Balinese Painting and Technology: Art vs. Tech

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Balinese Painting and Technology: Technology vs./and Art

History shows that the technology Balinese artists had available to them changed the style of painting they created. Will the computer itself be used to create new works in Bali, might it be used to readdress old themes. Just how significant is a new tool after a forty-year long period of increased Western influence?

"Materials always effect artists," states Arie Smit, "Van Gogh is one of the best examples. He exploited the change in availability of commercial art supplies, using abundant layers of paint. Until that time, an artist needed a servant to prepare the pigments and ready them for the painter. His work reflects the availablity, although he relied solely on his brother Theo to provide them. Look at the abstract artists (like DeKooning) who just pour the paint onto a canvas, they didn't have to care about where the next can would come from, it's nothing, endless." He points to an ornately carved door at his home, "People wonder why traditional Balinese painting seems so flat, without depth. This is why, their original canvas was wood, and carving was how they painted. These materials effected how their painting developed."

Smit is credited with bring modern material to Balinese painters, inspiring an entire genre, the Young Artists. "(In th 1940's) Bonnet used Goache paint, Even as Balinese artists began utilizing these, they used them very judiciously," says Smit, "and sometimes I think it was not for the better. Look for instance at the introduction of color in movies." Perhaps the films were more attuned to light and composition before the new color? "Yes, I think they were better."

Smit had worked in Bandung with, among others, the UNSECO International Childrens's project where he gained much experience with childrens painting. "Children always paint their environment, so when I got to Bali I opened my studio, provided materials, and let the children paint what they wanted." But materials, the technology that allowed them to create were in very short supply even up through to the 70's. "I used any means possible to get supplies, I traded my own paintings, begged for care packages from visiting tourists, eventually in 1963 the MOMA in San Francisco staged an exhibit of our work that traveled to colleges around the United States. That exposure finally started a steady stream of supplies, and continued to grow the Young Artists community."

What about the computer as a tool for making art? "Yes, you use you eyes, your hands, your artistic vision," replies Smit. "I don't know about computers, but who knows, maybe the art of the future is some sort of 3D experience you go into and Coke bottles come down from the sky. It could be the natural death of physical art."

The topic of the computer as a means of creating art is a logical question. When photography was invented people thought it would be the end of portrait painters. In Bali, where art forms seem to be strongly influenced by culture and a persons soul, the question elicits strong opinions. Agung Rai explains, "The computer is too artificial to create Pure Art. It blocks the transformation of spirit into real form." Suteja Neka disagrees, "Yes there is computer art, like there is sculpture as art, painting as art. The problem is trying to compare them. You can't! They are completely different, but art just the same." He suspects that some Balinese artists will embrace the computer just as they adapted to oil and acryilic painting.

Antonio Blanco, a Manilla-born Spanish artist has lived in Ubud for 50 years. His works are primarily erotic, but his inspiration has always been from Ubud. "The computer for me only speeds messages I get from around the world. I look at the computer and think 'I already use my eyes for painting, and I would use my eyes for this?' It is a matter of dicipline for me, I am the captain, I do not let the boat steer me, I steer the boat."

Arie Smit thought that his friend Han Snel might have made some abstract experiments with computers, Carin Versteegh explains that, "no, Han is very interested in what we do with computers, but when we tried to get him to try a little, maybe to make sketches as studies for paintings. He said, 'no, if I start this I will never paint again.'" So there will continue to be the argument of wether the computer can be used to make art. However,every new tool finds a user.

Some Balinese artists are already using the computer to make their art. A variety of local artist's work can be seen at www.artbali.com. Asmat, by Alex Sandlin is a digitally reworked photographic trio of a traditional Barong Dance mask. David Trevellayn, an Ubud resident sculpture for ten years, teaches computer creativity at a local art school. He points out that Balinese belief of Taksu, the creative force, is a 4000 year-old phenomena. He likens the computer to a Taksu amplifier, changing his personal work in human forms, through the use of digital photography and computers, in ways he couldn't dream of without technology's influence. Www.symonbali.com is an introduction to the "Bali Legend" painter, actually a simple electronic business card.

What's Next?

If you look at the localization of craft in Bali, the woodcarving villages of Tegalalang, the stonecarving village of Batubulan, Batuan's painting center and Ubud, each of these areas has developed around a particular craft. Perhaps a hi-tech artisan groups will develop here as well, maybe not constrained by physical location, but bound together by their abilities to use the computer as a tool in art. The next few years will tell if Balinese artists use the computer to help create new work inspired by their local culture and surroundings, or use the computer merely to recreate the works of previous artists.

However, the increased use of computers here doesn't seem to be the beginning of a monumental change in Balinese art, certainly not like the period around 1940. Computerization is merely a continuation of Western influence that has gone on for 50 years, not a lightning bolt innovation like singular foriegn artists arriving in the center of an ancient culture. I believe there will be a rush of Balinese to learn about the technology. The interesting trend to watch will be if any artistic innovation is sparked by the computer. We wait and see.

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