Neka Museum, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
We visited NEKA Museum which is located in Ubud, Bali on May 11, 2022. Neka Art Museum is one of fully documented and well displayed buildings based on traditional Balinese architecture, and the collection is among finest of its kind in the world. It was established in 1982 by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, better known as Suteja Neka, a Balinese art dealer who had begun collecting Balinese art with the advice and help of painters Rudolf Bonnet and Arie Smit among others.
In this visit, we had an opportunity to view some beautiful collections of art and paintings from various styles. Separate buildings based on traditional Balinese architecture take us through the history of the development of painting in Bali.
The first room in the Balinese painting Hall displays classical Wayang (Puppet figure) paintings with narrative episodes from the Indian Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, Balinese-Javanese romances and almanacs with scenes of daily life. Dating from at least the 17th century, the style has been maintained by Mangku Mura, I Nyoman Mandra, and I Nyoman Arcana in Kamasan, Klungkung.
The next two rooms show works with Western influences that first appeared after the 1920s in Ubud, thus giving its name to the style. Walter Spies (German, 1895-1942), and Johan Rudolf Bonnet (Dutch, 1895-1978) lived in the area and introduced Western aesthetics of light and shadow, depth and anatomy.
Works in the fourth room show less influences from western aesthetics. Batuan style painting, conducted by Ida Bagus Togog and Ida Bagus Wija. Their paintings usually are dark and dense with stylized figures, often distorted perspective or multiple views. The Batuan style often has themes from literature and ritual.
There are still several rooms such as Art of Arie Smit Pavilion, Young Artists Style Painting Pavilion, Contemporary Balinese Painting, Art of I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Contemporary Indoneisan Art and Art by Artists from Abroad.
From this visit, we are truly learning about the development of Balinese painting from time to time, from local and international painters who ever live in Bali. We observed that most local painters often depict the painting on the activity of daily life of Balinese community, such as ritual, ceremonies, agriculture and local market activities.
In addition to paintings, there is also the Keris Collection. With almost 300 blades, The Neka Art Museum’s Keris Collection is the largest and most important in Indonesia. The Keris is an important aspect of Bali’s and Indonesia’s cultural heritage. Forged in fire but symbolic of water, a keris is a union of cosmic complementary forces. A blade is straight or has an odd number of curves. Keris are like fertile naga (water serpents) whis associated with irrigation canals, rivers, springs, wells, spouts, waterfalls and rainbows.
This visiting program is so precious for our foundation to enrich our knowledge regarding the development of Balinese painting and work of art at the same time to see how culture is applied in everyday life of a society.
In this visit, we had an opportunity to view some beautiful collections of art and paintings from various styles. Separate buildings based on traditional Balinese architecture take us through the history of the development of painting in Bali.
The first room in the Balinese painting Hall displays classical Wayang (Puppet figure) paintings with narrative episodes from the Indian Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, Balinese-Javanese romances and almanacs with scenes of daily life. Dating from at least the 17th century, the style has been maintained by Mangku Mura, I Nyoman Mandra, and I Nyoman Arcana in Kamasan, Klungkung.
The next two rooms show works with Western influences that first appeared after the 1920s in Ubud, thus giving its name to the style. Walter Spies (German, 1895-1942), and Johan Rudolf Bonnet (Dutch, 1895-1978) lived in the area and introduced Western aesthetics of light and shadow, depth and anatomy.
Works in the fourth room show less influences from western aesthetics. Batuan style painting, conducted by Ida Bagus Togog and Ida Bagus Wija. Their paintings usually are dark and dense with stylized figures, often distorted perspective or multiple views. The Batuan style often has themes from literature and ritual.
There are still several rooms such as Art of Arie Smit Pavilion, Young Artists Style Painting Pavilion, Contemporary Balinese Painting, Art of I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Contemporary Indoneisan Art and Art by Artists from Abroad.
From this visit, we are truly learning about the development of Balinese painting from time to time, from local and international painters who ever live in Bali. We observed that most local painters often depict the painting on the activity of daily life of Balinese community, such as ritual, ceremonies, agriculture and local market activities.
In addition to paintings, there is also the Keris Collection. With almost 300 blades, The Neka Art Museum’s Keris Collection is the largest and most important in Indonesia. The Keris is an important aspect of Bali’s and Indonesia’s cultural heritage. Forged in fire but symbolic of water, a keris is a union of cosmic complementary forces. A blade is straight or has an odd number of curves. Keris are like fertile naga (water serpents) whis associated with irrigation canals, rivers, springs, wells, spouts, waterfalls and rainbows.
This visiting program is so precious for our foundation to enrich our knowledge regarding the development of Balinese painting and work of art at the same time to see how culture is applied in everyday life of a society.
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