Kuil Jepang (A Temple in Japan)

Completed during the time Affandi was invited by Raka Sumichan, one of his closest collectors, to the World's Fair, Osaka 1970, Kuil Jepang (Lot 3319) is an exemplary work in the painter's oeuvre where he drops his previous resistance to the use of straight lines in his paintings. Influenced by the bright lights and highly urbanised environment of a modern Japan at the fair, Affandi was placed miles away from the rural agrarian Indonesia he knew so well. Though he still painted a traditional subject, Affandi's Japanese temple marks the artist's interaction, albeit brief, with a new form of expressionism in which Affandi's feelings about his subject and environment could not be expressed solely through the language of his paintwork. Having been introduced to acrylic paint, Affandi's painting during the year in Osaka, in particular, was marked by his experimentation with the use of short straight lines, seen in the rendering of the present lot, Kuil Jepang.
Affandi successfully captures the impression of a populated place of worship with devotees bustling in and out of the temple as it looms largely and squarely within the pictorial space. The imposing scale and grandeur of the sweeping roof and gables is succinctly captured in the short, terse and precise application of paint. The striking red faade of the temple is meticulously expressed by Affandi's carefully applied criss-crossing paintwork. No matter where Affandi went or what he painted, the sense of the artist's connection with his subject comes through strongly and this painting of a Japanese temple remains highly characteristic of the artist.