Self portrait in Kusamba Beach 1983
Object details
- Accession No.
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1994.306
- Date Created
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1983
- Department
- Dimensions A
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130 x 149.5cm
- Media Category
- Secondary Media Category
- Medium
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Oilon canvas
- Place Created
- Credit Line
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Purchased 1994 with funds from the International Exhibitions Program. Celebrating the Queensland Art Gallery's Centenary 1895-1995
One of Indonesia’s most celebrated modern artists, Affandi eschewed the conventional figurative painting style that dominated the Sukarno era (1945–65) in favour of a more expressionist approach, squeezing colour directly from a tube and smearing it with his finger. While he rejected traditional representation because it denied him spontaneity, he remained committed to depicting the everyday lives of ordinary Indonesians. Self-portraiture remained a constant in Affandi’s work from the 1940s onwards and his affinities with Rembrandt are widely noted.
This painting is a fine example of the artist's late technique, with a swirling web of pure pigment applied to the canvas and hand-worked to convey not just a personal likeness but also an intense evocation of mood. The head, surrounded by flickering paint and images of demons and a flaring horse, suggests a mind torn by inner torment, with hints of broader unrest.
Stories and essays featuring this object
ARTLINES: 'Enduring ideas and innovators of Asian art: A Collection focus'
Drawn from the Collection’s historical, modern and contemporary Asian holdings, a new display in QAG’s Gallery 6 [2015] represents some of the key ideas in the art history of Asia, writes Tarun…
Read ARTLINES: 'Enduring ideas and innovators of Asian art: A Collection focus' in fullCopyright and sharing information
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