In contrast to the slightly romanticized visions of village events being painted by the Ubud-style artists in the 1930s, a group of painters in the nearby village of Batuan were coming up with more thought-provoking interpretations of Balincse life. Like (lie Ubud artists, Bataan-style painters filled their works with scores of people, but on a much more frantic and wide-ranging scale. A single Batuan-style picture might contain a dozen apparently unrelated scenes – a temple dance, a rice harvest, a fishing expedition, an exorcism, and a couple of tourists taking snapshots – all depicted in fine detail that strikes a balance between the naturalistic and the stylized. By clever juxtaposition, the best Batuan artists – like the Neka Museum exhibitors I Wayaii Bendi, I Made Budi and Ni Wayan Warti – can turn their pictures into amusing and astute comments on Balinese society. Works by their precursors, the original Batuan artists, Ida Bagus Made Togog and Ida Bagus Made Wija, focused more on the darker side of village life and on the supernatural beings that hung around the temples and forests.

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