We're bringing the drawings of internationally acclaimed Balinese artist Gusti Nyoman Lempad back to Bali.
Lempad, already a long-established architect, sculptor, and painter, was a founder of the Pita Maha association of artists and a leader in the modernization of Balinese arts in 1930s Ubud. His early drawings on paper, created in the 1920s and 30s, left Bali before World War II, scattered to private collections mostly in Europe and America. Few of them have been seen in Bali by the Balinese for 75 years.
"We" are a team of Indonesian, Australian, Dutch, and American writers, scholars, and curators working with Ubud's Museum Puri Lukisan and museums and collectors around the world on the first-ever retrospective exhibition of the drawings of the internationally acclaimed Balinese artist. It opens on 20 September.
With this exhibition, we begin a mulit-year effort to expand the museum's public programs for Bali's artists, art students, and village associations of artists. Lempad's life and work was a bridge from traditional Bali to a modernism still deeply rooted in Bali's Hindu-Buddhist faith. There is still much to learn in his work about the abiding strength of this blessed island's deep culture.
We have raised 90% of our budget to achieve our vision. We now turn to friends of Bali, of Ubud, of Balinese painting, and of the Museum Puri Lukisan for the last $50,000 we need.
The exhibition includes the first comprehensive catalog of Lempad's work with more than 500 reproductions of his drawings and six interpretive essays by scholars of Bali.
Conceived in 2006, this is the most ambitious exhibition ever attempted by the museum that Lempad helped to build in 1956. We are bringing his art back to Bali from museums and private collections all over the world. This is not only the first major Lempad retrospective exhibition and catalog, it is also the first time many of these drawings have been published or even seen outside of private collections or museum storage.
Highlights
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This invitation includes a 5x7 inch (13x18 cm) reproduction of the Lempad drawing “Ni Bawang Decorated by the Birds of the Forest,” which appears on the cover of the catalog. The evening reception at the museum includes a buffet Balinese dinner. Mailed invitations will arrive after the opening, but donors at any level are welcome to attend the opening. The picture to the left shows a central detail of the drawing. The entire drawing appears on the cover of the catalog in the article below.
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One 8.5x11 inch high-resolution reproduction of Lempad’s "Garuda" drawing suitable for framing. The central detail of the drawing appears to the left and the entire drawing may be seen at the end of the catalog description at the link below. The drawing comes with a letter from the museum’s chief curator welcoming you as a Museum Puri Lukisan friend and donor.
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This Lempad drawing will come via email as a high resolution PDF suitable for framing. Printing may need to be done by a commercial poster-maker; general instructions come with the email. Lempad created this drawing, now in the collection of the Museum Puri Lukisan, in 1957 in ink, cinnabar, and gold leaf on paper. It measures 45 x 31 cm. but the finished print poster with border for a mat and generous margins will measure more like 55 x 43 cm. (or about 22 x 17 inches). Donors at this level will also receive the electronic invitation to the opening described in the $25 perk.
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As part of the museum's outreach to Balinese village associations of painters, we're planning special invitational events to bring artists to the exhibition. Contributions of $150 will cover all costs for transportation, refreshments and late-closing for one event.
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"Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting," the catalogue of the museum’s highly regarded exhibition of the same title in 2013, with 64 pages and 70 high-resolution color photos and plates, offers an immensely readable introduction to Balinese wayang painting and recounts the legends told in each picture. It is described in more detail at the URL below. Donors at this level will also receive a copy of the Lempad "Garuda" drawing described in the $50 perk.
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"Lempad of Bali: The Illuminating Line," the catalogue of the museum’s Lempad exhibition. At 424 pages, with more than 500 rarely seen works by the Ubud master, this book, which retails for $US200.00, is the definitive examination of his long life and work. Donors at this level will also receive Museum Puri Lukisan membership described in the $200 perk.
