New York's Times Square and San Francisco's Bay Bridge appear very different through the eyes of Indonesian expressionist Affandi (1907-1990). Popular at auctions in recent years, his distinctive style is the result of smearing paint with his hands, while squeezing huge tubes of colour onto the canvas and leaving the thick lines to dry.
As an expressionist, Affandi was primarily concerned with the interpretation rather than realistic representation of his subjects, and his paintings are valued for their emotional bursts of colour and bold strokes. Regular subjects are cockfights, beggars, Balinese dancers, wild boars and pot-bellied pigs.
Affandi travelled and painted widely, especially in Europe in the 1950s and 60s. In 1958, he was commissioned by an American collector to paint scenes in the US and portraits of Americans who had championed the cause of Indonesian independence such as newspaper columnist Drew Pearson, judge Thurman Arnold and banker Leo Bernstein.
The collection is part of the Christie's Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art sale.
'Affandi's works aren't difficult to find, but it's hard to find good and fresh ones,' Keong Ruoh Ling, head of the Southeast Asian pictures department at Christie's. 'This is what makes this collection very special.'
Other rare paintings to look out for are Pura Kembarn, Sanur by Indonesian artist S. Sudjojono (1914-1986), a peaceful Balinese temple scene, and another private collection of works by Lee Man Fong (1913-1988).