Word: balis
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...young artist from Mexico, by way of Manhattan, and his stunningly beautiful wife were set down by a Dutch packet steamer on the northern coast of Bali. Neither artist nor island would ever be the same. In two visits to Bali, amounting to just 20 months' residency, Miguel Covarrubias created an impressive body of drawings and paintings of the life of the island, and carried out the research for a dense 400-page book about its culture. Amazingly, Island of Bali, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1937, is still the indispensable work on the island's complex rituals...
...Despite the enduring renown of Covarrubias' book, the art he made in Bali has been neglected, rarely exhibited and mostly unpublished. Covarrubias in Bali, a gorgeous new book by Adriana Williams, the artist's biographer, and Yu-Chee Chong, now reveals the impressive mastery and range?and surprising quantity?of Covarrubias' work in Bali...
...other artists, including the German painter Walter Spies and the Dutchman Rudolf Bonnet, were busily creating the myth of the Island of the Gods, concentrating on the exotic beauty of its bare-breasted maidens and graceful adolescent boys, Covarrubias delved deeper, following his anthropological research into the soul of Bali...
...Covarrubias, true to his Mexican roots, was always ambivalent about the glittering world of caf? society. For their honeymoon, he and his wife Rose sailed to Bali, in search of a more contemplative life. When they arrived, the Covarrubiases were befriended by Walter Spies, who lived at the royal court of Ubud, in the interior of the island. "The months flew past while we roamed around the island with Spies," wrote Covarrubias. "We watched strange ceremonies, enjoyed the music, listened to fantastic tales, camped in the wild parts of western Bali or at the Sanur coral reef...
...Covarrubias' newly revealed work in Bali stands among the finest of his career: his deceptively polished, Art Deco-inspired compositions and intensely colorful palette were a flexible medium for the artist to explore every aspect of life on the island. His portraits of Balinese women capture their frank sensuality without the overlay of leering orientalism frequently found in the work of other foreign artists in the tropics?perhaps because of the similarities between village life in Mexico and Bali. The paintings of the island's legendary dance performances are carefully observed yet imbued with a full measure of mystical atmosphere...