Balinese art is art of
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
-
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
nese origin that grew from the work of artisans of the
Majapahit Kingdom
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was based on the island of Java (in modern-day Indonesia) ...
, with their expansion to
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
in the late 14th century. From the sixteenth until the twentieth centuries, the village of
Kamasan
Kamasan is a village on Bali, Indonesia. It is situated just to the north of Gelgel, in the Klungkung regency. Kamasan has a cultural importance on a Bali-wide level. The various 'traditional' styles of painting on modern Bali are derived from the ...
,
Klungkung
Klungkung Regency is the smallest regency (''kabupaten'') on Bali, Indonesia. It has an area of 315 km2 and had a population at the 2010 Census of 170,543 which increased to 206,925 at the Census of 2020. The administrative centre for the reg ...
(East Bali), was the centre of classical Balinese art. During the first part of the twentieth century, new varieties of Balinese art developed. Since the late twentieth century,
Ubud
Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, it has developed a large tourism industry. ...
and its neighboring villages established a reputation as the center of Balinese art.
Ubud and
Batuan are known for their paintings,
Mas
Mas, Más or MAS may refer to:
Film and TV
* Más y Menos, fictional superhero characters, from the Teen Titans animated television series
* Más (Breaking Bad), "Más" (''Breaking Bad''), a season three episode of ''Breaking Bad''
Songs
* Más ( ...
for their woodcarvings, Celuk for gold and silver smiths, and Batubulan for their stone carvings. Covarrubias
describes Balinese art as, "... a highly developed, although informal Baroque folk art that combines the peasant liveliness with the refinement of classicism of Hinduistic Java, but free of the conservative prejudice and with a new vitality fired by the exuberance of the demonic spirit of the tropical primitive". Eiseman correctly pointed out that Balinese art is actually carved, painted, woven, and prepared into objects intended for everyday use rather than as ''object d 'art.''
Balinese paintings are notable for their highly vigorous yet refined, intricate art that resembles baroque folk art with tropical themes.
Recent history
Prior to the 1920s, Balinese traditional paintings were mainly found what is now known as the
Kamasan
Kamasan is a village on Bali, Indonesia. It is situated just to the north of Gelgel, in the Klungkung regency. Kamasan has a cultural importance on a Bali-wide level. The various 'traditional' styles of painting on modern Bali are derived from the ...
or
Wayang
, also known as ( jv, ꦮꦪꦁ, translit=wayang), is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. refers to the entire dramatic show. Sometimes the leather puppet itself is referred to as . Perfor ...
style. These are visual presentation of narratives, especially of the Hindu-Javanese epics——the
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
and
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
——as well as a number of indigenous stories, such as the Malat, depicting
Panji narratives and the Brayut story.
These two-dimensional drawings are traditionally drawn on cloth or bark paper (Ulantaga or daluwang paper), and sometimes on wood, with
natural dye
Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood—and other biological sources such as fungi.
Archaeol ...
s. The colouring is limited to available natural dyes: red from volcanic rocks, ochre, blue from indigo, and black from soot. In addition, the rendering of the figures and ornamentations must follow strictly prescribed rules, since they are mostly produced for religious articles and temple hangings. These paintings are produced collaboratively, and therefore mostly anonymously.
There were many experiments with new types of art by Balinese from the late nineteenth century onwards. These experiments were stimulated by access to new materials (western paper and imported inks and paint), and by the 1930s, new tourist markets stimulated many young Balinese to be involved in new types of art.
In the 1920s, with the arrival of many western artists, Bali became an artist enclave (as
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...
was for
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
) for avant-garde artists such as
Walter Spies
Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...
(German),
Rudolf Bonnet (Dutch),
Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur
Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès (9 February 1880 — 31 May 1958) was a Belgian painter from Ixelles who lived the last part of his life in Bali.
Biography
Adrien Le Mayeur came to Bali at Singaraja by boat in 1932. He then stayed in Denpasar ...
(Belgian),
Arie Smit
Adrianus Wilhelmus "Arie" Smit (15 April 1916 – 23 March 2016) was a Dutch-born Indonesian painter who lived on Bali.
Early life
Smit was the third of eight children of a trader in cheese and confectionery in Zaandam. His family moved in 192 ...
(Dutch),
Theo Meier
Theo is a given name and a hypocorism.
