The Neka Museum Ubud, an eye-opener to Balinese culture...

Neka Museum Ubud:"Artists are fortunate in that they are capable of living twice: First in the present, and later via their creative efforts".

The Neka Museum Ubud is one of the best museums I’ve been to in Bali. It’s founded by the former school teacher turned into a collector, Suteja Neka in 1982.

The museum shows many artworks by Balinese, other Indonesian and foreign-born artists who were inspired by the beautiful Balinese sceneries of everyday life.

The museum isn’t some kind of musty old-fashioned museum but really a great place to learn the Balinese culture and their works of art such as wooden statues, masks, wayang kulit puppets, keris and lots of paintings.

Neka Museum Ubud is housed in eight pavilions or art halls set in a garden with a view to die for. You can expect the following at the museum:

View from the museum

Pavilion I: Balinese Painting Hall
a. Puppet Style Painting; most of these paintings are stories with multiple scenes from Hindu and Buddhist epics or Balinese-Javanese romances and folk tales. Every detail of costume, facial features, body size and color indicates the specific rank, figure or character type. Not many colours are used in these paintings.

b. Transitional Style Painting; These paintings still look a lot like the Puppet Style paintings but the figures in these paintings begin to take on a little more natural, human appearance because of the influence of foreigners.

A wider range of lighter colours are used in these paintings. Artists paid less attention to the fine ink details common in traditional puppet style painting.

c. Ubud Style Painting; These paintings are influenced by Walter Spies (German, 1895-1942) and Rudolf Bonnet (Dutch, 1895-1978) who settled down in Ubud in the 1930’s. Walter Spies emphasized light, shadow and perspective in his works. Rudolf Bonnet focused more on anatomy and portraiture.

d. Batuan Style Painting; this style began to appear in the 1930’s in Batuan, just south of Ubud. The paintings appear dark and mysterious and focused on themes of black magic and intense rituals set amidst lush, decorative foliage. Every inch of the small paintings are used and tell a story.

Wayang Kulit puppets

Pavilion II: Arie Smit Pavilion
a. Paintings by Arie Smit; This painter first visited Bali in 1956 and decided to make Bali his new home after two months on the island. His paintings focus on the Balinese people and places of Bali. With his own “broken colours” technique he shows the beauty of Balinese life.

b. Young Artists Style Painting; In the early 1960s Arie Smit gave art supplies to teenagers in Penestanan village near Ubud and encouraged them to paint whatever they felt like. They created a naive childish like style of painting now called the Young Artist Style.

The Arie Smit pavilion at the Neka Museum Ubud

Pavilion III: Photo Documentation
Color photos record some of the exhibitions and events involving the Neka Museum Ubud.

Pavilion IV: Lempad Pavilion
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862?-1978) is Bali’s most famous artist. He was a master artisan, carver and architect. He designed parts of the royal palace and the temple at Ubud. His ink drawings on paper, many with touches of colour, are internationally famous. Lempad illustrated famous and lesser known episodes from Indian mythology and Balinese folk tales. He often added erotic and humorous elements.

Pavilion V: Contemporary Indonesian Art
A wide range of styles based on western techniques have been done by Dullah, Abdul Aziz, Anton Kustia Widjaja and artists from other islands of Indonesia.

Pavilion VI: East-West Art Annex
a. Contemporary Indonesian Art; The display continues with works by important artists like Affandi, S, Sudjojono, Srihadi-Soedarsono, Abas Alibasyah, Bagong, Kussudiardjo and Widiyat.

b. Art by artists from abroad; The upper floor features works by important artists such as portraits by Rudolf Bonnet, Willem Gerard Hofker (Dutch), Donald Friend (Australian) and tropical scenes by Theo Meier (Swiss). A section is devoted to Asian artists such as Chang Fee-Ming (Malaysian), Jeremiah Elizalde Navarro (Fillipino) and shimmering landscapes by Paul Nagano (Japanese-American).

Pavilion VII: Robert Koke and Louise Garret Koke Memorial hall
Black-and-white photographs by Robert Koke (American) from Balinese dances, ceremonies, personalities during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Pavilion VIII A: Temporary Exhibition Hall
Works by new and established artists from Indonesia and abroad are available for purchase. Occasional exhibitions are held on the first floor.

Pavilion VIII B: Keris Hall
The Keris (traditional dagger) Hall displays a dozen of antiques and new keris from the private collection of the founder of the museum, Suteja Neka.

The Neka Museum Ubud is located on Jl.Raya Campuan and is open daily from 9am to 5pm. Sunday from noon to 5pm. Admission fee is Rp20.000 and free for kids 12 years old and younger.