The plethora of books available on Balinese art can make buying one a confusing task. To aid those readers looking for a guide to Balinese painting, prominent art critic and Bali resident Jean Couteau has provided Bali Echo with a bibliography of the texts available

BALINESE PAINTING (A.A. Made Djelantik) Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1990

Balinese Painting gives a general, but clear overview of the historical development of Balinese painting through its various phases, from the classical pre-colonial times, until the middle of the eighties.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAINTING IN BALI
(Suteja Neka and Garrett Kam) Yayasan Dharma Seni, Ubud,1998

This book purports to give an overview of the development of painting in Bali. But it is actually a catalogue of Suteja Neka’s collection, which is housed in the Neka Museum in Sanggingan, Ubud. The book is beautifully illustrated, but its content belies its titleIts contents can be divided into two basic categories. Firstly, Balinese painting since the renewal period of the thirties, or the so-called Pita Maha period, when the introduction of new techniques and the opening of new markets by resident Western painters (Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet) brought about important thematic and technical changes in Balinese painting. Secondly, paintings on Bali by non-Balinese painters, both Indonesian and foreign. Among painters who fall under the former category, most of whom belong to the Ubud-Padangtegal school, special attention is given to I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, the great Balinese drawer. The latter category focuses on Arie Smit, a Dutch painter who brought new techniques in the late fifties and is at the origin of the Penestanan Young Artists’ School. In spite of its shortcomings, such as the lack chronological logic in the book’s presentation, this books gives us a good overview, if not of Balinese painting, at least of some paintings in Bali.

PERCEPTIONS OF PARADISE:
(Images of Bali in the Arts) Ubud, 1993

This book, by Garret Kam, is perhaps the best general introduction to the thematic aspects of Balinese painting. Written with the obvious purpose to accompany and explain the collection of the Neka Museum in Ubud, it explains in detail the role and function of Balinese painting prior to colonization and comments eagerly on the role, and colonial ambiguities, of the two Western painters to whom is usually attributed the renewal of Balinese painting in the thirties. The main quality of this book, though, lies in the scholarly details it gives on the stories or rituals presented in the paintings of the collection. It is not so much painting the author seems fascinated with, but Balinese society, and in this book Kam’s deep scholarly knowledge of that society becomes evident.

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