Pictures at an Exhibition – with Kids

Ten children from Yellow Coco, the art workshop in Nyuhkuning, showed up for a Galungan gallery talk on Balinese wayang painting as children’s stories.

Yellow Coco, which brings Balinese and expat children living near Ubud together for out-of-school lessons in art, music, dance and creative expression is led by Susan Allen (below, left) and her husband Susiawan.

Susiawan caught me in the photo below expressing the surprise felt by Surya, god of the sun, and Aruna, the grat bird who carries him across the sky, when the young Hanoman, mistook the rising sun for a ripe red fruit.

The painting of Hanoman and Surya above is by Gusti Ketut Kobot (1917-1999) of Pengosekan. Peliatan painter Ketut Madra’s version of the same story appears below. Kobot’s work shows the astonishment of Surya and Aruna in the moment. Madra’s captures the same scene a few seconds later after Surya and Aruna realize that their “attacker” is the already powerful and impetuous young Hanoman. (A detailed photo of the Madra version of the story appears in the invitation to the opening, three posts below this one).

Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting continues at the Museum Puri Lukisan until Thursday, 7 November.

Posted on October 28, 2013 by dmirons 0

The opening crowd thins.

Wayan Konderi with “Prince Panji at the Court of Gegelang.

The audience engaged with the pictures.

People and pictures – opening night for Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting at the Museum Puri Lukisan

Posted on October 10, 2013May 3, 2021 by dmirons 0

Ketut Madra with his 2009 Kresna-Boma painting

First shots of the opening of Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting, at Ubud’s Museum Puri Lukisan, 7 October 2013

Posted on October 10, 2013May 3, 2021 by dmirons 0

The two photos above show two paintings by Ketut Madra depicting the story of Kala Rahu.

The first was taken at his sanggah or family temple in Banjar Kalah in Peliatan in 1973. The second is an installation shot of the same pair of paintings in the exhibition “Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting” at Ubud’s Museum Puri Lukisan from October 7 to November 7, 2013.

The paintings were retired from temple service in the mid-1990s after 20-plus years and replaced with new ones. The top photo is part of a series shot by Barbara Miller as the family renovated the sanggah in preparation for its odalan.

Posted on August 3, 2013May 3, 2021 by dmirons 0

Ketut Madra’s most important paintings…

… are all in village and family temples within one kilometer of his home.

The best known of these are the temple paintings in three buildings of the Pura Dalem Gde in Peliatan.

These seven paintings are described in detail on pp. 51-57 of Thomas Cooper’s Sacred Painting in Bali (Orchid Press, Bangkok, 2005).

Cooper was able to get much closer to the paintings than Anggara Mahendra and I did during my April visit during the temple’s odalan.

But Anggara captures the celebratory nature of the paintings, which are only visible to the public during these temple festivals. On the first day of the odalan, as the doors that conceal them are opened…,

… the intricate offerings to each of the gods associated with these central temple buildings (balé) begin to arrive.

While the offerings complicate the role of the photographer in capturing this key aspect of Madra’s work, they also convey the importance of it to the community in which he lives.

All photos by Anggara Mahendra, except the last one from my iPhone.

Posted on May 4, 2013 by dmirons 0

Ketut Madra by Rio Helmi for Departures…

Rio Helmi arrived at Ketut Madra’s studio on Monday, April 8, to shoot Madra at work for the September 2013 issue of Departures.

I hadn’t seen Rio for 40 years; and while he and Madra had met more recently, it had still been awhile for both of them, too.

Posted on April 27, 2013 by dmirons 0

Back to Bali in 2013?

The Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud has invited a proposal for an exhibition of wayang painting there in September-October of next year. This 1973 painting by Ketut Madra would be a small but important part of that.

Valmiki Teaching, Ketut Madra, acrylic and ink, 38 x 28.5 cm

It shows Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, teaching Kusa and Lawa, Rama’s twin sons. Born in Valmiki’s ashram after the exile of their mother Dewi Sita to the forest following her rescue from Rawana and return to Ayodhya, the twins relied on Valmiki as spiritual guide and teacher throughout their early years.

The painting has a 40-year back story. Madra and I worked closely together for about nine months in 1973. He painted this as a gift shortly before I left. After it was finished and before I had even seen it, he was visited by Rudolf Bonnet, a creator, curator and guiding light of the Puri Lukisan. Bonnet asked Madra if he would be willing to donate the picture to the museum. Madra said he was sorry that he could not do that as he had promised it to me for the exhibition we were planning for the U.S. the following year. We’re both hoping it will hang there in 2013.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by dmirons 0

Bali Arts