Art
Balinese art forms are primarily classified under three major categories of which Batuan Style (distinct from the Ubud Style) which originated in Batuan is one style which has absorbed the traditional art form to the present dynamic art styles; the other two Bali art styles are the Ubud style of Ubed and the Sanur style which have been further supplemented by an "Young Artists" style of 1960s of Penestanan (the artists village) origin influenced by the Dutch artists. In the Batuan style of painting, the emphasis is adoption of sombre colour, generally in black and white with preponderance of mystic Balinese religious ethos related to sorcery and witchcraft. They are also famous for the miniature painting with great attention paid to detailing.[10][11] The artists have an eye for detail as they paint with great patience. Vegetation is drawn in a stylised format, but each leaf is painted and shaded. The patterns, even in batik sarongs, have the minor figures drawn very carefully. Even the open space is filled with pulsating marks. Scenes emerge from the canvas and retreat into the vegetation such as a dog fight, a love affair, a group of gamblers, all shown in a corner of the canvas.[6]
Batuan village gave its name to a style of painting which evolved in the 1930s after a group of local villagers, Ida Bagus Made Togog and Ida Bagus Made Wija began experimenting with ink-washed paintings on black backgrounds. These are popular to this day.[12] The black and white background was said to evoke the supernatural.[8] Artists in Batuan later changed to gouache and acrylics. In the early years of the Batuan genre art, Batuan artists explored subjects that concerned themselves rather than creating tourist art. While anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson had a special relationship with Batuan artists, they avoided influencing them and were careful in what Western pictures they were to show to the Batuans. Batuan artists depicted only a traditional world in their pictures, avoiding objects such as automobiles, until at least the late 1980s.[13] Anthropologists also interpret that the paintings made by artists of Batuan are visual texts which represent the “Balinese Character”.[14]
Another notable feature is, unlike the Ubud style, the Batuan style also imbued daily life scenes in its depictions, deviating from the traditional. The depiction is of factual scenes but camouflaged in the form of masks. The colours used by the famous artists of Batuan were more bold than those used in Ubud paintings, with green and maroon being the dominant shades used for depicting human beings. Daily life with a complex variety of activities is depicted in great details. However, the painting canvases still adopted the three space formula with the bottom part devoted to daily human activities, with ritual activities in the middle section and with the upper section devoted to the realms of gods.[15]
The Batuan painters belonging to the Pita Maha Painters group also created aesthetically elegant paintings combining Buddhist mythology with vivacious and inventive Wayan-style images. These paintings have also been described as “naïve style works –almost caricatures – that depict daily life with humour.”[16]
The village is now dominated by galleries of various artists.[12] Of major note is I Wayan Bendi Gallery, which is named after a notable contemporary artist in the style and sells expensive paintings, mostly over $200.[12] Many paintings of the artist I Made Buli are located here.[17] I Wayan Bendi of Batuan created the paintings as “craft for tourist painting” with himself as the central figure surrounded by tourists in various modes of life and this format has now become a flourishing art form.[18]
Dance form