Greek origin
Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example:
*Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...
(Swiss) and
Donald Friend (Australian) in more recent years. Most of these western artists had very little influence on the Balinese until the post-World War Two period, although some accounts over-emphasise the western presence at the expense of recognising Balinese creativity.
On his first visit to Bali in 1930, the Mexican artist
Miguel Covarrubias
Miguel Covarrubias, also known as José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud (22 November 1904 — 4 February 1957) was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist and art historian. Along with his American colleague Matthew W. Stirling, ...
noted that local paintings served primarily religious or ceremonial functions. They were used as decorative cloths to be hung in temples and important houses, or as calendars to determine children's horoscopes. Yet within a few years, he found the art form had undergone a "liberating revolution." Where they had once been severely restricted by subject (mainly episodes from Hindu mythology) and style, Balinese artists began to produce scenes from rural life. These painters had developed increasing individuality.
This groundbreaking period of creativity reached a peak in the late 1930s. A stream of famous visitors, including
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
and the
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...
and
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
, encouraged the talented locals to create highly original works. During their stay in Bali in mid-1930s, Bateson and Mead collected over 2000 paintings, predominantly from the village of Batuan, but also from the coastal village of Sanur.
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Among western artists, Spies and Bonnet are often credited for the modernization of traditional Balinese paintings. From the 1950s onwards Baliese artists incorporated aspects of perspective and anatomy from these artists.
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More importantly, they acted as agents of change by encouraging experimentation, and promoted departures from tradition. The result was an explosion of individual expression that increased the rate of change in Balinese art. The 1930s styles were consolidated in the 1950s, and in more recent years have been given the confusing title of "modern traditional Balinese painting". The Ubud painters, although a minority amongst the artists working in the 1930s, became the representatives of the new style thanks to the presence of the great artist Gusti Nyoman Lempad in that village, and to the patronage of the traditional rulers of Ubud. The key points of the Ubud Style included a concentration on the depiction of daily Bali life and drama; the change of the patron of these artists from the religious temples and royal houses to western tourists/collectors; shifting the picture composition from multiple to single focus.
Despite the adoption of modern western painting traditions by many Balinese and
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n painters, "modern traditional Balinese painting" is still thriving and continues by descendants/students of the artists of the pre-war modernist era (1928-1942). The schools of modern traditional Balinese painting include: Ubud, Batuan,
Sanur, Young Artist and Keliki schools of painting.
Modern traditional painting
The pre-War modernisation of Balinese art emanated from three villages: Ubud, where Spies settled, Sanur on the southern coast, and Batuan, a traditional hub of musicians, dancers, carvers and painters. The artists painted mostly on paper, though canvas and board were also used. Often, the works featured repetitive clusters of stylized foliage or waves that conveyed a sense of texture, even perspective. Each village evolved a style of its own. Ubud artists made more use of open spaces and emphasized human figures. Sanur paintings often featured erotic scenes and animals, and work from Batuan was less colorful but tended to be busier.
[Agus Dermawan,'' Bali Bravo — a Lexicon of 200 years Balinese Traditional Painters'', Bali Bangkit, 2006.]
Ubud painting
Ubud became a center for art in the 1930s, under the patronage of the lords of Ubud, who rose to power at the end of the nineteenth century. Prior to the 1930s, traditional
wayang
, also known as ( jv, ꦮꦪꦁ, translit=wayang), is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. refers to the entire dramatic show. Sometimes the leather puppet itself is referred to as . Perfor ...
style paintings from other villages may have been found in Ubud, but was more influential in the nearby village of Peliatan, which is nowadays classified as part of Ubud. Significant Ubud artist were already adapting versions of the wayang style by the end of the 1920s, notably Ida Bagus Kembeng of Tebesaya, who may have studied with relatives in nearby Tampaksiring village.
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862?–1978) was a Balinese stone sculptor, architect (''undagi'' in Balinese) and painter who built palaces and temples in Ubud and its neighboring villages. Lempad's exact birth date, as is the case for many Balinese ...
, who had come to Ubud under the patronage of its ruling lord, changed from being an architect and sculpture to executing outstanding drawings around 1931.
