Styles: Expressionism
Subjects: Figures, Animals, Self-Portraits, Indonesian Genre

The painter Affandi has been called a "towering figure in the history of Indonesian modern art." Affandi's paintings often display his emotional responses to the lives of a people struggling to move out of poverty towards dignity. His style is expressionism, and his subjects include figures, animals, self portraits and Indonesian Genre.

Affandi was born in Cierbon, West Java in 1907, the son of a surveyor at a local sugar factory. After finishing his secondary education he found himself increasingly interested in painting, and in his mid-twenties he emerged as a self-taught artist. During his early years he taught school, collected tickets at...