Agung Mangu Putra, Painting as His Life’s Duty

Today, Agung Mangu Putra can be said to be one of the most popular painters in Indonesia. His name appears as an equal to many other famous painters before him. Agung Mangu Putra is symbolized as the blooming rose
of the art world.

His success is not an illusion. If seen from his educational background, Agung Mangu Putra deserves to be a star. Since he was a child, the man who was born at Banjar Selat, Sangeh, in 1963, has adored painting. To expand his knowledge in painting, he continued his studies at SMSR (Fine Arts High School) in Batubulan. After graduating, he continued his study at ISI (Indonesian Arts Institute) Yogyakarta, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Visual Communication Design Department. While still painting, in 1990, he was able to finish his studies.
Agung Mangu Putra then returned to Bali and used his expertise to work as a graphic designer. At that time, he designed calendars, banners and billboards, leaflets and T-shirts. Whilst doing business as a graphic designer, he often set aside time to paint just as a way to release his stress and enjoy privacy. He was unable to do this as a graphic designer as in that job he was mainly using and working on other people’s ideas.
Just like the proverb ‘Setinggi-tingginya bangau terbang akhirnya kembali juga ke sarangnya.’ (‘No matter how high the heron flies, he always return to his nest.’), Agung Mangu Putra, finally had to make a decision whether to aim to fly as high as he could or to go back to his inner self that was freedom. Freedom for Mangu Putra means absolute, where his ideas cannot be interfered with by anyone else. Here, he said that no one could give him orders! So in 1998 he decided to dedicate his life to being a painter and leave his job as a graphic designer.
As a painter, Agung Mangu Putra is often criticized by the public who says that his work jumps up and down. It means that his paintings don’t have a stand. Agung Mangu Putra’s painting style is hard to predict. Sometimes he paints with a realist style, sometimes abstract and sometimes with other styles. The aspects that other people criticize are not a problem for Mangu Putra. ‘This is my honesty,’ he said assertively.
For Agung Mangu Putra, his painting career started with a realist style. If later on he went on to paint with a lot of different styles such as abstract, expressionism, impressionism, and other styles, it only happened because of his most deep inner self. He is powerless and seems to not really want that his imagination be controlled. But, clearly, all of his works actually describe nature. Nature offers him ideas, and he responds by creating it as a basic concept of his compositions. It is very simple, but in Mangu Putra’s hands it all becomes awe-inspiring.
Agung Mangu Putra’s paintings have their own characteristic, where the line, scope, colour, and texture unite on his canvas to produce a harmonic work. All of that can be reached if the painter has good drawing skills, good understanding of tools and materials and a perfect sense of beauty.
In his daily life, the husband of IGAA Rai Suryani with 2 children, looks artless. He is kind to everyone who visits him and is not very poor for his knowledge. For him, friends are his other relatives. With his friends, he shares his experience of discussions and painting nature. Agung Mangu Putra always tries to present in every painting exhibition, discussion, or other arts activity. According to him, on those events he can gain a lot more knowledge. ‘We pick a useful thing and throw away the not useful thing,’ he said easily.
As a painter, Agung Mangu Putra has received the Best Works Award of Visual Communication Design from ISI Yogyakarta (1988, 1990), Philip Morris Award (1994), besides also often exhibiting at home and abroad. In 2000, he held a solo exhibition at Jess Gallery, Denpasar.(BTN/010)

The Painting Of Batuan

Despite their associations with Rudolf Bonnet and Walter Spies, the Batuan artists do appear to have the same degree of western influence on their work as the Ubud artists. With regard to anatomy, proportion, and shading effects, the work of the Batuan artists is more expressive than the Ubud style and depicts an inherent emotion.
This style, which makes use of the black and white colour technique called sigar mangsi, probably developed from the classical expressions of Balinese painting. The predominant use of deep forest green and rich amber is very effective in the artists themes. The stories depicted are generally taken from the folk tales of Tantri as well as many others.
The painters of Batuan prefer to paint with watercolour or acrylic on paper rather than oil on canvas.
(BTN/021)
Direktur of Dharma Seni Art Foundation which manages the Neka Art Museum, Ubud-Bali