Anak Agung Gde Sobrat of Ubud also began to paint around this time. These and other artists were given materials and opportunities to sell their work by the resident European artists Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet. They developed experimental styles which European commentators identified as a new, modern type of Balinese art, differentiated from the traditional art which is governed by strict rules of religious iconography.
Under the patronage of the Ubud royal family, especially Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, and with Rudolf Bonnet as a chief consultant, the Pitamaha Art Guild was founded in 1936 as a way to professionalise Balinese painting. Its mission was to preserve the quality of Balinese Art in the rush of tourism to Bali. The board members of Pitamaha met regularly to select paintings submitted by its members, and to conduct exhibitions throughout Indonesia and abroad. Between 1936 and 1939, Bonnet organised significant exhibitions of this modern Balinese art in the Netherlands, with a smaller exhibition in London. Pitamaha was active until the Second World War came to Bali in 1942. Ubud artists who were members to Pitamaha came from Ubud and its surrounding villages: Pengosekan, Peliatan and Tebasaya. Among them, besides those mentioned above, were: The three sons of Ida Bagus Kembeng: Ida Bagus Wiri,
Ida Bagus Made
Ida Bagus Made Poleng (1915–1999) was a traditional Balinese painter. Known also as Ida Bagus Made Poleng or Ida Bagus Made Tebesaya or simply Gus Made.
Biography
He was born in Tebasaya, Ubud, Bali in 1915. Ida Bagus Made came from a Bra ...
and Ida Bagus Belawa; Tjokorda Oka of the royal house of Peliatan; Sobrat and his family members, including Anak Agung Gde Meregeg, I Dewa Putu Bedil, I Dewa Nyoman Leper, Anak Agung Dana of Padangtegal; and I Gusti Ketut Kobot, his brother I Gusti Made Baret, I Wayan Gedot, Dewa Putu Mokoh of Pengosekan. Artists from other areas also participated, including Pan Seken from Kamasan, I Gusti Made Deblog from Denpasar, and some of the Sanur artists.
Although short-lived, Pitamaha is identified with the outpouring of modern art of the 1930s which preceded it, and with succeeding developments in art. Artists from Ubud have continued the Pitamaha tradition. Important amongst these Ubud Artists are Ida Bagus Sena (nephew of Ida Bagus Made Poleng), A.A Gde Anom Sukawati (son of A.A Raka Pudja), I Ketut Budiana, I Nyoman Kayun and I Nyoman Meja. Budiana is the artist with the one of the most impressive solo-exhibition track records. His paintings are collected by Fukuoka Museum of Arts, Bentara Budaya Jakarta, Museum Puri Lukisan, Neka Museum and Arma Museum.
Ida Bagus Sena also has developed a unique style and has a deep understanding of Balinese philosophy in his paintings. Anom Sukawati is Balinese most successful colorist. I Nyoman Meja developed a style which is closely copied by several of his students. I Nyoman Kayun received the Bali Bangkit award in 2008.
Batuan painting
The Batuan school of painting is practiced by artists in the village of Batuan, which is situated to the south of Ubud. The Batuan artisans are gifted dancers, sculptors and painters. Leading artists of the 1930s included I Nyoman Ngendon, and a number of members of leading
brahman
In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...
families, including Ida Bagus Made Togog. Other major Batuan artists from the pre-modernist era include I Dewa Nyoman Mura (1877-1950) and I Dewa Putu Kebes (1874-1962), who were known as ; traditional
Wayang
, also known as ( jv, ꦮꦪꦁ, translit=wayang), is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. refers to the entire dramatic show. Sometimes the leather puppet itself is referred to as . Perfor ...
-style painters for temples' ceremonial textiles.
The western influence in Batuan did not reach the intensity it had in Ubud.
According to
Claire Holt, the Batuan paintings were often dark, crowded representations of either legendary scenes or themes from daily life, but they portrayed above all fearsome nocturnal moments when grotesque spooks, freakish animal monsters, and witches accosted people. This is particularly true for paintings collected by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson during their field studies in Bali in 1936 to 1939.
Gradations of black to white ink washes laid over most of the surface, so as to create an atmosphere of darkness and gloom. In the later years, the designs covered the entire space, which often contributed to the crowded nature of these paintings.
Among the early Batuan artists,
I Ngendon (1903-1946) was considered the most innovative Batuan School painter.
