Palace of Painting Museum - Museum Puri Lukisan

Published 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Guides by Sidarta Wijaya | 1 Views

Museum Puri Lukisan or Palace of Painting Museum is situated strategically in the heart of Ubud at the north end of Ubud main street (Jalan Raya Ubud), 30 km from Denpasar and 40 km from the airport. The museum lies in a serene garden, under the shade of trees.

This museum houses the island’s finest selections of modern paintings, drawing and sculptures. The museum was founded in 1956 by Cokorda Gede Agung Sukawati, the king of Ubud and a patron of art and Rudolph Bonnet, a Dutchman who devoted much of his life studying and preserving the unique Balinese painting. The museum was established to develop and set standards for local art, to educate and stimulate young artist, and to record for posterity un-vulgarized Balinese art before the tourist industry finished it off for good. Its establishment was first deliberate attempt to separate the arts from communal life.

During the frenzied activity of the 1930s, young painters broke away from the traditional formalistic paintings of mythological scenes and Hindu epic stories. It was in Ubud where Balinese artist first started painting village scenes, markets, funerals, and landscapes. Some artists even incorporated motorcycles and radios in scenes along jungle paths. The old style was combined with new realism, discarding many rigid rules, and setting natural figures against natural backgrounds. This naturalism is exemplified in the works in this museum.

The Museum consists of three large building set in exquisite gardens of fountains, flowering shrubs, statues, and lotus ponds befitting a palace. The collections in this museum, the paintings and sculptures are displayed in chronological order, covering the whole evolution into modern idiom, from 1930s to 1970s. The theme of the paintings which are displayed range from the traditional wayang stories to the dances, from scenes of Balinese folklores to rice harvest. The maestros whose masterpieces displayed here are Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Dewa Batuan, Ida Bagus Made, Ida Bagus Gelgel, Ida Bagus Nadera as well as sculptures of I Nyoman Cokot, Ida Bagus Nyana, I Wayan Pendet, I Mangku Tama, and I Ketut Tjedeng. There are also some works from the naïve expressionist Young Artist School; most of these works are for sale.