Side by side: Rudolf Bonnet (right) stands beside Indonesia'€™s first president, Sukarno.

The Pita Maha arts society just celebrated its 80th anniversary. However, the life stories of maestros from the organization, such as I Nyoman Ngendon, Ida Bagus Made Poleng and Ida Bagus Made Nadera, are still not familiar to many people despite being the inspiration behind their remarkable paintings.

Founded in Ubud, Bali, on Jan. 29, 1936, by the late Rudolf Bonnet, Walter Spies and Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, Pita Maha held its first exhibitions in March and April of the same year.

Support from art figures like I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and Tjokorda Gde Raka Sukawati enabled the organization of artists to change the paradigm of painting in Bali, from classical depictions of shadow puppets, mythology and religion, to more modern and secular themes.

The advent of this more secular approach enriched painting in Bali, allowing artists to present virtually any ideas, and an unlimited number of styles, in their paintings.

'€œPantai Kodok'€ (Frog Beach) by I Ketut Regig

This artistic shift saw the birth of progressive traditional painters such as Anak Agung Gde Sobrat, Ida Bagus Made Widja, I Ketut Regig, I Wayan Taweng, Ida Bagus Made Togog, Anak Agung Gde Meregeg and I Wayan Ketig. Not all of them were Ubud locals either, with artists coming from Batuan, Singaraja, Klungkung, Sanur and various other cities in Bali.

Amazingly, their names have continued to dominate the Balinese art scene for eight decades, while their successors now elegantly adorn the history of art. Pita Maha has also become legendary in the international fine art world, with famous auction houses such as Larasati periodically auctioning their works in Bali, Jakarta and Singapore.

But it'€™s not just being the forerunner of secular themes that made Pita Maha so noteworthy. '€œA romantic agony factor from every painter has preserved the soul of this organization,'€ Bonnet said in 1975.

Indeed, Bonnet and Spies as the organization'€™s leaders constantly emphasized romantic agony as an attitude that the organization should embody.

'€œPanen Buah'€ (Harvesting Fruit) by I Gusti Nyoman Lempad

The essence of this attitude was for artists to uphold their principles and be confident in their own personal truth. To consider themselves as the guiding force of their own lives, and their artworks as their beacon of truth.

Romantic agony has often been the most important part of the cosmology of the art world, and dominates certain works of art. It is the agony and powerful vision of artists such as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh and Jean Michael Basquiat that attracts millions of people to their masterpieces.

Bonnet said this myth should be maintained and disseminated through writings and talks. Romantic agony is a way of preserving artistic works. Puri Lukisan Museum in Ubud, which he founded, is one of the reminders of this myth. At the museum, visitors are reminded that behind the beautiful paintings lay unique, tough, bitter and even distressing life stories.

'€œNearly all members of Pita Maha possess features of romantic agony. The question is whether their attitude and life stories can be communicated to society by the people and institutions that inherit their works, whether they can revive the soul of the inanimate canvases before us,'€ Bonnet once said.

Sadly, Bonnet'€™s expectations have only been realized in the 21st century. The lives of Pita Maha painters are still unfamiliar to most people. The various catalogues and books published by Puri Lukisan Museum and fine art museums in Bali do not yet present the passion of romantic agony.

Consequently, the Pita Maha maestros'€™ remarkable paintings remain only visually outstanding. Behind the elegance of traditional culture, the thrilling individual dimension seems to be left out and allowed to fade away. It is thus necessary to introduce three of the dozens of best-known Pita Maha figures and their works.

I Nyoman Ngendon was born in Banjar Dentiyis, Batuan, between 1903 and 1910. As a traditional artist, he also produced realist paintings after meeting his modern peers in Yogyakarta, which he visited in 1935. Ngendon also created anti-colonial posters in Bali and joined the military in Regiment I of Ngurah Rai as an information officer.

Unfortunately, in 1946 he was caught by the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) in Ketewel village in Bali. After being tortured, on July 2, 1947 he was killed by NICA police at the Dentiyis graveyard, Batuan. Ngendon'€™s works are mostly held by foreign collectors, including US anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, but were once displayed at the Arma Museum, Ubud.

Ida Bagus Made Poleng, commonly called Gus Made, was born in Tebesaya, Ubud in 1915. Known as a painter who highly valued his own works, he very rarely sold his canvases to Indonesian collectors, whom he regarded as having a commercial mentality. Instead, he considered European and American collectors to be real lovers of Bali'€™s paintings.

Gus Made showed how strict his principles were when in 1956 President Sukarno visited his studio to buy a painting. One afternoon, an officer assigned by Sukarno came to pick up the picture and Gus Made carried it himself. But as he noticed the vehicle used was a horse cart, he said, '€œSorry, my painting cannot be transported on a cart.'€

The next day a presidential car collected the canvas, Memohon Berkah (Pleading for Blessings), which later entered Sukarno'€™s painting collection book.

The fate of Gus Made'€™s best-loved works took a sudden twist when in 1986, his modest studio was broken into and 14 of his paintings stolen. For years, Gus Made was saddened by the theft. While crying, he said with some pride, '€œAll beings love my paintings, from collectors to burglars!'€

Ida Bagus Made Nadera was born around 1910 to 1915 in Banjar Tegallinggah, Bedahulu village, Gianyar. He worked in the district office of Blahbatu and painted in his spare time. The hobby brought him to become an assistant of an art teacher in a primary school in Buruan village. Humorously, he also worked as a tax collector. Along with his peers he read old Hindu books until he was well versed in the religion. Like his changing career, Nadera also had five marriages and divorces, and many children.

The paintings of Ngendon, Gus Made and Nadera are now exhibited at major museums in Bali, at the Presidential Palace of Indonesia and at several other museums in Europe and the US. The late Bonnet might see some romantic agony struggling to manifest itself in each of their works as people admiringly gaze at them.

'€” Photos by Agus Dermawan T

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