Ngendon was not only a good painter, but a shrewd business man and political activist. He encouraged and mobilized his neighbours and friends to paint for tourist consumption. His ability in portraiture played an important role in teaching his fellow villagers in Batuan more than Spies and Bonnet.
The major Batuan artists from this period were: I Patera (1900-1935), I Tombos (b. 1917),
Ida Bagus Togog (1913-1989), Ida Bagus Made Jatasura (1917-1946), Ida Bagus Ketut Diding (1914-1990), I Made Djata (1920-2001), and Ida Bagus Widja (1912-1992). The spirit of the Pitamaha period is still strong and continues by contemporary Batuan Artists such as I Made Budi, I Wayan Bendi (b. 1950), I Ketut Murtika (b. 1952), I Made Sujendra (b. 1964), and many others. I Made Budi and I Wayan Bendi paintings capture the influence of tourism in modern life in Bali. They place tourists with their camera, riding a motorbike or surfing in the midst of Balinese traditional village activities. The dichotomy of modern and traditional Balinese life are contrasted starkly in harmony. I Ketut Murtika ( still paints the traditional story of Mahabharata and Ramayana in a painstaking details with subdued colors. His painting of the Wheel of Life viewed from the Balinese beliefs system shows his mastery of local legends and painstaking attention to details.
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Sanur painting
Unlike Ubud and Batuan which are located in the inland of Bali, Sanur is a beach resort. Sanur was the home of the well known Belgian artist Le Mayeur de Mepres, who lived with a Balinese wife (Ni Polok) and had a beach house in Sanur beach, although he had no interaction with local artists.
Tourists in the 1930s came to Bali on cruise ships docked in Sanur and made side trips to Ubud and neighboring tourist sites. Its prime location provided the Sanur artist with ready-access to Western tourists who frequented the shop of the Neuhaus Brothers who sold balinese souvenirs and had a tropical fish aquarium. The Neuhaus brothers became the major dealers of Sanur paintings and other local art. The beach around Sanur, full of outriggers and open horizon, provided local artists with a visual environment different from the Ubud and Batuan, which are located in the hinterland. The playful atmosphere pervades the Sanur paintings, and are not dictated by the religious iconography.
It is lighter and airy than those of Batuan and Ubud with sea creatures, erotic scenery and wild animals drawn in rhythmic patterns. It is possible that these works, and those of Batuan, influenced the European artist M.C. Escher. Most early works were black and white ink wash on paper, but at the request of Neuhaus, latter works were adorned with light pastel colors often added by a small number of the artists who specialised in coloring black and white drawings, notably I Pica and I Regug, who left their Balinese initials the margins.
The Sanur school of painting is the most stylized and decorative among all modern Balinese Art. Major artists from Sanur are I Rundu,
Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai, Ida
agusMade Pugug, I Soekaria, I
ustiMade Rundu, and I Pica. I Rudin, who lived nearby in Renon, started to paint in mid-1930s, and in the 1950s turned to drawing balinese dancers in the manner of the drawings of
Miguel Covarrubias
Miguel Covarrubias, also known as José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud (22 November 1904 — 4 February 1957) was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist and art historian. Along with his American colleague Matthew W. Stirling, ...
.
Young Artist painting
The development of the Young Artist School of painting is attributed to the Dutch artist
Arie Smit
Adrianus Wilhelmus "Arie" Smit (15 April 1916 – 23 March 2016) was a Dutch-born Indonesian painter who lived on Bali.
Early life
Smit was the third of eight children of a trader in cheese and confectionery in Zaandam. His family moved in 192 ...
, a Dutch soldier who served during the 2nd world war and decided to stay in Bali. In the early 1960s, he came across children in the village of
Penestanan near Tjampuhan drawing on the sand. He encouraged these children to paint by providing them with paper and paints.
Their paintings are characterized by "child-like" drawings that lacks details and bright colors drawn with oil paint on canvas. By the 1970s, it attracted around three hundred peasant painters to produce paintings for tourists. In 1971 Datuk Lim Chong Kit held an exhibition of Young Artists work from his collection, at Alpha Gallery in Singapore entitle
''Peasant Painters of Bali'' A version of that exhibition was held in 1983 at the National Gallery of
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
..
