Bawa puts modern renaissance on canvas

Bawa puts modern renaissance on canvas

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): To look at the paintings of I. Wayan Bawa is to
float back in time to the 16th century, when painters of the
historic period of the High Renaissance in Italy had elevated art
to a level of noble expression.

All his subjects are either photographic portraits of people,
figures of human beings or the passage of sacred Balinese rites
and rituals. He is also a consummate painter of landscapes in a
style that synthesizes all the innovations of contemporary art,
but includes the refined and lyrical practices of ancient masters
as well.

Bawa's beauty lies in his careful observation of life and its
precise documentation, as if he were defending with his very life
and glorifying the value of man on earth. His attempt at the
idealization of the human form is almost like a spiritual
exercise, inspiring in the viewer a sense of the perfection of
god.

Just 26 years old, Bawa is exhibiting for the first time in
the capital; on the inaugural day itself he sold 16 of his most
evocative and atmospheric paintings of the 36 pieces on display.

"I have no clue who the artist is. But look at all the work
that has gone into this. The play of light ... the smoke rising
up from the fires of prayer, the brown and rust atmosphere. I
just love it," gushed an expatriate about the painting she
bought.

Hendra Hadiprana, the well known art consultant, discovered
Bawa while he was still a student at Denpasar's Indonesian Arts
High School when he was in search of someone to paint a portrait
from an ancient photograph. It was two years ago that an art
expert referred him to Bawa. Ever since Hendra has refused to let
go of the artist.

Hendra has been in the art business for over four decades but
he could not think of one artist who could be trusted with the
kind of portrait he wanted. Tini is a friend of Hendra's and
descendant of Raden Adjeng Kartini, the Javanese noblewoman who
was declared by the government as "the heroine of emancipation".

"One morning Tini came to me and said that an elderly ancestor
spoke to her in her dream asking her to immortalize him on
canvas," recalls Hendra, who was given a worn-out photograph by
Tini of the Javanese aristocrat to be enlarged into a life-sized
portrait. Today that stunning portrait is one of the most prized
possessions in Hendra's personal collection of hundreds of
paintings.

Hendra finally found Bawa in Bali, painting from a humble home
in the picturesque village of Tebesaya, Ubud. In fact, the father
and brother of Bawa are also painters but their work is the usual
stuff that is picked up by tourists in bulk.

"Bawa is different. He is very talented and the most
attractive aspect of his work is its simplicity," says Hendra,
who also admires the artist for his patient and focused demeanor.

Bawa is so unworldly that he was prepared to travel from Bali
to Jakarta in a bus. He had never flown in an airplane before; he
looked a little bewildered when he was told that he was flying
for the inauguration of his exhibition.

Asked to pick his favorite painting for The Jakarta Post, Bawa
perched himself before an enigmatic work of the Barong figure,
proving how seeped he really is in traditional themes which he
explores with such panache in a completely modern style.

The exhibition is open until April 16 at Mitra Hadiprana art
gallery in Kemang, South Jakarta. For further information, call
7194715 or 7198547.