Artist unknown, Bali, Indonesia.
January 2024
I was lucky enough to see this painting advertised locally on Facebook marketplace. The seller was having a house clearance. I was told this painting was brought back to Australia from “Fiji?” when his parents returned from their honeymoon in the 1980s. The painting has hung in their spare room/garage ever since. It is a bit dusty and lightly damaged, but still beautiful.
Large 1.9m x 0.9m
Unfortunately, I can see no signature. The paper on the back has long deteriorated. The material which is thin like cotton is stretched over Melamine board and has a hardwood frame. I’ve not attended a Balinese funeral in person, but from what I can see this looks like images and videos I’ve seen of a traditional Hindu Balinese funeral.
Hi, We have in the family a Balinese Funeral painting with similar level of detail and I imagine similar techniques. Ours is 146cm x 93cm. Did you find a valuation for yours? We would be interested to know. Thanks
Unfortunately these tourist paintings do not hold a lot of value here in Australia. I have never had my paintings valued, mainly because I purchased most locally for very little cost.
These paintings are beautiful and detailed. In my opinion are worth collecting, but many are mass produced for the tourist market. If the artist is famous the prices can be higher, but the paintings by unknown artists seem to hold little monetary value.
Personally, I collect these as I love Bali and it’s people and I can collect these paintings as they are so inexpensive to purchase locally here in Melbourne.
I have found it difficult to get any information on individual artists as there have been 1000s of local Balinese artists producing paintings for tourists since the mid century.
I have stopped trying to contact current artists in Bali as they are purely focused on selling current works, rather than interested in the art from the late 1900s.
I would suggest you try to contact a local auction house near you or try to sell privately locally. Good luck, cheers Patricia