Lot 119
Nyoman Gunarsa
b. Indonesia, 1944 - d. 2017
Balinese Dancer, 2013
signed and dated (lower right)
oil on canvas
94 x 94cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 8,500 – 13,500
PRICE REALISED RM 10,080.00
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Nyoman Gunarsa, who died on Sept 10, 2017, was an important personage in Hindu-Balinese society, being a pemangku (lay priest), a puppet-master and a celebrated artist with his own museum set up in the kabupaten Klungkung in 1994. He has his own distinctive painting style of sinuous and sonorous lines of Balinese dancers, often kebaya-clad damsels of delicate beauty, and of gamelan musicians. As he famously intoned: “I’m drawn towards lines like singing and placing colours like dancing.” Often couched in soft hued colours, the figures, almost always feminine and against a whitish body, are a lilting fount of grace in the postures and gestures. Here, the artist successfully captures the rhythmic movements of the dancer and her stunning costume.
Nyoman Gunarsa was given Bali’s Dharma Kusuma Cultural Award in 1994, and the President of Indonesia’s Satyalan Cana Cultural Award in 2003. His other awards include the Pratisara Affandi Adi Karya Art Award (1976) and the Lempad Prize (1980). He also won the Jakarta Biennale II and IV award in 1978 and 1980 respectively. Nyoman studied at the Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts (Asri) in Yogyakarta in 1976. He was a founding member of the Sanggar Dewata (Superior Artist Studio) in Bali in 1970, which is dedicated to helping Indonesian artists. |
