A Flourishing Community
of Art and Soul
Half an hour's walk or a 10-minute drive from central Ubud, due
south along the shaded main street of Padangtegal past open rice
paddies, art shops and homestays, brings you to the village of
Pengosekan (pronounced: PongoSAYkan), which despite its small
size, has over the past 20 years become a major player on the
Balinese art scene.
Although Pengosekan paintings are seldom seen in shops and galleries,
and must be hunted down in the village itself, no serious exhibit
of Balinese art is complete without a few, and they grace the
walls of collectors, museums and palaces around the world (the
aristocrats of neighboring Mas were somewhat put out when Queen
Elizabeth insisted on being taken to low-caste Pengosekan in search
of a painting; the villagers themselves were disappointed that
she had forgotten to wear her crown).
Only recently has Pengosekan emerged from a state of semi-isolation,
with the bridging of a river which previously could only be forded
on precarious stepping stones that washed away with every rainfall.
It is perhaps because of this isolation that the artists of Pengosekan
have not been followers and imitators, but individualistic pioneers
of a new style in Balinese art and life. In 1979 they established
the island's first artists' cooperative, exhibiting and selling
together and supporting each other with raw materials in the,
days when the cost of a tube of imported acrylic paint would feed
a large family for three weeks. Incorporating elements of traditional
Balinese communalism, they called themselves the Pengosekan Community
Farmers and Artists.
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