Nieuwenkamp first European wandering artists in Bali

By Rosemarie F. Oei

UBUD, Bali (JP): As the first European artist who visited Bali in the early 19th century, Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp produced more than a 1,000 artworks in lithographs, woodcuts, drawings and paintings.

He traveled to Indonesia in 1898 and came to know of the "Islands of Gods" from celebrated Dutch scholar G.P.Rouffaer. He considered the island a paradise for every passionate young artist.

He managed to raise funds to return here after setting up connections with institutions, publishers and museums, and made agreements with curators to collect a number of art objects on their behalf.

It is thanks to Nieuwenkamp that a number of ethnographic museums in Europe possess fine examples of art from the former Dutch colony.

Several of these objects were rescued from the plundering, fire-raising soldiers in the Royal Dutch East-Indian Army.

Before leaving for Bali, the artist studied Balinese art at the University of Leiden and managed to master the sophisticated details in Balinese drawings. This advantage was revealed later in his many drawings of Balinese nature and culture.

Part of his works will be on display at the Puri Museum in Ubud, from April 4 to April 30, part of a traveling exhibition which then continues to the Erasmus Huis in Jakarta until May 6.

Arriving in Buleleng in 1904, Nieuwenkamp bought a bicycle on which to travel the land of his dreams. The scene of the artist on wheels is immortalized in a stone relief in Meduwekarang Temple in Kubutambahan. After several restorations, the relief shows a man in Balinese attire riding a bicycle with lotus flowers as wheels.

While exploring the island, Nieuwenkamp became obsessed with details from costumes, tools, folk tales and architecture.

He was a real explorer who recorded in his special way the present situation as a scientist and an artist. He decided to publish a book about Bali, which took him several years to complete.

The beauty of Bali and Lombok was described based on his sketches and notes in an expensive and impressive publication, Bali en Lombok with only 400 copies which contained more than 250 original drawings.

Suicide

This book, which only recently came to light, is sure to become the most sought-after book for the most fervent collectors of art books.

On his second journey to Bali in 1906, Nieuwenkamp wandered through mountainous areas and outer villages.

When the artist received news that the Dutch were to start invade of the Kingdom of Badung, which is now Denpasar, he dashed back to the coast.

There, he became a witness of the most historically spoken puputan, in which thousands of men, women and children committed suicide rather than surrender to the Dutch.

While the Dutch side wrote this "glorious" event into history as a victory, Nieuwenkamp doubted the need for the invasion.

He wrote to his wife, Anna Wilbrink, and his friends and acquaintances, about his disgust of the "massacre".

One letter to Wilbrink read "I know that my report will contradict the sweetened official propaganda and make me many enemies. I was nauseous to read the 'truth' about the fall of Denpasar and feel disgusted by stories of heroic deeds carried in the newspapers.

"Our soldiers stood at the front gates of the palace when hundreds of Balinese charged out -- men, women and children. The men stabbed the women and children to death and afterwards leapt in front of the troops to allow themselves to be shot ... During the entire operation we (the Dutch) suffered four deaths, sufficient proof that one cannot speak of any true fight."

After agonizing over whether or not to go public because of possible repercussions because of "unpatriotic" remarks, Nieuwenkamp submitted an article about the tragedy to the Algemene Dagblad.

He was greatly frustrated when this, in his opinion, sensational front page article appeared on page nine as an abbreviated and highly edited version, mentioning him as an "emotional artist".

The puputan scene can now be found in many a painters' rendering.

As the rest of Bali fell to the Dutch, Nieuwenkamp was nevertheless accepted in the Balinese community and by nobility.

He then traveled to India, driven by a fascination of Buddhism and Hinduism which he encountered in Bali, and eventually produced another book on his Indian voyages.

In 1914 Nieuwenkamp held exhibitions to promote Indonesian art. He traveled to Bali a few times, watching firsthand its transformation into a tourist destination.

His last visit to Bali in 1937 resulted in a beautiful 1938 calendar. During the last period of his life, Nieuwenkamp dedicated himself to his religious fascination of the East in a number of paintings of Buddha. He died in 1950 of a heart attack.

During his life the artist had written and illustrated about 250 articles in magazines and periodicals, and produced more than 20 publications.

In 1947, he set up a foundation to preserve his works, and opened the Nieuwenkamp museum in Edam, Holland. The museum shut down in 1974 due to financial problems and lack of interest.

His enthusiasm for the East, and especially Indonesia, which inspired him as an artist, was almost forgotten.

Only recently his artworks, including his Bali en Lombok, came to light.

Today his adventures in Bali have been published in another book, W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, First European Artist in Bali by Bruce W. Carpenter. Complete with illustrations and drawings of the artist, the book was launched at the exhibition.

The collection consists of 51 drawings, a small part of the collection managed by the Nieuwenkamp Foundation.

The writer is the curator of the Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud.