This essay focuses on Affandi's relationship to Bali. The argument will develop along two parallel golden threads : The first one, dealing with Affandi's aesthetics, will try to show that Bali played a determining role in the artist's transformation from an inward-oriented, realism-inspired artist, into the expressionist exponent of humanity and cosmic forces we know today.

The second, dealing with the socio-cultural meaning of the artist's works, will attempt to depict why and how, both in his life and works, Affandi was an exponent of the idea of a trans-ethnic, humanistic national Indonesian identity.

Summing up the role of Bali in Affandi's works, I suggest that the island became the site of a pilgrimage in the search for the self (1939-1941) and later was a determining factor in the creative catharsis that ensued (1942-1950).

Finally, Bali was the background against which Affandi affirmed and rejuvenated much of his social and spiritual symbolism.

From Catalog Singapore Art Museum

By.Jean Couteau