Ubud is around 30 km from Denpasar and around 10 kms from Batuan. The style appeared in
Ubud has almost the same as the patterns at Batuan. The object of painting in Ubud at
the beginning were not only gods, demons, and Balinese dances but it was extended to
people, nature, animal, and specific view of ceremonies. It looked that the artists had
thought beyond the old manuals. The freedom in choosing the object will automatically
followed by consequences that old limited patterns couldn't meet the new choice of
object. The picturing of complete environments for example will demand a complete
skill of painting all entities existing in a given scenery. A scenery may covers
houses, roads, trees, palm, shrub, water pits, rice field, animals, flowers, people
and others. A view of a ceremony for example will consist of dozen of objects, as a
unit of a scenery. But sill here, the so-called-space dimension or perspectives was
not yet taken into account. The concept of detail work up to the dot is still
preponderant.That is why an object of trees for example which is very far away at
the background we still can count the number of it's leaves. A pig far away we can
still observe it's black-yellow kniles.
By the coming of Western painters such as Walter Spies, a German painter in 1926,
and Rudolf Bonnet, a Dutch artist in 1928, a new concept of painting influenced Ubud.
The main concept was coming from realism. Here the introduction of space dimension,
perspective, lighting, and reality become the main techniques of shaping the object.
The object is shown within the context of the others in a given space. Here the function
and skill of manipulating the light is the most important aspect. The introduction of space
dimension was not limited to two dimensions but already three dimensions, which give the
object as it is a single and real entity. The contribution R. Bonnet and Walter Spies in
the development of Ubud painting have brought influences on development also on the
carving art. Two famous carving styles emerged, those are “ Cokot” and I.B. Nyana
styles. “Cokot” style was developed by Balinese I Gst Nyoman Lempad, he used the material
as it is natural such as roots, or artistic part of natural wood to becarved.
While I.B. Nyana developed a style of flat and elongated, so some times a human carving
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