I found one story about one of the oldest Indonesian printmaking art/poster which I posted before. The poster in black/white was made by Affandi, but the body copy made by Chairil Anwar. Here I translate quotation from Sjuman Djaya book titled Aku (I Am). For Indonesian young generation, this book well-known because in the box-office Indonesian Movie Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (What’s The Matter With Love) the role playing actress Dian Sastrowardoyo has brought and read this book in many scenes.
Chairil come back to studio. His appearance without clothe, has made Dien and other female artist shy. But Chairil continuing his action and stand up in front of Affandi’s poster that showed a man picture raise his hand and scream, Chairil said:
“Ha, look, it must be like this the word we use on it!”
Chairil spraying paint under that wet poster wrote: “Boeng, Ajo Boeng!” (“Man, Come on Man!”). After put his writing, he look at the other artist and said:
“Boeng, Ajo Boeng! How, is it great, isn’t it?”
Without waiting for reply, he was walking away to the front side. But everyone present shaking their head as their way to show their agreement with Chairil contribution into that freedom poster.
For you who don’t know who is Affandi and Chairil Anwar, I think I will write about them later. I will put them on inspirational people category in this blog.
Quotation source: Sjuman Djaya. 2003. Aku: berdasarkan perjalanan hidup dan karya penyair Chairil Anwar. Jakarta: Metafor. p. 63-64. Pointer 70.
