to Mecca, I had to get
 an entry permit, so I went to the
 Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta and
 met the Ambassador. I said, “Now I am
 old I would like to learn the religion,
 as I don't know how many years I
 have got left.”
 The Ambassador said to me, “Affandi,
 you are a religious man, but not of an
 orthodox kind. In my view, religion
 doesn't have to be the choice of Islam
 or Christianity or Hinduism. If you do
 things which are uplifting spiritually,
 then already you are religious.
 How you treat your fellow man all
 depends on you.”

 Of course, from the beginning until
 today, I have always tried to do my best;
 to only do what is good. It was
 unbelievable that after entering
 Mecca I felt strong, so young and able
 to stand such a long trip, including
 walking around the Kaabah seven
 times; feelings in my life were renewed.
 



 Tiga Expresi Affandi,
(Three Expressions of Affandi) 1979,
Oil on canvas

Showing parts of my life in colours;
yellow when I’m happy,
green when I’m sad and red when I’m angry.

 I tried to concentrate on being with God. If I thought about God, I found my thoughts
 would stray to art. I thought about the wonderful objects in God's world that are worth
 painting.
 It is common that when I think of God, that I also think of art. I think this is one of my
 failures and makes me not a good Haji. I did my best to concentrate on God, but I couldn't.
 I am too long in art, from 1936 to today, some fifty years. I am too long in the art to
 become purely religious only for a just few days! So I was very disappointed with
 my lack of concentration. If I had been religious with art in the beginning, it would have
 been different.

 CHRIS: How do you feel about art as some sort of religious experience
 for the soul and mind? Or is it only for the eyes?
 AFFANDI: For me actually, paintings are only for my heart where my feelings are, of course.

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