TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Exhibition in honor of China-RI relations set for September
A painting exhibition titled “Ceremony 60” will be held at the National Gallery mid September to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indonesian-Chinese diplomatic relations
Change Size
A
painting exhibition titled “Ceremony 60” will be held at the National Gallery mid September to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indonesian-Chinese diplomatic relations.
The six-day exhibition, starting on Sept. 16, was put together by the Chinese Cultural Ministry, the Bali Bangkit (Awakening) Committee, the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian Cultural and Tourism Ministry and business communities including the Chinese Indonesian Businessmen and Community Association (PERMIT), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce’s China Commission.
China’s ambassador to Indonesia, Her Excellency Zhang Qiyue, will open the exhibition on the night of Sept. 16; while Vice President Boediono is expected to close it on the night of Sept. 21.
The exhibition will present a collection of watercolor paintings by renowned Chinese painters and foremost Bali traditional paintings. The Chinese works of art will center on the theme of Serenity and Harmony, and the Balinese on Nature and Figuration.
“This is the first time in the history of Indonesian arts that collections of Chinese watercolor paintings and Bali traditional paintings are exhibited in a single event here, so that it will make the event interesting,” said Jusuf Wanandi, the chairman of Bali Bangkit Committee.
Jusuf added the event was a rare occasion because those invaluable paintings are part of collections held in highly secure environments in Chinese museums.
The coming together of Balinese and Chinese art reflects the strong connection China and Bali have in the realm of art.
China’s influence on Balinese art can be seen in the barong (a character in Balinese mythology), the bade (cremation tower), architecture, art works and various musical instruments.
When the Majapahit kingdom of East Java expanded into Bali during the 14th century, the kingdom introduced some of the culture and art it had assimilated from China.
Many intellectuals, artists, religious figures who subsequently migrated to Bali when the kingdom fell in the 16th century, brought in more Chinese influence into their art works.
The exhibition will highlight the influence of Chinese arts in Balinese traditional paintings.
The 50 Chinese watercolor paintings, popularly known as brush paintings, use a 1000-year old technique prominent during the Tang dynasty (618 — 609). Poet and painter Wang Wei pioneered a painting technique blending painting and poem, which has become one of the main characteristics of paintings from China.
Hence the saying: “The painting is a poem in picture. A poem is a painting in words.”
The exhibition will include works by noteworthy 20th century Chinese artists like Qi Baishi, Lie Keran, Wu Chungshuo and Pan Tianshou, and renowned Bali painters such as Anak Agung Gede Sobrat, Ida Bagus Poleng, Ida Bagus Made Nadera and Ketut Regig — prominent in 1930s, as well as Nyoman Meja, Gusti Agung Wiranata, Nyoman Sarta, Ketut Sadia and Wayan Beneh, prolific during the 1980s.
