Artist : Made K. Bendesa
Genre : Painting
Period : February 23 till March 18
Everyday, 10.00AM till 8.00PM
Location : Ganesha Gallery
Four Seasons Resort Bali
Jimbaran Bay.
Jackson Pollock has a lot to answer for; from 1946 he was the founder, and greatest exponent, of American Abstract Expressionism. Pollock developed a new painting technique of “dripping”, in which the paint was poured or flicked onto unstretched canvases creating a dense network of color traces and smears, resulting in gestural, expressive pictures with an elementary rhythm. Pollock also experimented with new painting techniques, such as mixing industrial paints with oil paints, and using trowels, knives and sticks to apply the paint. These experiments extended the conventional practices of painting. Sixty years later Pollock’s legacy still lives on. For here, in Bali, Abstract Expressionism has taken a firm root, and it appears almost every other Balinese painter is an Abstract Expressionist of one form or another.
Made K. Bendesa is one of the better Abstract Expressionists currently at work in Bali. Made was born in Singaraja in 1974, and in the seven years he has been painting he has been able to develop quite a big name for himself. Made comes from an interior decorating background, and this training has resulted in a strong sense of composition, design and color in his works.
In his current exhibition, “Ocean Mood”, Made’s paintings are “inspired by the brilliant and myriad colors of the coral reefs of Bali”, and Made refers to these amazing abstract paintings as “free form expressions of pure joy”. In these canvases Made has experimented with the seemingly incompatible mixture of oil and acrylic paint, and has achieved a balance between the two mediums which are free of the limitations of either. In customary Abstract Expressionistic manner Made pours, splashes and drips layer upon layer of oil and acrylic paint onto his canvases. Water is liberally soaked over this work, and the canvases are left to weather in the volatile Balinese climate. Then the process is repeated. Again and again. Until Made has built up a deep, liquid, three dimensional space, comprising of closely related tonal colors and endless varieties of shaped and patterned brushstrokes, drips, lines and smears. These markings merge together in such a way that the eye slips effortlessly from one dimension to another, and on into infinite space.
Made’s layers of swirling and spiraling shapes echo his passionate psyche. To paint “Joy” one must also understand “Sorrow”, so, imbedded in the canvases, you will also find deep, mournful areas of darkly textured paint. Over these deliciously balanced forms Made places a brilliant “distancing” devise: A delicate tracery of thin gold lines, squeezed directly from the tube.
The use of lush gold filigree is found in much traditional Balinese art. It is interesting that Made refers to this technique, but in his canvases Made uses this fine filigree as a modern device to “cool” his paintings. On the surface, Made’s canvases appear stylishly chic, but if one looks beyond, and through, the overlaid golden free form cobwebs, then you can sense the torments and anguishes that drive this painter. Made is an artist who prefers to keep his angst subtly veiled from the viewer. This is a highly recommended show.
