Ubud - The Artistic Centre

The emergence of Ubud as an international Centre for the Arts happened during the 1920's and 1930's. This was in large part due to the insight and energy of the King of Ubud at that time, Cokorde Agung Sukawati, who acted as a great patron of the local Balinese arts.

He met and became friendly with those wealthy international visitors who were intrepid enough to penetrate to the interior of the island of Bali.
Cokorde Sukawati offered hospitality to these visitors, and a warm and friendly relationship grew between them and the very talented local artists and craftspersons, which led to the visitors encouraging, promoting, and inspiring the local artists to develop and further their art.
This happened not only in the fine arts of painting and sculpture but also in music and dance.

Thus the names of those foreigners have become part of the art history of Bali, names such as Miguel Covarrubias, Walter Spies, Rudolph Bonnet, Arie Smit, and till now we talk of the Walter Spies style, or the young Artists style of Arie Smit.

After the Second World War, these developments continued with more and more people spending extended periods of time here in Ubud painting, studying and becoming involved with local arts and crafts.

Even now in the 1990's Ubud is home to many artists who may be famous in their homeland but here are treated with normal friendship and courtesy as just another artist.