ART AND CRAFT

Artistically Bali is a melting pot of cultures and traditions. The Balinese have a natural capacity for absorbing different cultural elements to blend them with their own to produce dynamic new hybrids. Over the years Bali has been the recipient of numerous influences; Chinese, Buddhist, Indian, Hindu, Javanese and most recently, Western. For centuries artists and craftsmen in Bali worked under the patronage of the priests and ruling classes, decorating palaces and temples. The artists themselves were anonymous, never signing their work and usually living close together in artists' 'villages'. Although highly skilled, Bali's carvers, sculptors, weavers and painters, who decorate the island's temples and palaces, were never paid for their work, and would earn their living as farmers or traders, just like everybody else. They worked as artists only when summoned by the raja or the high priest. By the 1930s, however, Balinese society was undergoing quite significant changes. The rajas had lost a great deal of their power to the Dutch colonials (many had in fact lost their lives, or at least their homes), and foreign tourists were gradually taking their place as patrons of the arts and paying for the work. Over time, this encouraged a whole variety of changes; artists began to carve and paint secular subjects, to experiment with new material, to express themselves as individuals and sign their own work. Making paintings and carvings became a full time and relatively lucrative job, and the arts and crafts industry is now one of the most profitable on Bali. Generally the artists did not have much room for personal expression as their designs followed strict aesthetic and religious guidelines. With the arrival of European artists at the start of this century, this soon began to change and artists started developing their own individual styles.