Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali 1800 - 2010

By Adrian Vickers

Balinese Art is the first comprehensive survey of Balinese painting from its origins in the traditional Balinese village to its present position at the forefront of the high-priced Asian art scene.

Balinese art has been popular and widely collected around the world for many decades. In fact, the contemporary painter who commands the highest prices in Southeast Asia's hot art market is Bali-born Nyoman Masriadi (1973-). This book demonstrates that his work draws on a long and deeply-rooted tradition of the Bali art scene.

Balinese painting has deep local roots and has followed its own distinctive trajectory, yet has been heavily influenced by outsiders. Indian artistic and religious traditions were introduced to Bali over a thousand years ago through the prism of ancient Javanese culture. Beyond the world of Indonesian art, Balinese artists and craftsmen have also interacted with other Asian artists, particularly those of China, and later Western artists. From these sources, an aesthetic tradition developed that depicts stories from the ancient Indian epics as well as themes from Javanese mythology and the religious and communal life of the Balinese themselves.

Starting with a discussion of the island's aesthetic traditions and how Balinese art should be viewed and understood, this book goes on to present pre-colonial painting traditions, some of which are still practiced in the village of Kamasan--the home of "classical" Balinese art. However, the main focus is the development of new styles starting in the 1930s and how these gradually evolved in response to the tourist industry that has come to dominate the island. Balinese Art acquaints readers with the masterpieces and master artists of Bali, and the final chapter presents the most important artists who are active today and serves as an introduction to their work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462909988

Book preview

Anak Agung Gede Soberat, Padangtegal, The Battle of Majapahit against the Chinese (Tatar) Invaders, 1933, tempera on cloth (styled on the model of Gobelin hangings), 93.5 x 310 cm, National Museum of Ethnography, RMV 2673-2.

Anak Agung Gede Soberat, Padangtegal, Rerajahan Kala Sungsang, 1930s, ink and paint on paper, 42.5 x 30.5 cm, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, coll. nr. 1646-48.

Ida Bagus Made Jatasura, Batuan, Palebon, Cremation, 1936, ink and paint on paper, 50.5 x 75 cm, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, coll. nr. 1103-4.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd

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Copyright © 2012 Adrian Vickers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vickers, Adrian, 1958-

 Balinese art: paintings and drawings of Bali, 1800-2010/

by Adrian Vickers.

      p. cm.

 Includes bibliographical references.

   ISBN: 978-1-4629-0998-8 (ebook)

1. Painting, Balinese. 2. Drawing, Balinese. I. Title.

 ND1026.6.B34V53 2011

 759.9598’6209034--dc23

2011022780

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I Ketut Kasta, Peliatan, Arja, 1990s, oil on canvas, 140 x 99 cm, Agung Rai Museum of Art (photo Gustra).

I Wayan Bendi, Batuan, Bali Island, 1985, acrylic on Dutch paper, 52.5 x 74.5 cm, Singapore Batuan Collection (photo Ken Cheong).

Introduction and Acknowledgements

This book began as a conversation with Eric Oey many years ago, in which he suggested that I write a book on Balinese art. I have worked closely with Balinese artists since 1978, in particular with I Nyoman Mandra of Kamasan and Ida Bagus Made Togog of Batuan, when I was living in their villages between late 1978 and the end of 1983. It has taken many years to assemble the resources to produce this book, although in the meantime I have written another one (unpublished) on the painting of Sanur village, and several other studies on Balinese and Indonesian cultural history that deal with matters related to painting. An important part of the development of this book has been the support and friendship of Leo Haks, with whom I have worked closely since the 1990s. Over the last decade, I have also had the pleasure of conversations and collaboration with Thomas Freitag. Parts of this book have been adapted from earlier publications, but most is new work, produced as part of a project to document Balinese art in its social context, with funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Museum, the Singapore Batuan Collection and the University of Sydney. A website providing a virtual museum of Balinese painting will also be produced as part of this project.

As will be clear to the viewer, this book is about Balinese paintings and drawings, although for convenience I use the term ‘painting’ as shorthand for the variety of works produced with pen and brush on cloth, paper, wood and other media. I seek to trace the various social and cultural influences that have shaped Balinese painting, from its roots in ancient Javanese Hinduism to the forces of global change that Bali experiences first and foremost through the tourist industry. I have put particular emphasis on the importance of patronage and markets, since while not all artists discussed here paint for profit, many have been pushed in certain directions by the need to feed and house themselves and their families.

