01Before the 20th century
Traditional Balinese painting historically served religious and narrative purposes — illustrating epics like the Ramayana on temple cloths and palace ceilings, using flat, stylised figures within a fairly rigid traditional style, distinct from the individually expressive art movement that emerged later.
02Foreign artists & the shift toward modern styles
From the 1930s, foreign artists who settled in Ubud — most notably German painter Walter Spies and Dutch artist Rudolf Bonnet — worked closely with local painters, introducing Western techniques like perspective and individual artistic expression that gradually blended with traditional Balinese subject matter and composition.
03The Pita Maha collective
This exchange led to the founding of Pita Maha, an artist collective bringing together Balinese and foreign painters to develop and promote a genuinely new Balinese modern art style — one that retained traditional subjects and motifs while embracing individual expression in a way classical temple art hadn't.
04Where to actually see this evolution
Our museums guide covers ARMA and the Neka Art Museum, both of which trace this progression directly — from classical temple-style painting through the Pita Maha era to contemporary Balinese and Indonesian art being made today.
05The contemporary scene
Balinese and broader Indonesian contemporary art remains genuinely active, with galleries around Ubud showing current work alongside the historical collections — worth seeking out if you want to see where this century-long evolution has actually landed today, rather than only the historical pieces.