Due to the fact that Ngendon was acquainted with both Spies and Bonnet at an early stage, and because he was involved in organising toursist events, his art seems to reach a higher degree of Westernisation than his contemporaries from the Batuan region. Paradoxically it may well be true that it is due to Ngendon's influence and artistic leadership that the Batuan painters as a group preserved their own identity and did not become epigenists of any western artist (unlike some painters from the Ubud region). Illustrative is the example told by I Ketut Tombelos (Margaret Mead's field notes), where it is said that Ngendon had a violent disagreement with Bonnet regarding the paternalistic interventions of the latter towards the style and choice subject of Ngendon. Professor Hildred Geertz perceives a strong taboo against any sign of modernisation evident in the work of Batuan painters (op. cit. p. 17). Still she rightly suggests that it was Western modernity and Western forms of power that fascinated and inspired Ngendon (op. cit. p. 19). The artist was a member of the Pita Maha artists' association.
The present lot compares to a picture of the same subject of a pupil by Ngendon: I Made Djata, Collection Bateson & Mead, Princeton University, New Jersey (on loan), inv. no. B-134 (cf. literature: H. Geertz, Images of Power, p. 57, p. 56 illus). For further bibliographical notes see Geertz, pp.5-19; Hohn, pp. 43-51.
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