The painting by I Wayan Pugur (b. 1945) shown here, was executed when he was 13 years old and was exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1964, as part of a traveling exhibition in the United States in 1964-1965, which was also exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution. This early drawing, executed on paper, exhibits the use of bright colors and a balanced composition. The drawing space is divided into three solid-color areas: dark blue, bright yellow and magenta in between showing the influence of the Wayang painting tradition. The leaves of the large tree with the snakes show the juxtaposition of complementary colors. The faces of the figures were drawn with no details, yet the snakes have eyes and long tongues.
Major artists from the Young Artist School are I Wayan Pugur,
I Ketut Soki,
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I Ngurah KK, I Nyoman Londo, I Ketut Tagen, M D Djaga, I Nyoman Cakra, Ni Ketut Gampil, I Nyoman Mundik, I Wayan Regug and many others.
Keliki miniature painting
In the 1990s, miniature paintings emerged from Keliki, a small village north of Ubud, led by a local farmer I Ketut Sana.
The sizes range from as small as 2 x 3 inch to as large as 10 x 15 in. I Ketut Sana learnt to paint from I Gusti Nyoman Sudara Lempad from Ubud and from I Wayan Rajin from Batuan. He combined the line drawing of Lempad and the details of the Batuan school. Every inch of the space is covered with minute details of Balinese village life and legends drawn in ink and colored with watercolor. The outcome is a marriage between the youthfulness of the Ubud school and the details of the Batuan School. The Keliki artists proud with their patience to paint minute details of every objects meticulously that occupy the drawing space.
Illustrated on the left is a drawing by I Lunga (c. 1995) depicting the story of Rajapala. Rajapala is often referred to as the first Balinese voyeur or “peeping Tom.” According to the story, Rajapala catches sight of a group of celestial nymphs bathing in a pool. He approaches stealthily, and without their knowledge, steals the skirt (kamben) of the prettiest, Sulaish. As her clothing contains magical powers enabling her to fly, the nymph cannot return home. Rajapala offers to marry her. She accepts on the condition that she will return to heaven after the birth of a child. With time, she and Rajapala have a healthy young son. Years pass, and one day, Sulaish accidentally discovers her clothing hidden in the kitchen. Understanding that she has been tricked, she takes leave of her husband and son and goes back to her heavenly abode.
Major artists from the Keliki Artist School are Sang Ketut Mandera (Dolit),
I Ketut Sana, I Wayan Surana, I Lunga, I Wayan Nengah, I Made Ocen, Gong Juna, I Made Widi, I Wayan Lanus, I Wayan Lodra,
Ida Bagus Putra, Gusti Ngurah Putra Riong and many others.
Other Schools of Painting
Fingerprint painting
A
Balinese of royal descent, I Gusti Ngurah Gede Pemecutan makes his paintings by fingerprints. If we use brush technique, we can brush it off if needed, but the fingerprint technique should placed every dot precisely. His fingerprint paintings have no signature, but have a lot of his fingerprints. The fingerprint painting technique is regarded as part of the
pointilism
Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...
painting technique (with the brush).
Wood carving
Like the Balinese painting, Balinese wood carving underwent a similar transformation during the 1930s and 1940s. The creative outburst emerged during this transition period is often attributed to western influences. In 2006, an exhibition at the Nusantara Museum, Delft, the Netherlands Leidelmeijer
[Frans Leidermeijer, ''Art Deco beelden van Bali (1930-1970) - van souvenir tot kunstobject'', Waanders, 2006, ] traced the Art Deco influence on Balinese wood carving. Leidelmeijer further conjectured that the Art Deco influence continued well into the 1970s.
During the transition years, the Pitamaha Artist Guild was the prime mover not only for Balinese paintings, but also for the development of modern Balinese wood carvings. I Tagelan (1902-1935) produced an elongated carving of a Balinese woman from a long piece of wood that was given by Walter Spies, who originally requested him to produce two statues.
This carving is in the collection of the Puri Lukisan Museum in Ubud.
Other masters of Balinese modernist woodcarving were: Ida Bagus Nyana, Tjokot (1886-1971)
and Ida Bagus Tilem.
Ida Bagus Nyana was known for experimenting with mass in sculpture. When carving human characters, he shortened some parts of the body and lengthened others, thus bringing an eerie, surreal quality to his work. At the same time he didn't overwork the wood and adopted simple, naive themes of daily life. He thus avoided the “baroque” trap, unlike many carvers of his day.
