Affandi, Kusuma

Born 1910 in Cirebon, Java. Indonesian painter and graphic artist.

Affandi, a self-taught man, founded the society of National Artists (1947) and the Indonesian Artists’ Union (1952). Affandi’s paintings of the 1940’s and 1950’s (Food of the People, Ministry of Education, Jakarta; Blind Father With Boy, 1944, and People’s Militias at Tactical Exercises, 1946, both at the palace in Bogor) were notable for their elevated romantic style, stormy emotionalism, and deep love for the common people. In the 1960’s he felt the influence of modernism.