Batuan Miniaturist style', revisited<\/p>\n
Jean Couteau, Contributor, Denpasar<\/p>\n
An interesting painting exhibition has been taking place at the
\nGanesha Gallery at Four Seasons Hotel, Jimbaran. Titled Style by
\nMade Jata and Wayan Rajin, it takes us, through these two
\nmasters, to the origin of what has been one of the main, little-
\nknown developments of Balinese post-World War II painting, the
\n\"Batuan Miniaturist style\".<\/p>\n
The village of Batuan, one of the oldest centers of Balinese
\ntraditional culture, came into being in the late 1920s under the
\ninfluence of two Western artists who had settled in Ubud under
\nthe patronage of the Sukawati princes of the latter village.<\/p>\n
The story of these two artists is well known, and so is their
\ninfluence on Balinese painting history. They introduced new
\nmaterials and opened new markets, setting off the Pitamaha
\nrenewal of the 1930s.<\/p>\n
Batuan was part of the Pitamaha movement. Its artists quickly
\nadopted Chinese ink and the use of paper, yet its artists kept
\nfree from the formal, stylized influence that pervaded the
\nartists from the Ubud area, where Bonnet's \"anatomism\" has left
\nto this day deep traces.<\/p>\n
In Batuan there developed instead a rich, dense use of Chinese
\nink in washes, layered to create an atmosphere of dark shades off
\nwhite highlights. The paintings depicted Balinese daily life or
\nthe strange ghosts and spirits haunting the Balinese people's
\npsyche. As shown by Hildred Geertz's Images of Power (1994), this
\nearly Batuan school of the 1930s was a short period of absolute
\nexpressive freedom.<\/p>\n
It is against the background of this early Batuan school,
\nwhich bloomed in the 1930s, that the new \"Miniaturist School\"
\nappeared in the late 1960s in an altogether different spirit.<\/p>\n
While the Batuan School of the 1930s had emphasized the
\nexpressive thematic aspect in an often rough visual manner, the
\nMiniature School emphasized the formal aspect. It developed, to
\nan extraordinary degree of sophistication, the use of Chinese ink
\nwash introduced four decades earlier.<\/p>\n
This transformation was spurred in part by the renewed wave of
\ntourism following the rise of Soeharto to power in 1965: People
\nwere visiting Batuan and looking for paintings. At its origin was
\nMade Jata (born 1910).<\/p>\n
A sophisticated draughtsman, he took on his own son, Wayan
\nRajin (born 1945), and two of his nephews, Made Tubuh and Ketut
\nMurtika, as apprentices in his workshop. All were highly
\ntalented, and were soon competing with each other about who could
\nproduce the most intricate paintings, the smallest drawing, and
\nthe finest layering of Chinese ink wash. The impressive
\ncombination of their talent soon led to the burgeoning of a new
\nschool, the Miniaturist School of Batuan. This Chinese ink
\ntechnique was similar to that of preceding artists, but the
\ndrawing was finer and a layer of color was added to the Chinese
\nink. The themes were mainly borrowed from traditional stories and
\nmyths from the wayang kulit puppet show.<\/p>\n
The works exhibited at the Ganesha Gallery are some of the
\nlate works of the two masters of this school, Made Jata and Wayan
\nRajin, both of whom are dead.<\/p>\n
They are a good introduction to Balinese esthetics. Forget the
\ndiscriminated organization of space, with well defined focus and
\neasily identified in Western, or even Far Eastern, art. Expect
\ninstead work that is \"full\" to the point that nothing stands out,
\neither thematically or visually.<\/p>\n
It is work that literally \"blinds one by the accumulation of
\nelements that overfill the surface. To the Westerner, this is
\nbeyond \"appreciation\". Expect also a tight and generalized
\npatterning of the iconic elements.<\/p>\n
In contrast to Western, or again Far Eastern, work, which is
\nalways uniquely structured and made of unpredictable forms,
\nBalinese miniatures, more so than Balinese paintings in general,
\nare \"surpriseless\".<\/p>\n
As if made by computer, they consist essentially of a
\ncombination of a limited number of graphic patterns and
\nsubpatterns regularly distributed on the surface of the canvas.<\/p>\n
There are, for example, three or four types of eyes, five or
\nsix postures, seven or eight types of headdress, etc. But if one
\naccepts that aesthetics may indeed be different and express a
\ncollective feeling rather than an individual expression, and,
\nmore importantly, if, within the system above, one lets the eye
\nroam freely on the surface, gaze at a patterned detail, visually
\ndig into it, then dance on the surface, following step by step
\nthe lines of identification of the drawing, then one enters into
\na different world, a mythical world of classical myths and
\nagrarian balance. One enters into the soul of Bali.<\/p>\n
For those who accept other esthetics and want to see Balinese
\npainting at its most exquisitely sophisticated, Balinese
\nminiatures from the Batuan school are the best way to do it.<\/p>\n
Style by Made Jata and Wayan Rajin at the Ganesha Gallery, Four
\nSeasons Hotel, in Jimbaran, until April 26, 2003.<\/p>",
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