Exhibition 100 Years of Bali Fine Art

Whenever someone mentions fine art then I automatically think of the great masters whose works hang in galleries and museums around the world. Balinese fine art however is the realms of such greats as Walter Spies and Arie Smit.

Currently in Jakarta there is an exhibition of Balinese fine art entitled Tradition and Reputation: Exhibition of 100 years of Balinese traditional paintings. The exhibition collection of the masters of the craft from Bali will however be coming to Bali and be on display at the ARMA Museum in Ubud from July 14th through to the 23rd.

The entire collection is composed of about 70 paintings encompassing a century of the country's most rich and formative works of art. The paintings mostly belong to private collectors in the country and are not for sale.

However some will be auctioned next month during the exhibition in Bali. Curator Agus Dermawan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has grouped the paintings into 11 categories according to time, place and style. The group reflecting the earliest development is the Kamasan style, which developed in Kamasan Village in Klungkung. Kamasan paintings were done on nusa cloth mostly depicting wayang stories in detailed and dramatic expression.

Other categories are Guru Waktu (paintings of foreigners living in Bali), Batuan style, Ubud style of the Pita Maha period (1936-1956), Ubud style (1956-1970), Ubud Style (1970-2000), Sanur style, Young Artists' style (Arie Smit's students in Penestanan, Ubud), Pengosekan style, Keliki style and Kapal style.

The exhibition showcases paintings by such names as Ni Made Suciarmi, Ida Bagus Made Togog, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and I Nyoman Lesug, I Nyoman Meja, Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai, I Ketut Soki and I Dewa Putu Sena, I Wayan Surana, I Gusti Agung Wiranata and foreign artists like Arie Smit.

Every painting on display is superb and tells its own story. However the highlight of the exhibition is two paintings from the State Palace collection, one by Miguel Covarrubias, Gadis Bali dengan Sajen (Balinese Girls and Offerings) and another by Walter Spies, Upacara Kerajaan (Royal Ceremony), both are paintings by foreigners who took inspiration from the island of the gods and at the same time made a considerable contribution to the Balinese arts world.

Besides Spies' and Covarrubias' works, the exhibition also shows paintings of Arie Smit, Theo Meier, Rudolf Bonnet and Antonio Blanco.

One of the most interesting styles is the mini paintings of Keliki Village. The pioneer of this style is I Ketut Sana, born 1952, who worked for painting maestro I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and his son I Gusti Nyoman Sudara Lempad. He never painted before but he was interested. So he learned how to paint from Sudara. Sometimes he took scraps of paper, Sudara's leftovers, back home. The results are detailed watercolors on paper.