Kartika Affandi-Köberl, born in 1934 in Java, is the daughter of Affandi (who, along with Sudjojono and Hendra, is considered the father of modern Indonesian painting) and of Maryati, who was also an artist.1 Kartika is one of few contemporary Indonesian artists who grew up with paint, canvas and modern art as central parts of their lives, not merely as a fashionable "modern" appendage in an emerging, urban middle-class lifestyle.2 Like Affandi (1907?-90), Kartika never received formal art instruction.3 From the age of seven, she was instructed by Affandi in how to paint with fingers and tubes directly on the canvas. Any mixing of colours is done on her hands and wrists. Kartika has no permanent studio; like Affandi, she prefers to paint outside in the village environment where she interacts directly with her subjects and on-lookers. This contrasts with most contemporary Indonesian painters, who work in their studios from mind-images, memory, photographs or sketches.