There have been a number of general accounts of Balinese painting, but most of these are short, out of print and limited in their selection of works.¹ Other publications have concentrated on specific collections or periods.² In approaching the writing, I faced the dilemmas all writers of art history face, especially the problem of which works to include. I have chosen what I regard as some of the great works of Balinese painting, since earlier publications have featured works of uneven quality, and thus done the art no great service. My aim has been an analysis ‘centred outside any one culturally bound discourse which establishes a series of phenomena and analytical methods which cross differing historical contexts’, but I fear that in order to lay out basic events, I have often reverted to ‘a straight narrative description into which some critical debates are inserted’.³

The research for this book has mainly been a long process of interaction with Balinese artists. The list of interviews at the end of the book is by no means definitive. It lists the longer conversations I have had with the individuals mentioned, but I have met many artists and others concerned with the arts in Bali in various studios, at exhibitions and other social events, and all have contributed to my understanding of Balinese art.

Credits

The ARC Linkage project team have all provided commentary on the book and related materials, and special thanks go to them—Peter Worsley, Steven Hayes, James Watson, Safrina Tristiawati, Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, Susan Gilligan, Bruce Granquist and Siobhan Campbell—as well as partner staff at the Australian Museum, especially Stan Florek, Les Christidis, Vinod Daniel and Paul Monaghan. Ida Bagus Putra Adnyana provided photographs.

Hildred Geertz shared her own research in Batuan since the 1980s, as well as her material from the Bateson-Mead archives, and provided important comments on the draft of this book, as did my colleague John Clark.

Particular thanks go to those artists and their families who welcomed me into their homes with great hospitality, especially I Nyoman Mandra and his family. Sadly, many of those with whom I have worked are no longer with us. Advice, commentary, materials and support on issues to do with Balinese art has come from Philippe Augier of the Pasifika Museum, Barbara Bicego, Koos van Brakel, Fransje Brinkgreve, Georges Breguet, Putu Budiastra, Bruce Carpenter, Linda Connor, Thomas Cooper, Jean Couteau, John Darling, Nyoman Darma Putra, Steve Diamond, Thomas Freitag, Nyoman Gunarsa, Leo Haks, Richard Hassell, Koes Karnadi, Rio Helmi, Chris Hill, H. I. R. Hinzler, Angela Hobart, Mark Hobart, Pienke Kal, Fiona Kerlough, Horst Jordt, M. Dwi Marianto, Robyn Maxwell, Suteja Neka and his family, Arend de Roever, Melanie van Olffen, Agung Rai and the staff at ARMA, Raechelle Rubinstein, Amir Sidharta, Helena Spanjaard, Putu Sutawijaya, David Stuart-Fox, Soemantri Widagdo and Made Wijaya.

I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Ubud, Ni Bawang Decorated by the Birds of the Forest, c. 1935, Potjweyd Collection, Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, VO130916.

Important materials came from the estate of Anthony Forge, with special thanks to Cecelia Ng. Other special thanks go to those museums and individuals who have supplied images and copyright permission, besides those mentioned above, including the American Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery of Australia, Lois Bateson, the Berlin Ethnographic Museum, Dinas Kebudyaan Bali, the Honolulu Museum of Art, Rob Lemelson, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum Puri Lukisan, especially Dayu Widyastuti and Pak Muning, the Rijksmuseum for Ethnography in Leiden University Library, the Tonyraka Gallery in Ubud, the Seniwati Gallery, Ida Bagus Gede Siddharta Putra and the Griya Santrian Gallery, the OHD Museum Magelang, Jasdeep Sandhu and his staff at Gajah Gallery in Singapore, the Tropenmuseum, the Vienna Kunst Historisches Museum, the World Museum at Rotterdam, and the Walter Spies Society (German and Dutch branches).

Spelling

All spelling has been modernized, i.e. I do not use the ‘oe’ for ‘u’ of the Dutch period, nor ‘tj’ for ‘c’; ‘dj’ for ‘j’ and ‘j’ for ‘y’ of the pre-1972 Indonesian spelling system. Balinese names and words follow the standard established by the officially sponsored Kamus Bali-Indonesia, so that the silent ‘e’ is spelt out, as in ‘Ketut’, which might otherwise be spelt ‘Ktut’ (although it should be noted that dictionaries are inconsistent in their application of this principle).

Abbreviations

AM: Australian Museum AMNH: American Museum of Natural History

ARMA: Agung Rai Museum of Art

BKI: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde

KIT: Tropical Institute and Museum, Amsterdam

KITLV: Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology

NEM: National Ethnographic Museum, Leiden

RIMA: Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs

Ida Bagus Sodang, Sanur, Bathing People and Animals, 1937, coloured ink drawing on paper, 35 x 56.5 cm, Bonnet Collection, National Museum of Ethnography, RMV 135-60.

Rudolf Bonnet, Temptation of Arjuna, 1953, pastel on paper, 88 x 74 cm, Neka Art Museum (photo Gustra).

