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BATUAN Situated ten kilometers to the south of Ubud, Batuan's origin goes back to the religious communities of the 10th century. In the 18th century its craftsmen and brahmins were attached to the nearby court of Sukawati, an offspring of Klungkung, and it later became a manca dependency of Gianyar A legacy of this past, it has until today what is arguably the widest variety of dances on the whole island, a richness upon which have fed many generations of gifted sculptors and painters. An other source of inspiration for the local artists were the reliefs of animal stories found in the pura desa (villa temple). In the 1920s, there were reportedly several artists painting in the traditional style. However, it is only after 1930, when Bonnet first visited the village that the Batuan style really took off. The Western artists' influence in Batuan, did not reach the intensity it had in Ubud: their studios were ten kilometers away, and even though Batuan youths would now and then visit Ubud to entertain Spies' guests, the relationships were occasional. The local techniques of representation - particularly with regard to anatomy and perspective - therefore evolved more at their own indigenous pace than as the result of outside interference. Museum Puri Lukisan Catalogue
PRAISE ABOUT BATUAN PAINTINGS: Holt writes: The pictures were often sultry, crowded representations of either legendary scenes or themes from daily life, but they portrayed above all that fearsome nocturnal moment when grotesque spooks, freakish animal monsters, witches and vampires, accosted people.' Based on the use of ink washes laid over most of the surface so as to create an atmosphere of darkness and gloom, the pictures from Batuan showed a meaningful evolution toward a personalized expression of popular myths and beliefs. Museum Puri Lukisan Catalogue The paintings of Batuan style pay great attention to details with canvases entirely occupied with interrelated scenes from Balinese mythologies and the everyday scenes. Colors are limited and predominantly dark, giving an eerie atmosphere to the whole pictorial. Black colors are used for background, green for trees and reddish brown for depicting humans. The influence of the Balinese beliefs of the mystical and the supernatural is very apparent in the works of the Batuan painters. Human portrayal pays no reference whatsoever to the anatomical perspective with their faces resembles more of the primitive masks depicted frontally or fully profiled. Larasati, July 2006
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