Art Article 1

by Michelle Chin, 1997

The earliest examples of permanent visual art in Bali are in the form of sculptural reliefs and religious statuary. The earliest of these link clearly to the Dong-son culture of approximately 300 BC, which arose in the area in Asia now known as Vietnam. The most famous and treasured is the "Moon of Pejeng", a solid bronze drum, said by the Balinese to be a full, bright moon which fell to earth centuries ago. It is currently housed at the Pura Penataran Sasih, in the village of Pejeng.

Other objects and artefacts relate to Buddhist or Hindu iconography dating from the time of the Majapahit Empire of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Drawing and two-dimensional image-making first appeared on the lontar or sacred writings, which fold neatly into compact form, and are secreted from all except the privileged few who can read and inscribe the symbols on them. The closest most people come to seeing these designs and symbols is on the tumbal, inscriptions derived from lontar imagery drawn on pieces of white cloth and which commonly can be seen nailed to the eaves of buildings. In conjunction with this there were drawings and sketches made by stone carvers and makers of wayang kulit, flat puppets made from buffalo skin used in the shadow plays which give visual dynamism to the wayang stories. Other samples of pictorial imagery appear on pragembal, intricate ceremonial constructions of rice dough and cakes, and lamak banners made of woven palm leaf.

Painting in its earliest form was to be found on temple banners which were made for temporary use during temple ceremonies. When these banners deteriorated, they were replaced. 

• What is a Balinese Painting?

Firstly, if we were to try to define a Balinese painting, we could say that it aims for perfection, not expression. A set, identifiable iconography is used, expressions of the symbols of Balinese society. Paintings commissioned for the community or an individual patron was rooted in religion. "Art" was directed to the gods, and the visual forms of the deities were used as temple decoration.

Secondly, the underlying philosophy illustrates a hierarchy of gods, mortals, demons, and animals. Painters must follow the set cosmic order of Balinese philosophy and religion. No paintings are "lost in space", meaning that there are no empty spaces or voids where unexpected things could occur.

Thirdly, there is a religious aspect of the artist's trade in that inspiration is godly. Taksu is a Balinese word for a power that can be sensed, that can not be intentionally sought or attained through study. It can be termed divine inspiration, a gift, a kind of charisma that can be bestowed by God on an artist, dancer, musician, carver, writer, orator, or healer. Taksu is not a constant, it does not necessarily remain with a person, rather it appears if the person is in an appropriate state of purity, or otherwise deemed suited for receiving a divine gift. It is because of taksu that a novice painter can produce a work of surprising power and grace. If a painting has taksu , there will be a spiritual connection between the viewer and the work of art.

The concept of taksu is important to the Balinese, in fact to any artist. One cannot simply plan to paint a beautiful painting, a perfect painting. The issue of taksu is also one of honesty. An artist will follow his heart or instinct, and he will not care what other people think. A painting that has magic does not need to be elaborated on, the painting alone speaks. A work of art that is difficult to describe in words has to be seen with the eyes and a heart that is open.

• Classical Kamasan style

Classical paintings which characterise the Kamasan style use stories from the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as Balinese folklore. These early paintings are packed with amazing two-dimensional, stylised wayang characters, and were often used to decorate shrines and pavilions during religious ceremonies. The bodies are mostly shown in full frontal position while the faces are in three-quarter profile. Natural pigments are used, the predominant colours being:

• yellow, from ochre
• red, from Chinese cinnabar
• brown, from red oxide clay mixed with soot
• blue, from indigo leaves
• black, from charcoal or soot
• white, from the ashes of burnt deer or animal bones

These colours tie in with a Balinese colour system which is related to directions, gods, letters of the alphabet, gamelan tones and so on.

In the traditional style of painting there is a fixed technical procedure. Firstly the artist roughly sets out his design on the canvas, or support, in pencil or charcoal. Then he makes clear and definite fine ink outlines. Tone is added to these areas. When this process (sigar mangsi ) is complete, either transparent or opaque layers of colour are laid over the top. This last process was once a slow and tedious one because colours were limited and sometimes several layers had to be applied to achieve the desired result. The support used in the old tradition was usually a hand-woven cotton canvas specially treated to take the paints; or as is the case in Batuan, paper was also used as a support.

In a tradition that has been traced back to the 17th century, early Kamasan paintings on bark paper used these natural pigments. This style of painting is still practised today in the village of Kamasan, Klungkung. 

• Ubud style

Until the arrival in Bali of Walter Spies (1895-1942) and Rudolf Bonnet (1895-1978) in the late 1920's, Balinese painting had been locked into rigidly stylised, traditional subject matter that had remained virtually unchanged for centuries. With the stimulation created by Spies' and Bonnet's arrival, a new school of painting emerged, called the Ubud style. While Spies and Bonnet did not formally teach the Balinese painters, they encouraged them to paint broader themes, landscapes and everyday life. Through their influence new materials came into use. No longer were the works produced exclusively for religious or ceremonial purposes. While enriching his own work with elements of Balinese art, Walter Spies was able to offer knowledge of mathematical perspective and to introduce oil paints to the Balinese. Bonnet imparted Western ideas of anatomy and proportion. The hair brushes used by Westerners were also introduced but, even today, many Balinese painters show a preference for the simple implements shaped from slivers of bamboo which are chewed on at one end to provide the fibres for the application of the paint.