Two examples from works by leading painters from Bali at the turn of the twenty-first century help viewers unfamiliar with this art to understand the principles from which painters work, how the formal and narrative elements come together to amaze the senses of their audiences. The first example is the leading Indonesian contemporary painter I Nyoman Masriadi (1973–), whose works are bizarre and confronting, cartoon-like reflections on human nature and society. The second is an artist more senior by thirty-three years, I Nyoman Mandra (1946–), whose works are the acme of refinement, and whose village lifestyle is far removed from the modern urban and cosmopolitan world in which Masriadi works (Fig. 1).

Southeast Asia’s most expensive contemporary painter, Bali-born Nyoman Masriadi, challenges his viewers with striking figurative works. These images have a strong linearity and sense of proportion that is quite alien to Western traditions of perspective. They draw on the story-telling and the two-dimensional format of the famous shadow puppet (wayang) tradition. The figures, rendered like stiff icons, typify the rougher aspect of Balinese painting. In works such as his Awakening Kumbakarna, Masriadi demonstrates his connections to the foundations of Balinese painting in narrative, in this case specifically to the ancient Hindu epic, the Ramayana, in which the demon Kumbakarna is the last great weapon to use against the hero, Rama (Fig. 3). Produced in 1999 after Indonesia’s most important awakening in Masriadi’s life, the fall of the dictator Suharto, the work gives a contemporary context to mythology, something most Balinese artists do. This painting is ambiguous, since Kumbakarna is a demon to be fought off, and the democratic reawakening of the nation in 1998 also awoke demons of violence and destruction.

Fig. 1 I Nyoman Mandra, 2009 (photo Gustra).

Masriadi’s works impress us with their combinations of line, flatness and dense narrative. The purest expressions of these artistic foundations are still practised in the village of Kamasan, in Klungkung, southeast Bali. The art of Kamasan is regarded not just as the high point of tradition but also as the epitome of the classical form of Balinese painting that connects directly to the wayang or shadow puppet theatre. Today, one artist stands out as an advocate of that tradition. I Nyoman Mandra is acknowledged throughout Indonesia as the master painter and teacher of Kamasan painting. Mandra’s work is a demonstration of how artistic accomplishment is the product of long craft training.

Mandra’s painting of the semi-divine bird Garuda from the Hindu Mahabharata epic, exemplifies the ‘classic’ form (Fig. 2). The figures are directly based on shadow puppets, displaying a different type of conflict, one between the central figure of the anthropomorphic Garuda eagle and the gods of the directions. This is a conflict to obtain the divine liquid of immortality, and thus the scene mirrors aspects of Balinese ceremonies in which holy water occupies a central position.

While Balinese paintings are nowadays found primarily in galleries and museums, traditional works were originally placed in temples and palaces. Mandra’s village of Kamasan is one of the few villages that still brings out paintings for temple festivals, to hang around the eaves of pavilions or on backing boards of offering places. This ceremonial context tells us something about the religious basis of Balinese art. Paintings are meant to convey meanings that bridge communication between the material world humans inhabit and the immaterial world of divine and demonic forces.

Balinese painters often have experience in the other arts. For example, Nyoman Mandra is also a musician in the refined Semar Pagulingan musical ensemble of his village. In the past, Kamasan village had as many as twelve puppeteers in residence. Other painters are also sculptors. This practical interrelationship between the arts means that each draws on the other—paintings have aspects of performance—and that the sense of plastic form realized in sculpture carries over into the two-dimensional arts. This interdependence of art forms allows us to talk about generalized Balinese aesthetic principles, even though each form has unique elements, and there is astonishing variation between villages and areas in each of the arts.

Fig. 2 I Nyoman Mandra, Kamasan, Garuda Nawasanga, Garuda and the Gods of the Directions. Garuda fights the gods as he claims the elixir of life: North (top): Wisnu with his weapon, the cakra or discus; Northwest (clockwise, to the right of Wisnu): Sangkara, angkus or elephant goad; West: Mahadewa, nagapasa or snake arrow; Southwest: Rudra, moksala or mace; South: Brahma, danda or club; Southeast: Maheswara, dupa or fire weapon; East: Iswara, bajra or thunderbolt weapon; Northeast: Sambu, trisula or trident (arrow), 1993, natural paint on cotton, 252 x 227 cm, Gunarsa Museum, USA (photo Gustra).

The painting tradition has a repertoire of images and forms that are integral to even the most contemporary works of art, but while many contemporary works have a universal audience, there are other aspects of Balinese painting that remain strange and inaccessible to outside viewers. What do such viewers need to know in order to appreciate Balinese works?

Fig. 3 I Nyoman Masriadi, Yogyakarta, Awakening Kumbakarna, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 200 cm, OHD Museum Collection, Magelang (photo Gajah Gallery).

