I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, who died in 1978, is an acknowledged icon of
Balinese art with a reputation that is unsurpassed. Considered one of
the first modern Balinese artists, Lempad’s contribution to the
development of Balinese art during its most revolutionary period, from
1930 to 1945, is not his only achievement. Prior to the 1920s he was
renowned for his innovations in architecture. After the 1920s he began
drawing and became famous for his line drawings that were a futuristic
adaptation of figures from the wayang pantheon.
Recognizing his son’s artistic talent before the age of 10, Lempad’s
father Gusti Mayukan, a traditional Balinese architect, put his young
son to work assisting him on his many building projects. In his teen
years, Lempad and his father sought political asylum with the royal
family of royal family of Ubud at Puri Ubud, after fleeing their home
kingdom of Belahbatuh, south of Ubud. Their timing was perfect as Puri
Ubud was in the process of rebuilding, and their skills were welcomed.
This began a long relationship, still lasting until today with Puri
Ubud.
Lempad was instrumental in the development of the Pita Maha artists’
collective that was formed in 1936 by the king of Ubud, Tjokorda Gede
Agung Sukawati, and foreign artists
Walter Spies
and Rudolf Bonnet. Pita Maha monitored the progress of a new and
developing genre of art, Balinese modern traditional art, while forging
new national and international markets for local paintings and
woodcarvings. Not only was Lempad responsible for a new style of
Balinese art aesthetics that featured elongated and distorted figures,
he also adopted a sense of space into his compositions that was new and
invigorating. He carefully utilized empty areas of white paper in his
works that emphasized the brilliance of his figurative line drawings,
while the balance of composition then became essential. Lempad was also a
master sculptor of temple statues, masks, a maker of wayang puppets,
and an expert in the making of cremation towers and sarcophagi. He also
helped in designing and building the Museum Puri Lukisan from 1953 to
1955, Ubud’s oldest and most important art museum.
It was Lempad’s natural imaginative and innovative ability in expressing
old stories anew, along with the strength of his flowing, pure and
defined lines that revolutionized Balinese art. At the time Balinese
paintings were characterized by crowded compositions in which part of
the surface of the canvas was covered with narrative information and
motifs. Lempad introduced a space into his compositions that was
aesthetically fresh and strong.
"Lempad of Bali" is the first comprehensive catalogue of the artist’s
life and work. At 400-plus pages with about 500 images and reproductions
of drawings from the 1930s to 1970s, it features biographical and
interpretive essays by scholars and close observers of Bali’s arts and
culture, including Bruce Carpenter, John Darling, Hedi Hinzler, Kaja
McGowan, Adrian Vickers, and Museum Puri Lukisan curator Soemantri
Widagdo. Other institutions participating in the book include the
Library of Congress, the American Museum of Natural History, the San
Francisco Asian Art Museum, Leiden University, Leiden Ethnographic
Museum, Delft Nusantara Museum, Vienna Ethnographic Museum, Cornell
University, the Gallery of New South Wales and Sydney University.
While his contribution to the development of Balinese art and
architecture, Lempad gained much attention from the local art community
as well as from foreign anthropologists, researchers and artists who
lived in Bali during the 1920s and 1930s. Over his lifetime Lempad
completed a body of work that has since been unmatched, and now it’s
finally time to recognize his matchlessness.
Cover: Hardback, Clothbound
Size: 277 mm x 360 mm
Pages: 424
Price: IDR 2,400,000 (about USD 195, EUR 160, AUD 235)
Price excluding shipment charges
Buy Online here:
http://goo.gl/iln0Jg
or via email to
Order@AfterhoursBooks.com
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