Putu Ngurah Wardana

Born in Singaraja, North Bali, July 1933, Putu Ngurah Wardhana obtained his degree at the Faculty of Fine Art IKIP, Madiun. In 1972, he held a one-man show at the Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, sponsored by the Arts Council of Jakarta. The following year, he succeeded in holding another painting exhibition at the Lembaga Indonesia-Amerika in Jakarta. In the same year, the government founded an arts center named “Mahudhara Mandara Giri Bhuana” and Wardhana once again held a joint exhibition of all representative painters and sculptors from Bali. Since then, he has been appointed as a selector of fine art works at the Arts Center. Speaking of his painting style, from 1960 to 1963 he was a realist and then in 1964 he diverted and tried the cubist style, while step by step combining it with the best of fauve style, with superimposed figures and some other additional objects to balance the compositions.
Suteja Neka
Direktur of Dharma Seni Art Foundation which manages the Neka Art Museum, Ubud-Bali

11 Painters Exhibiting at Rudana’s Gallery

The staggering economic situation has not discouraged Rudana from holding an exhibtion at his gallery. To him, the recently uncertain situation is not an excuse not to conduct any art event. Art, and particularly the art of painting, have long been an important part if his life.

Eleven painters from Sanggar Dewata Indonesia have received the honor of exhibiting their works at Rudana’s Gallery Peliatan, Ubud. They are Ida Bagus Krishna, I Ketut Tenang, I Made Mahendra Mangku, I Made Sumadiyasa, I Made Wiradana, I Nyoman Sukari, I Wayan Sunadi, Pande Ketut Taman, Putu Sutawijaya, Teguh Ritma Iman and Dewa Kompyang. The exhibition is taking place from April 13 to May 12 2003, and is displaying as many as 40 paintings of various themes, techniques and sizes. That each of the painters has his own style is obvious, marking them as professionals and showing that Indonesian artists are important internationally.
In this exhibition, Dewa Kompyang shows female figures in various poses. The smoothness of female features with graceful movements is painted on a sheet of canvas, from different angles in monochrome. It seems simple, yet the presence of lines and space on his paintings are carefully considered. These make his paintings fascinating. Although Putu Sutawijaya also presents human figures in his paintings, the figures are much more dynamic. On Putu Sutawijaya’s works, the power of lines is very dominant. It may be the reason why Sutawijaya puts aside colors in his works. So does Pande Ketut Taman who usually also paints human figures. This time, he presents some paintings with a very modest impression such as a picture of a bike in a dark color and shaded with light brown. The picture is on the bottom right part of the canvas. Another painting titled ‘Kepinggir’ or ‘Step Aside’, where he paints the object, a black man in white walking, on the bottom left part of the canvas.
Some painters exhibiting abstract works are Mahendra Mangku and I Made Sumadiyasa. Even though both of them take the same style, each has distinguishing characteristics and power. Sumadiyasa tends to play with his brush power creating lines, while Mahendra Mangku concerns more to spaces and primary colors.
Ida Bagus Krishna also displays some abstract paintings at the exhibition. His works are derived from a harmony of soft colors resulting in a smooth and peaceful impression. The same style can be expected from I Ketut Tenang’s works. Meanwhile, I Made Wiradana shows some of his textured works with people and animals and the subjects. The same objects interest Teguh Ritma Iman.
One of the distinguished works comes from I Nyoman Sukari who is likely to be magical. By taking mythological creatures Sukari, with strong wipes of the brush, has created works with a strong sense of mystery. His fondness for black is clearly shown in his works, making his paintings become horrifying. The beauty of his works can be enjoyed through his swift and winding brush strokes. Agile, powerful and staggering.
The differences show that those painters are not instant artists. They are graduates of the Faculty of Art of Painting and Sculpturing, Indonesian Art Institute, Yogyakarta. (Gung Man)