Jumaldi Alfi

Jumaldi Alfi

Footnote #4 (Blackboard painting), 2012, acrylic and oil bar on canvas

Renewal/Verjungung Series 2-B, 2009, acrylic on canvas

Jumaldi Alfi surprisingly removes his art from socio-political themes in favor of formal elements. He identifies as an Indonesian artist. His background as a poet is evident in his work (through use of text and subject matter). His work is about naivity and minimalism.

Formally, he uses color, line, texture, and meaningless doodles in his compositions. Text is present in nearly all the ones I've seen and sometimes is even the sole subject. Skulls are a very common theme in his work bringing to mind death and decay.

chalkboard paintings reminiscent of Cy Twombly.

Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly

Red Painting, 1961, oil, crayon, and pencil on canvas

Untitled, 1968, house paint and crayon on canvas

Cy Twombly evaded the dominant styles of the time: Pop, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism in favor of his large-scale, calligraphic, graffiti-style paintings.

He works in mixed media: sprayed graffiti-like paint on solid fields of gray, white, or tan. They appear to have been scribbled by a child.

His influences of each individual work are suggested in the titles. He sites the lines and smudges as the subjects of the paintings. He paints with cultural memory and sometimes evokes landscapes through use of color.

During the 1960s, his exhibitions were negatively received; people said their kid could paint that. His later works have been categorized into Romantic Symbolism.