Images of power: Balinese paintings made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead

Abstract

Between 1936 and 1938 Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead collected more than 1,200 paintings and sketches made by Balinese peasants. The products of a new genre of painting introduced and encouraged by two European artists in 1931, the paintings draw their major themes from Balinese culture but use Western materials and forms. Strikingly different from both traditional Balinese art forms and paintings made in Bali today, these unusual pen-and-ink pictures reveal much about Bali that has been unknown to Westerners--Publisher.

Contents

Ch. 1. Inventing an Art -- Both Balinese and Western -- Ch. 2. The Everyday World of (Mere) Appearances -- Ch. 3. The Magical Story World: A Portfolio of Storytelling Pictures -- Ch. 4. The Real World of Dangerous Powers -- Ch. 5. Masters of Sakti Powers -- Ch. 6. Crossing Cultures -- Appendix: Painters' Profiles and Selected Works.