There was an expansion of interest in painting in the areas of Ubud and Batuan, and each area developed a style of painting which became distinctly its own. While religious themes and particularly those drawn from the Tantri stories, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were the most common, the older artists today remember that there were also paintings which showed themes from daily life and ritual. It was this subject matter which Spies encouraged them to explore.

Armed with new materials, new techniques and divergent sources of inspiration, Balinese artists began eagerly to explore the field of art, and to expand their own innate artistry into the secular world. Although the subject matter and style had changed, innovative paintings by Ubud artists still showed their unique Balinese exuberance. Colour became a more versatile ingredient and was used either naturally or symbolically, with the range of choice going from monochromatic to spectral. The imagery of the Ubud style paintings is usually very clear and the most popular themes focus on human activity, whether it be in the marketplace, around the village, in the process of carrying out ceremonial ritual or in some secret part of nature's kingdom. 

• Batuan style

During this time, the artists in the nearby village of Batuan continued working in a more classical style largely unaffected by outside change. Many of the sombre and mysterious works by Nyoman Ngendon (1903 - 1946), Ida Bagus Made Wija (1912 - 1992) and Ida Bagus Made Togog (1913 - 1989) take their inspiration from ancient fables and legends with supernatural overtones. Everyday life is also a recurrent subject.

In the Batuan style everything shrinks, then multiplies. The message or narrative is less clear, and to read a painting from Batuan demands more time and effort than does its counterpart from Ubud. The forms are not so clearly differentiated and the whole surface is treated equably. Despite the application of line to define the shapes, the process of laying in the tone breaks down this delineation. These precise outlines are eventually swallowed up in the generous application of tone, and a nocturnal sombreness prevails. The keyed darkness combines with the complexity and intricacy of the design to provide a detailed narrative record of some of the most common and popular events which would be experienced between birth and death of most Balinese, all within one painting. Sometimes it feels that it might take a lifetime to unravel the human activities from the creatures and their environment, as they all fuse together. It is as if the painter sees life both chronologically and spatially from another planet, or from heaven itself.

• Pita Maha

Whatever their exact influence in the contemporary evolution of Balinese arts, it is undeniable that Spies and Bonnet played a decisive role as patrons and cultural mediators, first in selling the works of their protégés to rich collectors, and then in opening the budding tourist market to Balinese artists. At the beginning of the 1930's the arrival of the tourists and their need to buy typical works of art with which to remember their visit to Bali amounted to a new form of art patronage. This brought radical changes, not only to the form and intent of art works, but also to the social status of their creators. Where previously there were only anonymous artisans, willingly offering their talents in a collective labour, "artists" began to appear, selling "works of art" of which they were the individual creator.

Even as they encouraged the Balinese to sell on the tourist market, Spies and Bonnet were conscious of dangers inherent in commercialisation and mass production, and they strove constantly to control the artistic quality of the works they marketed. In this endeavour they had recourse to the Bali Museum - opened in 1932 in Denpasar to safeguard the island's cultural heritage - where they exhibited contemporary works destined to be sold to tourists. They were well-placed to do so: Spies was the curator and Bonnet the sales director.

Then, in 1936, the Pita Maha (literally referring to the "great ancestors" under whose spiritual authority its members placed themselves) society was established, providing a forum for discussion and constructive art criticism. The society represented the first formal attempt to impose discriminatory control over the standards of the new art in Bali. Only works considered to be of the highest standard were selected for exhibition and sale, and artists from all over Bali were encouraged to bring their work to be viewed and discussed. Achievement of a high personal standard for an artist led to an invitation for him to be invited to join the Pita Maha group. The earliest and most famous of the membership included 

• I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862 - 1978)
• I Gusti Made Deblog (1910 - 1986)
• Ida Bagus Made Nadera (born 1910)
• Ida Bagus Made (born 1915)
• Anak Agung Gde Sobrat (1917 -1992)
• Anak Agung Gede Raka Turas (1917 - 1992)
• Dewa Nyoman Leper (1917-1984), and
• I Lendjoe (born 1919; known as I Ketut Regig after 1942)

Spies used the Museum Bali in Denpasar, as well as several galleries that had opened in Denpasar and Sanur, as outlets for the paintings which were of the highest quality. In addition, exhibitions were staged in Java and Europe.

Unfortunately the tragic events of World War II included the death of Spies, who was interned by the Dutch because of his German origins, and died during the sinking of a ship bearing prisoners of war, torpedoed by a Japanese shell off the coast of Sumatra. The war also led to the collapse of the Pita Maha as an organisation. Attempts were made to establish a society of artists in Ubud in the late 1940's, but these failed because no-one had the time to devote to its management. The painters who constituted its membership were primarily farmers who used all their spare time for painting, leaving no time for organising or overseeing the administrative requirements of such an organisation.

