Affandi's art is summed up in his own words:

"One day an art collector looked in my studio and said he couldn't select any of my paintings because the paintings he saw hurt his feelings. He asked me why I didn't make paintings of beautiful objects: landscapes, girls, and so forth. I too like beautiful things, but they do not necessary provide inspiration for my work. My subjects are expressive rather than beautiful. I paint suffering – an old woman, a beggar, a black mountain ... My great wish is that people learn a little from my work. I do know the danger of doing paintings with this in mind. I have no intention of becoming a social propagandist, and I must be careful. One day, in India, visiting a village with my Daughter Kartika, I saw a dead body covered by a mattress. Kartika said, "That's a good subject for you." I felt very touched by what we had seen, but I told her I would not paint it. My next painting was of a flower, in reality very fresh, but which on my canvas lacked all life".

Suhardjono, or Djon, Affandi's assistant, who was present at the creation of every Affandi painting from 1963 until the artist's death in 1990, knows the truth about the man and his art.

A memoir of life with a great artist from the perspective of a simple man thrust by circumstance into the world of international art, Witnessing Affandi is the final victory of truth regarding Affandi’s body of work.

 

Thomas Wulffen completed his degree in Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Konstanz. He has been working as an art reviewer for the Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Since the late 80’s, he has been working as a curator, and writing critics for the journals such as Kunstforum International, Artscribe, Flash Art, Noema, and Pan. In April 2008, he was elected President of AICA Germany. Wulffen lives and works in Berlin. Dorothea Rose Strauss studied Art History, Theater, Film and Television Studies as well as Classical Archeology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Subsequently, she worked as a curator at the Museum of Non-Objective Art in Otterndorf until 1991. Worked as the director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen between 1996 and 2001, Strauss received the Swiss Federal Curator Award from the Federal Office of Culture in Bern in 2000. In 2005, Strauss became the director of Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hermann and Margrit Rupf Foundation in Stallikon. She is editor and author of numerous articles on contemporary art.