Convergence of art and tourism
UBUD, BALI — Nestled in the central foothills of Indonesia’s main tourist destination, this town of Ubud is the center of traditional Balinese art and culture in the so-called “Island of the Gods.”
A couple of hours’ drive from the traffic of Denpasar and the beaches of Kuta, iconic images of terraced rice paddies and lush rainforests greet the traveler as one enters Ubud. The town takes its name from the Bahasa word for medicine, having been originally important as a source of medicinal herbs and plants.
Ubud was already in the travel map starting in the 1960s, but Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 book that was set in this town fueled a much bigger boom over the last decade. Eat, Pray, Love became a movie starring Julia Roberts in 2010, after which Ubud became a must-see attraction for Western and Asian tourists alike.
With a population of less than 50,000, Ubud’s economy highly relies on tourism centered on Jalan Raya, the main road which runs east-west across the town. It leads to the Ubud Monkey Forest, a sacred nature reserve with more than 300 crabeating macaque monkeys.
Since the 1920s, several waves of European artists have made Ubud their home, attracting the attention of Western cultural figures to Balinese arts. One of them was Filipino- Spanish painter Antonio Maria Blanco, whose works of arts are housed at a mansion-turned-museum on top of a mountain overlooking the Campuan River.
The Blanco Renaissance Museum is a flamboyant building within a vast estate that blends Balinese architecture with the owner’s Catalan heritage. Exotic birds and a waterfall lead the visitor to the surreal neo- renaissance structure that captures the expressionist art of Blanco.
Born in the Philippines during the American occupation in 1911, Blanco grew up in Ermita, Manila and was educated at the American Central School, predecessor of International School Manila.
Blanco’s parents were of Catalan descent, a fact he believed was his geographical and spiritual link to Spanish artists Salvador Dali and Joan Miro, who were both from Spain’s Catalonia region. His father settled in Manila during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and became a prominent physician.
In high school, Blanco loved the arts and language classes but struggled in math and science. He eventually spoke six languages — Spanish, Tagalog, English, French, Bahasa, and Balinese.
After completing his basic education in Manila, he studied at the National Academy of Art in New York. Then he worked in Florida and California before journeying extensively throughout the world.
With his traveling spirit, Blanco became interested in exploring the Pacific islands, which had inspired painters like Paul Gauguin. He originally wanted to go to Tahiti, but instead paid visits to Hawaii and Japan. Prince Norodom Sihanouk invited him as a guest of honor in Cambodia, from where he embarked on a trip to Bali in 1952.
The King of Ubud, Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, gave Blanco a piece of land at the confluence of two sacred rivers in Campuan, where he set up his home and studio. He got married to celebrated Balinese dancer Ni Ronji, and they settled down in their mountain retreat where they raised their four children. Bali’s serene surroundings fascinated Blanco no end, barely leaving it for the outside world. Following a short trip to the United States, where he acquired many new collectors of his paintings, he never left Bali again.
Working in his hilltop home until his death in 1999, Blanco created fantasy portraits of beautiful women. He was a painter of the “eternal feminine” and his style is known as romantic-expressive.
Eventually, Blanco became the most famous foreign artist to have made Bali his home. The “Dali of Bali” was recognized in Indonesia and overseas, receiving numerous awards and commanding high prices at international art auctions.
His artistic outpourings from an isolated world were much sought after by art collectors such as Indonesian Presidents Sukarno and Suharto, American pop idol Michael Jackson, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, Mexican telenovela queen Thalia, and members of the Balinese royal family.
King Juan Carlos of Spain awarded Blanco the Order of Cruz de Caballero, giving him the title of “Don” prefixing his name. He began building the Blanco Renaissance Museum in 1998, exhibiting more than 300 works of art in chronological order to show his evolution as an artist.
He dramatically died just before the museum’s inauguration in December 1999. Being a convert to Hinduism, he had a Balinese cremation ceremony in Ubud. His only son, Mario, followed his path by becoming a painter.
There are several Philippine towns that could emulate the convergence of art and tourism in Ubud. In Luzon, the ideal setting would be the town of Angono, Rizal — home to a family of artists also surnamed Blanco (no relation to Bali’s Don Antonio Blanco).
For the Visayas and Mindanao, respectively, the cities of Silay and Zamboanga come to mind as the perfect heritage sites because of their museum-mansions similar to the Blanco Renaissance Museum.