Balinese Art
Art is an integral part of life in Bali. So far as performing arts are concerned, there are troupes that perform dance-drama based on our epic Ramayana and there are a number of artisans engaged in sculpture, fabric painting, woodwork etc. I was amazed to see a large number of art-shops lined on both sides of the road as we drove North. These were predominated by sculpture shops and there were so many that I turned around and asked our guide where did they find so many buyers for their work. (Most foreign tourists to Bali come from nearby Australia and not from the United States). He informed us that most of the buying was done by the locals.
We had seen a curtain-raiser on Balinese art in the Museum that we had visited the previous day. It was a modest museum by all standards and had been started by the Dutch when they ruled this country. It was housed in a small palace (once again a modest palace by Indian standards); select pieces of sculpture were lined up on the surrounding walls and some artifacts and paintings were displayed inside. But before we entered the small museum we were attracted by a young Balinese couple that was having a photo-session in their traditional attire against the background of this historic place. The couple had probably been engaged( to be married) the same day. The couple was very pretty and looked even prettier in their traditional dress and we lost no time in asking for their permission to take their pictures and the couple obliged. You can see below a piece of what I term as God’s art.
As we entered the museum our attention was arrested by a work of art in front of us. It too depicted a Balinese couple in their traditional attire. See below. Because of the reflection of the camera flash the picture has been damaged a little but even then the object of the picture is spectacular enough This is human art.
We also liked the few artifacts that were on display inside the museum. I particularly liked the ones that you see in the picture below. You can notice the semi-human profiling of the male figures (showing the animal inside us?) while the women figures look superbly or rather desirably- feminine.
We shall continue with Balinese art in our next part…