Both have been engaged with Indonesian — including Balinese — art and culture for a long time, and are well known for their serious research and commitment.

Seen together at a Singapore auction of pre-modern Balinese paintings, the presence of the two signaled the importance of the auction, which featured works by Balinese artists who were anonymous or less exposed in former times.

As Vickers said, previous scholars were too focused on Batuan artists and the Pita Maha, a movement that existed for only a brief period of time. Young artists from Sanur who were actively experimenting, resulting in a genre that likens to the archaic, were neglected.

The director of Borobudur auctions in Singapore recognized the importance of those artists in an auction featuring the last of Leo Haks’ collection, which art historians may well call the missing chapter in Balinese art history.

Haks said he became fascinated with Balinese art when he discovered the fusion of Western and Eastern art in Balinese works. His interest in Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, was sparked by the images on stamps that he had asked his uncle to put on a letter. The letter is with Haks to this day, cherished as the first spark in his almost lifelong passion for Indonesia.

Reminiscing, Haks says he lived in Singapore from 1968 to 1984, a period that allowed him frequent visits to Indonesia. He said he collected everything he thought was interesting. That included not only paintings, but also books, postcards and textiles. Back in Holland, he became an antiquarian book dealer, and teamed up with Guus Maris, who had traded Indonesian subject paintings for years. They established ‘Haks & Maris’ and became a supplier of paintings.

But it is the postcards that may have filled his days with the greatest delight. In the auction there were 8,000 postcards revealing the life and times of people from a distant past. Though he first came to Indonesia on business trips, Haks’ keen eye soon saw the combination of western and eastern elements in Balinese paintings that fascinated him immensely. Haks mentioned Ida Bagus Sodan, among others, whose stylized leaves combine with wayang influences.

As Leo Haks retires his collection of Balinese paintings and personal belongings referencing Indonesian culture, he says he is happy that they will now be spread out in various institutions and individuals and not stuck in just one place. He said he would now dedicate himself to collecting postcards from New Zealand, where he now resides.  

For Adrian Vickers, his interest in Bali and Balinese art stems from the early 1970s when he arrived in Bali as a young student and was flabbergasted by Kerta Gosa in Klungkung regency. Kertagosa is often compared to the Sistine Chapel in Rome, its ceilings decorated with the most wonderful paintings in a classical Balinese style.

“The Kerta Ghosa in Klungkung made a big impression on me, and so I’ve always been very interested in classical [Kamasan] Balinese art”. Since then, Vickers has researched and written numerous books, including A History of Modern Indonesia. A new book is scheduled for April 2012. Titled Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings from Bali, 1800-2010, it will be published by Tuttle/Periplus.

Vickers who is professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, said the book will cover the full range of Balinese painting, beginning with the aesthetic principles exemplified in classical painting and going up to the rich variety of contemporary artists such as I Gak Murniasih.

“One of the themes is the continuity, how someone like Nyoman Masriadi still refers to Hindu mythology, and works from the same principles of linearity that are important to classical painters such as Nyoman Mandra from Kamasan. However, there are important moments of discontinuity: when artists from North Bali, principally I Ktut Gede, began experimenting with new compositions at the end of the 19th century, and then when the artists of 1928-1942 began to develop new modern forms of art in response to the new tourist market.”

Vickers said his book is the culmination of many decades of research, going back to when he lived in Kamasan in 1979. Most recently, he has received funding from the Australian Research Council in partnership with the Australian Museum in Sydney and a private foundation based in Singapore that is devoted to the collection of Batuan paintings.

“It has been important to me over the years to have met so many Balinese artists, including Nyoman Mandra, who still remains a great source of inspiration. Probably the artist who left the strongest impression on me was Gusti Deblog, whose works have some dark, and scary mythological meaning, but who was very humble and seemed very ordinary. I remember Umar Kayam saying of him that ‘he looked like an orang kampung’, and that’s why people were so amazed at his art.”  

About the auction, Vickers is of the opinion that John Andreas’ role as auctioneer has been interesting, for he was prepared to contribute to the understanding of Indonesian art history even when it was not necessarily profitable for him to do so.

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