Tjokot gained a reputation for exploiting the expressive quality inherent in the wood. He would go into the forest to look for strangely shaped trunks and branches and, changing them as little as possible, transforming them into gnarled spooks and demonic figures.
Ida Bagus Tilem, the son of Nyana, furthered Nyana and Tjokot's innovations both in his working of the wood and in his choice of themes. Unlike the sculptors from the previous generation, he was daring enough to alter the proportions of the characters depicted in his carving. He allowed the natural deformations in the wood to guide the form of his carving, using gnarled logs well suited for representing twisted human bodies. He saw each deformed log or branch as a medium for expressing human feelings. Instead of depicting myths or scenes of daily life, Tilem took up “abstract” themes with philosophical or psychological content: using distorted pieces of wood that are endowed with strong expressive powers.
Ida Bagus Tilem, however, was not only an artist, but also a teacher. He trained dozens of young sculptors from the area around the village of Mas. He taught them how to select wood for its expressive power, and how to establish dialogue between wood and Man that has become the mainstream of today's Balinese woodcarving.
Museums holding important Balinese painting collection
There are many museums throughout the world holding a significant collection of Balinese paintings.
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* Europe: In the Netherlands, the
Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and the
Ethnographic Museum Ethnographic museums conserve, display and contextualize items relevant to the field of ethnography, the systematic study of people and cultures. Such museums include:
List by country/region Albania
* Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë,
* Gjirokast ...
in Leiden have a large number of paintings from the Wayang period (before the 1920s) and the pre-War period (1920s - 1950s). Notably, the Leiden Ethnographic Museum holds the Rudolf Bonnet and Paul Spies collection. In Switzerland, the Ethnographic Museum in Basel holds the pre-War Batuan and Sanur paintings collected by Schlager and the artist Theo Meier. In late 2010, the Ethnographic Museum in Vienna (Austria) rediscovered the pre-war Balinese paintings collected by Potjewyd in mid-1930s.
* Asia: In Japan, the Asian Art Museum in Fukuoka holds an excellent Balinese collection after the Second World War. The
National Gallery Singapore has a significant collection of pre-War and post-War Balinese paintings.
* Australia: The Australian Museum, Sydney, has a major collection of Kamasan and other traditional paintings assembled by the Anthropologist Anthony Forge. The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra holds some Balinese works.
* Indonesia: the Museum Sana Budaya in Yogyakarta and Museum Bentara Budaya in Jakarta. In Bali, pre-war Balinese drawings are at the holdings of the Bali Museum in Denpasar and Center for Documentation of Balinese Culture in Denpasar. In addition, there are four major museums in Ubud, Bali, with significant collections:
Museum Puri Lukisan
The Puri Lukisan Ratna Wartha Museum ( id, Museum Puri Lukisan Ratna Warna) is the oldest art museum in Bali which specialize in modern traditional Balinese paintings and wood carvings. The museum is located in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It is home ...
, Agung Rai Museum of Art,
Neka Art Museum
The Neka Art Museum (also known as NAM) is a museum located in Ubud on Bali, Indonesia, It was established in 1982 by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, better known as JMK Suteja Neka, a Balinese art dealer who had begun collecting Balinese art with the ad ...
and
Museum Rudana
Museum Rudana or Rudana Art Museum is an art museum in Peliatan, Gianyar Regency, Bali, Indonesia. It was built by Nyoman Rudana, following the concept of the Bali humanism, humanist philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, where art makes a contribution ...
.
* America: Duke University Museum in Durham, American Museum of Natural History in New York, United Nations in New York.
See also
*
Indonesian art
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17.000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 ...
