ART AND THE ARTIST

THE PLASTIC ARTS IN MODERN BALI

Travellers had started to buy Balinese carvings, however, and on our return to Bali three years later, the Balinese sculptors were turning out mass-production “ objets d'art “ for tourists. Even before arriving in Bali for the second time, we found the curioshops of yacassar and Java filled with statuettes of a decidedly commercial style which was totally new to us. Before this we had made acquaintance with Gusti Ngurah Gede, an old man of Pemetjutan rated among the best sculptors of South Bali.

Although Gusti Gede was so old that he talked with difficulty, he could carve the most delicate motifs in hard wood with a precision and sureness envied by the younger sculptors. He had started to make realistic little statues of nude girls, bathing, combing their hair, or in the process of undressing, masterfully carved out of a fine-grained white wood, figures that found ready sale among travellers. This was perhaps the beginning of a new art in which the sculptor began working for a new public: tourists who had little appreciation of the technical perfection demanded by the Balinese, or foreign artists who preferred line and form to intricate ornamentation.

This necessarily introduced the mercenary element into Balinese art, until then non-existent; prices were boosted and the sculptor suddenly became aware that there was a good income in making statues. On the other hand, this same condition gave the art a new impulse, and sculptors sprang up like mushrooms. Soon every important artistic centre, such as Den Pasar, Mas, Batuan, Pliatan, and Ubud, was turning out quantities of carvings in new styles, mediocre heads of djanger dancers snatched up by round-the-world tourists, stereotyped slim figures from Mas exported to Java and Holland; while the splendid sculptors from Badung and Batuan carved coconut shells from Bangli and so forth.

Gusti Gede was also the master of a school of sculptors and every morning boys from the town went to his house to receive lessons and to assist him. Some of his pupils were already fine carvers and could turn out statues almost as finished as those of the master. In his school we had the opportunity to observe the technique of wood-carving, which is considerably more refined and requires greater skill than the carvings in paras stone.

Hard woods such as teak (djati) , jackfruit (nangka), and the compact sawo, a beautiful dark red wood, are invariably used and the sculptor must have a sure hand, trained by the experience of years, and a good knowledge of the art of cutting into the grain of the wood. He uses every conceivable form of knives, chisels, and gouges: round, straight, slanting, V-shaped, and so forth, some of which are intended for exceptionally deep carving. A complete set of tools consists of some thirty instruments and a wooden mallet.

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