In the decades following the conquest and occupation of the south by the Dutch in by the early years of the 20th century, a select group of tourists, expatriates, actors, and celebrities adopted Bali as their own private paradise.
The publication in 1926 of a remarkable book of photographs, Gregor Krause's Bali: Volk, Land, Tanze, Feste, Tempel, had mesmerized all of Europe. Krause's priceless photos, taken while he was a government doctor on Bali between 1912 and 1914, revealed a culture which had remained unchanged through the centuries.
In the early 1930s a few documentary films, such as The Island of Demons from Germany and Goona Goona, out of the U.S.A., were distributed in America and Europe, bringing this isolated cultural outpost to the attention of the world.
The influence of such foreign artists as Walter Spies, Rudolph Bonnet, and Le Mayeur during the 1930s made a significant impact on the development of modern Balinese painting. An elite circle of foreign anthropologists, ethnologists, intellectuals, and musicians - Margaret Mead and Buckminster Fuller among them - were also drawn to Bali, devoting themselves to studying its culture.
Dutch colonial officials and distinguished European scholars began to build up a body of published work on Bali, anthropological literature with no parallel anywhere else in the world. It was also during this period that the German novelist Vicki Baum visited the island, writing her vivid Tale of Bali in 1937, depicting the European conquest from the Balinese point of view.
But no visitor to the island was to make such a profound impact on how Bali was to be interpreted to the outside world than the Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias. His classic work, The Island of Bali, produced in the 1930s, is still regarded by many Balinists as the most authoritative text on Bali and its fascinating society.
Included in this text is a wealth of information on the daily life, art, customs and religion of Bali, remarkably much of it still valid, fresh and insightful as it was when it was first written over 50 years ago. In the words of Covarrubias himself, he set out to present a “bird’s eye view of Balinese life and culture.”
The author, a noted painter and caricaturist and student of anthropology lived in Bali for a total of three years in the early 1930s. Introducing the island with a survey of its history, geography and social structure, Covarrubias goes on to present a captivating picture of Balinese art, music and drama. Religion, witchcraft, death and cremation are also covered.
Island of Bali will appeal to anyone with an interest in this utterly unique island, general readers and serious anthropologists alike. Complementing the text are 90 drawings by Covarrubias and countless others by Balinese artists. Also included are 114 half-tone photographs and five full-color paintings by the author.
Island of Bali by Miguel Covarrubias by Periplus Editions 2004, ISBN 962-593-0600-4, 427 pages, glossary, bibliography, index.
Available for Rp216,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galleria and in the Matahari in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport (both international and domestic terminals), in Gramedia Bookstores, and in Ary’s, Ganesha and Periplus bookshops of Ubud.
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Copyright@2004 PakBill
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