Balinese painting
Up until the eariy twentieth century, Balinese painters, sculptors and woodcarvers dedicated themselves to honouring’ their gods and rajahs with splendid temples and palaces. Though highly skilled, these artists were not paid for their work, and earned their living as farmers or traders. By the 1930s, however, the rajahs had lost much of their power to the Dutch colonials, and foreign tourists were taking their place as patrons of the arts and paying for the work. Gradually, artists began to paint secular subjects, to express’ themselves as individuals and to sign their own pictures. Painting and carving became ‘ full-time and relatively lucrative occupations, and the arts and crafts industry is now one of the most profitable on Baii. In the last few decades, art historians have grouped Balinese painting into broad schools, most of them named after the village where a style originated. Inevitably the categories are overgeneralizcd, but Balinese painlers, like artists working in other media,are not shy about copying good ideas or even reproducing successful work, so it’s not difficult to pinpoint a few representative features and techniques.
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