After the Second World war, Rudolf Bonnet returned to Bali, and in 1956 thanks to the joint efforts of Bonnet and Cokorde Gede Agung Sukawati of Ubud, the old dream of the founders of Pita Maha was realised with the opening of Ubud's Museum of Modern Balinese Arts (Puri Lukisan).

• Young Artists' Style

In 1956, the Dutch artist Arie Smit set up his studio in Ubud, and soon after that, curious youngsters crept in to watch him working and were invited to try the new acrylic paints which he was using. In this way Smit encouraged the development of painting and is credited with bringing about a new direction in Bali's secular art. This did not occur through deliberate authoritarian instruction, criticism and direction being given to the young painters. He simply encouraged them to explore the possibilities provided by the new materials.

The introduction of newer materials with a wide range of colours and reasonable ease of application gave birth to a "naive" style which has proliferated in Bali, especially in the village of Penestanan, Ubud, exemplified by scenes of daily life done in strong, simple colours inside a more or less sophisticated set of drawing outlines. 

• Academic Style

The Balinese painters called "academic artists" are, in fact, a diverse group almost all of whom share the experience of having received training at Indonesian or foreign institutes of fine arts. Many of them eventually became instructors at Indonesian institutions. The academic artists have mastered Western techniques, and have studied the various modern art movements in the West; their work is often influenced by surrealism, pointillism, cubism, or abstract expressionism. Contemporary Balinese painters are trying to establish a clear notion of what "modern Indonesian art" is, and turn to Indonesian cultural themes for subject matter. The range of styles is extensive. In general, one could say that their work, although sometimes very abstract, follows the basic structures of Balinese painting with its repetition of patterns and emphasis on contour and warm colours. Among these artists are Nyoman Tusan (born 1933), Nyoman Gunarsa (b. 1944), Made Wianta (b. 1949), Wayan Sika (b. 1949), Pande Gede Supada (b. 1949), Ketut Budiana (b. 1950), Made Djirna (b. 1957), Nyoman Erawan (b. 1957) and Made Budhiana (b. 1959)

Suggested References for Further Reading

• General

Djelantik, A.A. Balinese Paintings. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Kam, Garrett. Perceptions of Paradise: Images of Bali in the Arts. Ubud, Bali: Yayasan Dharma Seni, Museum Neka, 1993.
Neka, Suteja, with Garrett Kam. The Development of Painting in Bali. Ubud, Bali: Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, 1989.
Ruddick, Abby (editor). Selected Paintings from the Collection of the Agung Rai Fine Art Gallery.
Taylor, Alison. Living Traditions in Balinese Painting. Peliatan, Bali: Agung Rai Gallery of Fine Art, 1991.

• Kamasan style

Pucci, Idanna. Bima Swarga. Singapore: Periplus, 1988
Rai, Dipika. Museum of Classical Balinese Painting. Denpasar: CV Massa.

• Batuan style

Geertz, H. Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
Höhn, Klaus. Reflections of Faith: The History of Painting in Batuan 1834-1994. Wijk en Aalburg: Pictures Publishers, 1997.

• "Academic style" - Contemporary Balinese Artists

Arsana, Drs. Nyoman. Made Wianta: His Art and Balinese Culture. CV Buratwangi 1990.
Couteau, Jean. Wianta: Art and Power. Denpasar: Buratwangi, 1996
Dermawan, Agus. Nyoman Gunarsa: The Play of Line and Colour. Jakarta: AIA Fine Art Foundation, 1994.
Fischer, Joseph (editor). Modern Indonesian Art: Three Generations of Tradition and Change 1945-1990. Jakarta and New York: Panitia Pameran KIAS and Festival of Indonesia, 1991.
Paterson, Sarah and Michael (editors). I Made Surita: Painter of Bali. Wijk en Aalburg: Pictures Publishers. 1996.
Roever, Arend de. Painting an Invisible World. Singapore: Pepin Press 1995.

• Foreign Artists who Lived and Worked in Indonesia

Carpenter, Bruce and Maria Hofker-Rueter. Willem Hofker: Painter of Bali, 1902-1981. Wijk en Aalburg: Pictures Publishers, 1993.
Haks and Maris. Lexicon of Foreign Artists who Visualized Indonesia. Singapore, Archipelago Press, 1995.
Rhodius, H. and J. Darling. Walter Spies and Balinese Art. Zutphen, Terra, 1980
Rai, Dipika. Han Snel. Jakarta: Duta Fine Art Foundation 1993.
Spruit, Ruud. Artists on Bali. Singapore: Pepin Press, 1995.
Spruit, Ruud. Indonesian Impressions: Oriental Themes in Western Painting. Wijk en Aalburg: Pictures Publishers, 1992.
Ubbens, Jop and Huizing, Cathinka. Le Mayeur: Painter-Traveller, 1880-1958. Wijk en Aalburg: Pictures Publishers, 1995.

(Source: Michelle Chin's Website)