*
Balinese theater
Notes
References
* ''Peasant Painters from the Penestanan Ubud Bali — Paintings from the Collection of
Datuk Lim Chong Keat'', National Art Gallery Kuala Lumpur (1983)
* Agus Dermawan, "Bali Bravo — A Lexicon of 200-years Balinese Traditional Painters," Bali Bangkit (2006)
* Anak Agung Djelantik, " Balinese Paintings," Oxford University Press (1990)
* Christopher Hill, "Survival and Change: Three Generations of Balinese Painters," Pandanus Books (2006)
* Jean Couteau, ''Museum Puri Lukisan Catalog'', Bali, Indonesia (1999)
* Joseph Fischer, "Problems and Realities of Modern Balinese Art," in Modern Indonesian Art: Three Generations of Tradition and Change 1945-1990, Joseph Fischer, editor (1990)
* Haks, F., Ubbens J., Vickers, Adrian, Haks, Leo. and Maris, G., "Pre-War Balinese Modernists," Ars et Animatio (1999)
* Helena Spanjaard,
Pioneers of Balinese Painting', KIT Publishers (2007). For USA and Canada follow this link,
Stylus Publishers'
* Hildred Geertz, ''Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead'', University of Hawaii Press (1994)
* {{cite book
, last=McGowan
, first=Kaja , author2=Adrian Vickers , author3=Soemantri Widagdo , author4=Benedict Anderson , author4-link=Benedict Anderson , title=Ida Bagus Made — The Art of Devotion
, publisher=Museum Puri Lukisan
, date=July 2008
, isbn=978-1-60585-983-5
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BsblLai3lkC&q=Ida+Bagus+Made+the+art+of+devotion
* Klaus D. Höhn, ''The Art of Bali: Reflections of Faith: the History of Painting in Batuan'', 1834-1994, Pictures Publishers Art Books (1997)
* Moerdowo, "Reflections on Balinese Traditional and Modern Arts,"
Balai Pustaka (1983)
* Neka, Sutedja and Kam, Garrett, "The Development of Painting in Bali — Selections from the Neka Art Museum," 2nd edition, Museum Neka Dharma Seni Foundation (2000)
* Rhodius, Hans and Darling, John, "Walter Spies and Balinese Art," Terra, Zutphen (1980)
* Ruddick, Abby, "Selected Paintings form the Collection of the Agung Rai Fine Art Gallery," The Agung Rai Fine Art Gallery (1992)
* Taylor, Alison, "Living Traditions in Balinese Painting," The Agung Rai Gallery of Fine Art (1991)
* Mann, Richard I., "Classical Balinese Painting, Nyoman Gunarsa Museum", Book, Illustrated - 2006.
External links
Kamasan, The Realm of Balinese Traditional and Classical Art-forms- A complete description of the Classic Kamasan style paintings.
Balinese Painting and Woodcarving- Fine examples of Balinese paintings and woodcarvings
Historic Lempad Exhibition- The world premier of Lempad drawings from 1930s to 1940s at the Puri Lukisan Museum, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Walter Spies Painting- Paintings from Balinese and European period
Museum Puri Lukisan- The home of the finest collection of pre-war Balinese paintings and woodcarvings in Bali
Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA)- The only museum in Bali with an original work of Walter Spies
Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) at Google Cultural InstituteNeka Museum- Works of foreign artists who lived in Bali, Arie Smit, I Gusti Njoman Lempad
KIT- Indonesian works of art at the
Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Foreign Artists in Bali- Short biography of foreign artists who worked in Bali, including:
W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp
Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp (Amsterdam, July 27, 1874 – Fiesole, April 23, 1950), was a Dutch multi-faceted autodidact. As an artist he was active as a painter, draftsman, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, and designer of book covers and of e ...
, C.L Dake, P.A.J. Mooijen, Willem Dooijewaard, Rolland Strasser, John Sten,
Walter Spies
Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...
,
Rudolf Bonnet,
Miguel Covarrubias
Miguel Covarrubias, also known as José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud (22 November 1904 — 4 February 1957) was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist and art historian. Along with his American colleague Matthew W. Stirling, ...
, Isaac Israel, Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Mepres, Theo Meier, Willem and Maria Hofker, Emilio Ambron, Auke Sonnega, Romuldo Locatelli, Lee Man Fong, Antonio Blanco, Arie Smit, Donald Friend
Crossing Boundaries ExhibitionBali: A window to the 20th century Indonesian Art — an exhibition organized by Asia Society AustralAsia Center
An exhibition of Balinese art at the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Keliki Painting School- A school for to learn the miniature traditional painting of Bali.
Balinese Painting group on facebook- A group discussion for balinese art.
Balinese Art from 1800 - 2012- Adrian Vickers' book ''Balinese Art Paintings and Drawings of Bali 1800 - 2010''
Balinese Art - Australian Museum- Balinese Art - Australian Museum