Balinese Art

Art
Art is very popular in Bali and has important meaning for the Balinese people. The focus of Balinese culture is art, the many forms of which have been developed and studied inten-sively the Balinese people as well as foreign students and art-ists. The famous traditionaL dances are classified by some in three groups 1) Wah, very sacred religious dances,
2) Bebali, as ritual preformance, 3) Bali-Balihan, dances for entertain-ment.

Wood Carving
Wood carvers, who previously concentrated upon making statues for temples and decorating instruments, door-ways and masks for dramatic
shows, are now making nonfuncional objects purely for tourist consumption. This has had an effect on the quality in some cases, but it has also meant a re-naissance in the art of carv-ing, with a whole group of new subjects being explored by the naturlly tallented artists.

Painting
Painting has similarly undergone a rapid development as a commer-cial art in Bali. The traditional Kamasan style Wayang paintings with their epic stories portrayed in stylized illustrations and rich brown and yellow coloring can now be found for sale all over the island. Ubud is still the undisputed center for painters, with road side galleries exhibiting the brightly cotored "Young Atrisants" style of paintings showing daily life in Bali painted in rich intricate detail. Less frequently found are the simple; Wayang paintings with their delicated shaded colors. The con-cept of individualism is still relatively foreign to Balinese art-ists and it is usual to find a thousand minor variations on the same subject producet by one family of artists.

Textile
Weaving is a cottage industry and the finely woven Balinese kamben, called sarongs by foreignrs, can be seen grow-ing on the handlooms in numerous places along the Ubud road. Klungkung is the home of the exotic brocades, or songket that are some times woven in silk with threadsof gold and silver forming the design. In Tenganan one of the original Bali Aga (ancient Bali) villages, can be found the unique gringsing cloth which is woven in a process that takes many mounths, all the treades being carefully dyed before the weaving to produce in-tricate design and patterns.

Metal, Gold & Silver
Making metal objects is also a well developed art in Bali. For centuries the kris makers have been some of most respected community members, as the weapon their produce, resplendent with gold hilts and inlaid gems, are held to be a symbol of the family they belong to, heirlooms, processing magical powers. Many are the skills of the Balinese smiths, from making agricultural implements to the precision tooled parts of musical instruments, and the accessories of priest, (bells, incence burners, etc.) Exquisite gold and silver jewelry can be seen being made the simplest of tools in the workshop of Celuk.