Painting

PAINTING. When Balinese painting reached an international audience, it was highly acclaimed as an intriguing and spirited art. Exotic canvases of mysterious jungles harboring imaginary fowl and beasts of prey, of bizarre ceremonies where freakish spooks and vampires accosted people, or where winged maidens hovered above a slapping prince, mystified viewers in the West. Critics praised these extraordinary pictures with flattering allusions to "the jungles of the douanier Rousseau," "the line of Aubrey Beardsley", or "the hellish fantasies of Hieronymus Boosh". The significance being, of course, that here the inspiration was uniquely Balinese, with no attempt on the part of the painters to imitate foreign or primitive styles. The true merit of these works lay in a creative distillation of the exuberant life on an enchanted island.

These paintings were created when a new spirit of innovation swept through the Balinese art community during the thirties. Before that time, painting was little in evidence as a living art. Aside from painting artifacts of daily use or wooden statues, the Balinese made pictures of only, three kinds: iders-iders, scroll paintings in the shape of long bands which were suspended along the eaves of temple shrines; langse, large rectangular paintings used as hangings or curtains in the pavilions of palace and temple; and painted astrological calendars showing the lucky days in each month. Most of these were narrative paintings with mythological themes. In particular, they illustrated popular episodes from the Hindu epics and classical literature. Always they were executed in the traditional wayang style, a formalized mode of painting inspired by the Wayang Kulit shadow play, still ardently pursued by man ' y painters, especially those living around the eastern capital of Klungkung.

Everything within a wayang painting is governed by a set of rules: the characters portrayed, the scenery, the composition, even the colors which are traditionally limited to five hues (red, blue, brown, yellow, a light ochre for flesh), white and black. All available space is covered with patterns, including the white background which is sprinkled with colored clouds. As a narrative painting, it usually contains a number of episodes with the same figure reappearing in several scenes, each scene being partitioned by a conventional border of mountains, flames, or ornamental walls. Battle scenesare crowded and desperate with masses of blood-spattered bodies under a canopy of flying arrows and strange weapons. Scenes where divinities hold council are symmetrically composed in neatly arranged rows, the figure of each deity enclosed by a golden nimbus.

Like the Wayang Kulit play, individual characters are denoted by their conventional attributes. Characters of the "refined" type deities, princes and heroes-are richly clothed in courtly dress, and wear elaborate headdresses and opulent jewels of a type only found in ancient sculptures. Their gestures are studied and graceful, reminiscent of the formal movements in the classical dance. Their faces always remain serene with a slight smile upon the lips even in the most ferocious battle or grueling torture. Those belonging to the "rough" type-devils, giants and clowns-have round, bulging eyes, canine teeth, bulbous noses and sometimes small horns sprouting from their temples. Their attitudes are more violent, their colors darker, and their bodies bulky and covered with hair. In all the characters, faces are drawn in a three-quarter view. Rarely does one see a full face and never a profile

Wayang paintings are produced in workshops where the master painter draws the outline of the picture, which is then colored in by his assistants. This tradition of coloring in outlines persists, as Balinese painting, old and new, is basically colored drawing.

Although wayang paintings hold to a strict code of conventions, they retain a fine sense of design and purity of style. The beauty in their rigid formality is reminisce of Byzantine mosaics or illuminated manuscripts. Just as the narrative art of the middle Ages in Europe illustrated stories from the New Testament, so these narrative paintings once served as an important expression of a vibrant mythology that was, and still is, deeply ingrained in the hearts, of all Indonesians.

Traditional painting was stagnating when the new movement set in. Most of the panels within the temples remained unpainted and artists received few commissions from the palaces. The revival came about during the thirties, stimulated by two foreign artists, Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet. The introduction of modern materials-precut pads of paper, ink, watercolors and tempera- and the sudden increase in foreign demand which introduced the novel idea of framing a picture, stimulated painters to experiment in style and media. As a result, there was a change from narrative paintings to canvases restricting their subject matter to a single scene. Gusti Njoman Lempad of Ubud, for example filled complete drawing pads with individual scenes from the Ramayana epic, his sketches often highlighted with specks of gold and red.

From the mythical realm of super-heroes, painters increasingly turned to themes of daily life village streets, harvest, markets, ritual ceremonies and dramatic spectacles- subject's artists had never attempted before. Liberated from a convention ridden style, painting gained an independence which enabled artists to present freely the beautiful world of Bali .

This new trend in painting flourished in the lively art centers of South Bali . The village of Batuan, just south of Ubud, startled viewers with a surge of creativity. The paintings recalled the artists' own experiences, yet in mood the pictures were dark arid foreboding. Canvases were filled to capacity with crowded forms sketched in half tone against solid black backgrounds. Fragile, stick like figures of villagers seemed encased in the surging vegetation of weird forests haunted by strange animals and figures of sorcery. Around Ubud, artists took to painting rustic scenes of village life that contained a powerful eclectic vision of festivity. In the coastal village of Sanur , Ida Bagus Rai, an outstanding Balinese painter, devoted his work to themes of the sea-fishermen, turtles, crabs, submarine monsters and ocean birds. His marvelous ink drawings were distinguished by a sharp awareness of the people around him and sheer joy good witticisms, like a drawing of two anthropomorphic fish conversing underwater now, Linder the patronage of Australian artist Donald Friend, Ida Bagus Rai has begun adding selective details of modernity to his work, such as a diligent tourist snapping away with his camera while perched on a chair at a Balinese market place

This birth of individualism rescued the art from its dormant state, but the impetus was short-lived. The outbreak of World War 11, followed by the Indonesian Revolution, put a halt to much of the activity in Bali 's art centers. By the fifties, a good deal of the original force in the early paintings was lost. Content became weak and insipid: idyllic scenes of cockfights, dancers or harvests which were essentially the work of copyists who produced for tourist consumption.

It was during this general lull in creativity. That an entirely new style of painting emerged in Ubud and Sanur which came to be called "The Young Artists School". Boys from thirteen to twenty began making startling canvases noted for their bold simplicity in line and brilliant, aggressive colors. Painter Arie Smit took Special interest in this new style. As an experienced art teacher, he taught European painting techniques to the young artists, but left the choice of subject matter, color and composition entirely up to his pupil. The result was a flow of fresh, vivid portrayals of Balinese life and fantasy through an enchanting interplay of innocence and insight the paintings at their best recaptured the spirit of present-day Bali , but sometimes descended to the vulgar. After all, where else but on this island could a witch and an automobile command the same reality?

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