INDIVIDUALISATION

Prior to the Renewal Movement, traditional Balinese artists of the classical wayang style painting did not sign their works. Individual creativity in art, particularly in art for religious purposes, was not encouraged. By the end of the 1970s, however, signs of individualization of village painting traditions began to emerge. Made Sukada pushed the art of portrait to an unequaled level in Bali. Nyoman Meja painted trompe l’oeil works from offerings and rituals. Ketut Budiana and more recently Wayan Miarta came up with fantastic reinterpretations of old religious and mythological themes. In Batuan, Ketut Budi and Wayan Bendi were incorporating modernity and tourism into their depictions of village life, whilst in Pengosekan, Dewa Nyoman Batuan was dealing with philosophical Hindu concepts through his reinterpretation of the mandala.

In a number of regards, Balinese painting of the Renewal period retains features of the pre-colonial style - features which serve to distinguish Balinese painting from that of the West. A ‘modern Western’ painting, for example, is centered around one or several central objects, forms or/and color surfaces. This makes it easy for the viewer to grasp the theme right away, if the work is figurative, or appreciate its composition intuitively, if it is abstract. In Balinese paintings of the Renewal period, as in those of the more recent schools of painting such as Batuan, Pengosekan, Penestanan and Padangtegal, however, the surface of the canvas so fully occupied that no particular object stands out, either thematically or visually. Such dense occupation of the canvas derives from pre-colonial wayang style of painting and is suggestive of a mystic world in which niskala (otherworldly) as equally present as sekala ones (those of the material world).

Another feature of Balinese painting is the tight and generalized patterning. A ‘modern Western’ painting is always uniquely structured and made up of unpredictable forms. By contrast, Balinese painting of the Renewal period contains no surprises whatsoever. Rather, it consists of a combination of a limited number of graphic patterns and sub-patterns regularly distributed over the surface of the canvas. For example, there are three or four types of eyes, five or six kinds of posture, seven or eight different head-dresses, etc. Balinese apprentice painters are taught only a limited number of forms or patterns, and may use only these, with marginal modifications or improvements. Rather than to assert their liberty and originality of expression, the task of a Balinese painter is to reproduce given forms and narrative themes in the manner they have been taught. And for as long as they stay rooted in such traditions of apprenticeship, the various village-based schools of the Renewal Movement remain more aptly classified ‘neo-traditional’ than truly modern.

SCHOOLING AND IDENTITY