Balinese Aesthetics

The exquisite flow of line and pure, flat figuration in Mandra’s work is the key to the sense of beauty that Balinese appreciate in painting. Part of that beauty, the way a painting can move the viewer, comes from a canon of proportions and forms. Tradition, however, does not mean absence of change, and individual expression comes from the manipulation of pre-set forms. These are the starting points for understanding Balinese taste.

A revealing commentary on Mandra’s art comes from a fellow Balinese painter. Pioneer of Balinese modernist art, I Nyoman Gunarsa (1944–) is himself a painter of figures derived from the shadow theatre, but in an abstracted, painterly style. He describes Mandra’s accomplishments as a combination of adherence to the rules of the style, with ultimate expressive facility. Gunarsa is saying that what looks to outsiders like conventional work is ‘the realization of set forms and technical problems’. Mandra goes through ‘stages that must be followed in a set manner, in order to gain the maximum classic result’.

Gunarsa observes that Mandra’s control is also over ‘the form of the … proportions of the figures, the iconography, the facial features or character of the refined, coarse, demonic and monster figures’. This attention to proportion and iconographic convention involves ‘the differing symbolic uses of colours for some characters, such as red, yellow and blue, that each have their own meanings; the symbolic hand gestures (or mudra) of each figure, as well as the foot movements, body stances’.... ‘In making a figure, he has to demonstrate control over all the elements of the shadow puppet (wayang) theatre form.’ Mandra’s ‘control of the ideal wayang proportions includes his overall framing outlines which are then refined with precision and attention to detail’.

Fig. 4 Ida Bagus Made Bala, Batuan, Kajang or shroud, before 1937, ink on cotton, 65.5 x 162 cm, collected by Margaret Mead, courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, 700-8305.

While Gunarsa’s description of Mandra at work may sound like a process of simple adherence to craft, it is in fact highly creative, since Mandra is ‘dealing with problems on the level of ideas that are played out in the narratives of the Mahabhrata, Ramayana and so on’. The creativity comes through Mandra’s feeling for the tradition, ‘where he can reflexively work from his sharp memory of what the iconography is for each character, using strokes that are precise and spontaneous, but exactly to the mark, and without repetition in the realization of each figure’.¹

Gunarsa here identifies the elements of Balinese aesthetics: the importance of proportion, the nature of colour, the linear and figurative aspect of the art, and the sense of story, which includes a shared iconography that crosses from traditional to modern and contemporary art. Balinese painting is also arrangements of figures on a ground or screen, as the reference to the shadow theatre implies.

Proportion

To an artist such as Mandra, beauty, appropriateness and proportion are inseparable, because, according to another Balinese commentator on art, ‘harmony is experienced as aesthetic satisfaction’.² The underlying outlook is that the spiritual dimension of art is part of the unity of humanity and nature. Thus, according to Anak Agung Made Djelantik, Western-trained medical doctor and co-founder of a number of cultural institutions in Bali, ‘forms seem to evoke spirituality’.³ Djelantik elsewhere observes that the values of traditional art are found in an artist’s aim ‘to put down in his painting his skill to the utmost, aiming at perfection of line, form and proportion, elegance in form and colour, well-measured harmony, contrast and balance’.⁴

In Gunarsa’s description, proportion is central to Balinese aesthetics, but what does he mean by this? Proportion refers to adherence to established conventions about the relative size of parts of figures, which are in turn related to the measurements that come from the human body. These measurements are set down in craft manuals. They are similar to medieval Western systems of measurement, although in the Balinese case each measurement is seen as a human manifestation of elements that exist in the wider cosmos.

Correctness of proportions is part of being in tune with the workings of divine forces in the world. Gunarsa’s description makes it clear that classical ideas of proportion in painting are shared with other arts. Because traditional painting is most closely related to the shadow puppet theatre, the proportions of limbs and head to the body in painting are those of the puppets. They are also connected to ideas of position and how the body is held and moved in theatre, especially in dance-drama.⁵

Balinese aesthetics, as Djelantik observed, do not separate the everyday from what we in the West call ‘the spiritual’. Balinese treatises on art present this connection as the unity between the ‘great world’ of the cosmos (buwana agung) and the ‘little world’ of humanity (buwana alit). In such treatises, an artist meditates to unite the body and the brush with the gods and ancestors.⁶ Thus, painting is an act of meditation, and artists are numbered amongst those who can reconcile the cosmic world beyond the senses (niskala) with the everyday sensory world (sekala).

Traditional artists consecrated into higher forms of esoteric knowledge drew yogic diagrams on death shrouds or kajang, which literally link humans to the otherworld. Some of these artists, such as Ida Bagus Made Bala (1920–42) and Ida Bagus Made Togog (1911–89) of Batuan, used the skills they learnt as kajang makers in producing modern art. They also drew mystical drawings that served as amulets, called rerajahan, which