An exquisite wood sculpture of a Balinese woman, unmarked, Bali – Indonesia – Dutch East Indies, c1930-50. The piece is carved from Satin wood, in the elongated Art Deco form. The sculpture is in very good condition with no stains, but two fingers are broken. H45cm.

Sold for €236 incl. premium

Balinese art is art of Hindu-Javanese origin that grew from the work of artisans of the Majapahit Kingdom, with their expansion to Bali in the late 13th century. From the sixteenth until the twentieth centuries, the villages of Kamasan, Klungkung (East Bali), were the centre of classical Balinese art. During the first part of the twentieth century, with the arrival of Europeans, new varieties of Balinese art developed with the western influence aparent. Sculptures from the village of Mas, known for the woodcarvings, are recognized nationally and world-wide. It is the birthplace of the famous masters, I Tagelan, Ida Bagus Nyana and Ida Bagus Tilem. Balinese woodcarvings are a reflection of the Balinese village life, and characters of Hinduistic-Java epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as, a number of indigenous characters of the Panji narrative. In 2006, an exhibition at the Nusantara Museum, Delft, the Netherlands, Frans Leidelmeijer traced the Art Deco influence on Balinese wood carvings. Leidelmeijer further conjectured that the Art Deco influence continued well into the 1970’s.