Bali The Arts
Han Snel’s Retrospective Exhibition: Ubud
Numerous foreign artists have made Bali their home and created their own themes and styles in painting the Balinese and their culture and religion. Bali became an artist enclave for avant-garde artists such as Walter Spies, Rudolf Bonnet, Arie Smit and the most famous being Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur who married Ni Pollock, a renowned legong dancer. The 1920’s saw an artistic flurry on the island and the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias noted that local paintings served primarily religious or ceremonial functions. Han Snel was another of these foreign artists to grace the shores of Bali. Han Snel was born in 1925 in Scheveningen, in the Netherlands. After his arrival in 1946 with the Dutch military forces he was immediately tasked with fighting Japanese troops and the newly born army of the Republic of Indonesia. As most visiting artists do, Snel immediately fell in love with the island. Like Mayeur, he married a local girl and subsequently applied for Indonesian citizenship and embraced Balinese Hinduism. In Ubud there is an exhibition of Han Snel’s paintings that most visitors who have a penchant for art will like to see.
Date: May 29th, 2008 |
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Bali Arts Festival Dates
The one festival and time of the year I enjoy is the Bali Arts Festival. A potpourri of drama, dance and culture combine to make it one of the most enjoyable attractions of the year. Twenty provinces from Indonesia will join the festival this year by presenting their cultural arts and handicrafts as well as twelve arts troupe from eight countries. The international events would include a world `wayang` (puppet shadow) festival and an ASEAN ethnic music festival. The theme this year will be “Citta Wretti Nirodha” or a self-controlling behaviour toward the balance and …
Date: May 1st, 2008 |
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Two Exhibitions in Bali
Being a great lover of the arts and forever in galleries and museums, it is the art of photography that is my passion. Travel anywhere in Bali and the photographic opportunities are endless. The same can be said for the rest of Indonesia and in fact, South-East Asia. Currently there are two excellent photographic exhibitions in Bali. Here’s more from Bali Discovery.
Date: April 18th, 2008 |
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The Le Mayeur Museum: Sanur Bali
One of Bali’s famous expats was Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpes, a Belgian painter, who came to Bali in 1932. His story is that after travelling the world, and painting scenes of places such as Benares in india, he came too Bali, living first close to Denpasar. There he met a 15 year old Balinese dancer, Ni Pollok who was considered the best legong dancer in the whole of Bali. Le Mayeur indended only to stay in Bali for 8 months, but after painting Ni Pollok, and getting romantically involved, he decided to stay in Bali for good. Le Mayeur built a small house on Sanur Beach, which is now a museam. Admission is 2,000rp and the hours are Sun-Fri 8am-4pm. Inside the bungalow, Mike and I viewed some of Le Mayeur’s oil paintings, many of which feature the semi-clad Ni Pollok, or other Balinese ladies in the process of some activity, such as weaving.
Date: December 13th, 2006 |
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The Le Mayeur Museum in Sanur Bali
The history of Bali is dotted with foreigners who spent time here and somehow made a difference. One of those people was Belgian artist Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres (1880-1958). He arrived in Bali in 1932 and lived in the village of Klandis close to Denpasar. While living there he met a local Balinese dancer named Ni Pollok who was a famous legong dancer and considered the best in Bali.
Date: November 11th, 2006 |
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Bali Kite Festival
There are several main cultural events in Bali that draw the crowds. For instance, the Bali Arts Festival, the Writer’s Festival to mention a few, but it is the Bali Kite Festival that is appreciated by young and old, whether they be international tourists or domestic tourists. The annual international Kite Festival is held in July at Padang Galak area of Sanur Beach and attracts competitors worldwide. Actually, the event is a seasonal religious festival intended to send a message to the Hindu Gods to create abundant crops and harvests. These giant and colourful kites …
Date: May 27th, 2008 |
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Jason Monet Exhibition: Ubud
Art and orangutans don’t appear to have much in common. However, for internationally recognized artist Jason Monet, conservation of the threatened primate starts with bamboo. According to the Bali-based artist, the more the arts, architecture and just about everything else from food to furniture uses bamboo, the longer orangutans on Sumatra and Kalimantan will have a home. Jason has been working with bamboo for the past two years, using it for his sculptures and to frame his paintings.
Date: May 1st, 2008 |
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Onstage: Bali’s stage community
Bali has its own stage community, that holds performances of dance, theatre, film and art. The community is called Onstage. Recently I met Jane Chen, one of the people involved in Onstage. She gave me the history and details of an upcoming event.
Date: November 30th, 2006 |
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Where to find Arts & Crafts in Bali
Bali is a mecca for arts and handicrafts. The way they do it over here, is that a particular village will specialize in one thing. I guess this started in the good old Bali tradition of ‘my neighbor is having success doing this, so I should copy’. One expat I talked to said it doesn’t occur to locals to sell other stuff. For example, in Celuk, the silversmith village, they don’t sell woodcarvings. But imagine if you were the only one selling woodcarvings, you might actually sell some!
Date: November 3rd, 2006 |
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