Balinese art museums need more maintenance

By Rosemarie F. Oei

UBUD, Bali (JP): Since at least before World War II, Balinese artworks have left the island through sales and exhibitions. Foreign artists residing in Bali in the 1930s like Rudolf Bonnet and the Balinese themselves became concerned about how to keep the artworks in their place of origin.

Museum Puri Lukisan was opened to the public in 1956 with the objective to keep traditional art and maintain it as part of the island's cultural heritage.

Today, after almost 44 years, the museum's collection is showing its age. Maintenance at the museum needs to be improved, including indoor climate control according to museum standards.

The deterioration and lack of upkeep were evident in the exhibition Magic and Modernism, a selection of works from private collections, organized from Sept. 25 to Nov. 30 at the museum.

Thanks to better care and conservation, the works owned by collectors overseas appeared vivid as though they were created recently.

It raises the question whether the Balinese who observed the paintings and drawings in the exhibition will not feel the same genuine concern that the uniqueness of their past will be destroyed by the vagaries of climate and neglect.

The accompanying question is how to reacquire these Balinese art treasures from foreign hands for the island.

There are three types of preservation.

First is preventive preservation, which is meant to prevent damage to a collection, such as providing constant security during an exhibition.

If damage is observed, a thorough repair program and periodic inspections could be introduced to prevent further problems.

There is active preservation, involving repairing the damage and return the object to its original condition. Here we are talking about professional approach, methodology and, most of all, the impact of those activities undertaken by restorers on the paintings.

Active preservation is necessary not only for generations to come, but because art is a witness of time holding significant historical value.

Foreign restoration experts who examined the collection of Museum Puri Lukisan concluded that 90 percent of the collection should be preserved.

Most important is to set priorities for the most urgent works. Plans should be made and, most importantly, the facilities should be accessible to those who are concerned about the collection and are willing to undertake actions in their preservation.

It should thus be clear that after restoration treatments, the condition of the environment should be improved as well as to accommodate the restored collection. Therefore to ensure the vitality of a main collection, it is wise to create a setting with proper climate control for relative humidity (RH) and temperature, and proper care of handling the collection by professionals.

This maintenance will check or at least slow down further damage over time. As with other institutions around the world, museums in Bali reflect a complex mixture of state and private motivation, along with problems of ownership, identity and politics of heritage. Most significantly, the museum is an attraction for tourists wishing to explore Balinese culture. Museums are booming in the cultural heartland of Ubud, which offers the finest representation of art developments in Balinese art history.

Still, there is a serious but insidious problem in Bali's museums. The quality of the collection in several museums is deteriorating due to poor climate control..

An example is Le Mayeur Museum in Sanur, where the physical condition of the pavilion is poor due to water intrusion.

Proper equipment like a thermohygrograph to measure the relative humidity and temperature and dehumidifiers in the pavilion should provide temporary support before steps are taken in a substantial conservation plan.

Proper housekeeping and regular photographic records of the objects should present a representative overview of the situation.

While it seems to be tolerated and accepted to build a museum for the community, it ought to be related to maintenance of collection as well, otherwise all efforts to preserve a cultural heritage for future generations will undermined.

The second question gives rise to various opinions. Some will urge the private collectors to "give back" the collections into Balinese hands; others will see the collections more as commercial commodity and invest their money in buying the collections back through auctions.

The latter, who are not necessarily Balinese in their origin although they are Indonesian, seem determined to attend the auctions and extend their knowledge of Balinese paintings by consulting art dealers in Bali.

In Magic and Modernism, the museum sought to raise the awareness of local people that their ancestors created marvelous, beautiful art, which according to exhibition curator Leo Haks, was actually made to be sold to foreign tourists in the past. This is the reason many Balinese artworks are now abroad.

"In the last five years, the commercial interest in Indonesian and Indo-European paintings has grown considerably. Prices are rising dramatically. The Pre-War Balinese modernists also became part of this commercial circuit," said Job Ubbens, commercial director of Christie's in Amsterdam, in the exhibition catalog.

During the exhibition several questions were asked whether there was the consideration to keep the collection of the finest selection of Balinese paintings from Batuan, Sanur and Ubud from the period 1928 to 1942 in Bali.

Yet one must also ask whether the Balinese themselves view the collection as heritage which should be kept in Bali and carefully preserved for further generations. Or is the collection regarded as capital to exploit for profit.

According to museum curator A.A. Ngurah Muning, the collection should be kept in Museum Puri Lukisan, which is more than appropriate if one knows the history of museum, set up by the Dutch painter Bonnet and Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati from Puri Ubud to conserve Balinese art.

But for other Balinese who are dealing in Balinese paintings, it would be an easier job if there were more paintings of quality in the market to increase opportunities to buy and sell.

For the exhibition curators Leo Haks and Gus Maris, who have been involved for 20 years gathering their collection of pre-war Balinese modernists, this collection is not just a collection, but their life work and their efforts to individualize all the works. There the Balinese artists in the past rarely signed or annotated their work.

These efforts resulted in an exhibition catalog along with a CD-ROM, which serve as a guide for those who wish to do deeper research into the paintings.

The writer is a consultant in museology based at Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud, Bali.