Museums in Ubud

Ubud is known as a cultural tourist center of Bali, it has attracted the attention of tourists who are fascinated with the culture of Bali since many decades ago. But other than object that contained in the sights of the city, Ubud also has temples, museums, ancient relics and handicraft center that worth to be visiting as well.

Downtown intersection is located where the market and public transport terminals are met. Town’s main street is at Jl. Monkey Forest or Jl. Wenara Wana. New ‘Coco Super Market’ is in the Y junction off Jl. Monkey Forest, further on then it goes to Jalan Hanoman and Jalan Sugriwa. ‘Teba House’ is located at Jalan Sugriwa quite far from the hustle of Ubud City. The

Monkey Forest Sanctuary could be found at Jl. Monkey Forest. Jl. Monkey Forest is a one-way street up to Jl. Dewi Sita then up to Ubud Market & Ubud Palace.  Behind the Monkey Forest Sanctuary there’s Nyuhkuning village known for its wood carving art and a sculpture museum (Museum Pendet).

Ubud in history has been a haven for some great artists, both for foreign and domestic artists. The foreign artists some of them did a brief stay but many also live in Ubud and participating in developing the Ubud art, such as ‘Walter Spies’ and ‘Rudolf Bonnet’ who came to Bali since the 1930′s. The house that once they occupy can also be visited. They had lived for some time in Campuan near the suspension bridge. Spies’s home now has become one of the rooms at Hotel Tjampuan which can be visited when not in use, visitors can stay at Spies’s home if they make reservations in advance.

The presence of foreign and domestic artists make this region of Ubud is also enriched with museum as a tourist attraction, such as the “Museum Puri Lukisan“. Artist ‘Rudolf Bonnet’ has a major role in changing this pattern of Balinese painting. The Museum which was founded in the mid of 1950′s and has the best collection of paintings from various schools of art in Bali. Changes in the flow of Balinese painting from traditional to modern style first appeared in Ubud where the Ubud’s artists pioneered the use of the modern painting tools and began to paint the objects from their Balinese Daily Life.

Neka Museum founded by ‘Suteja Neka’, a Bali art collector, in 1976. The museum has a very nice art and diverse collection that displayed nicely to the visitors. Neka Museum is the best place to study the development of Balinese painting. The museum has several rooms including rooms that showcase paintings by the local artists who are influenced by the art of shadow puppets (wayang kulit). In another part of the museum there is a collection of paintings of ‘young artists’ from various schools of art in Bali, while at the ‘Lempad pavilion’ exhibited various paintings by artists ‘I Gusti Nyoman Lempad’.

Another museum located in Teges is Rudana Museum, it is a large and impressive museum has an interesting collection of traditional paintings include paintings by ‘I Gusti Nyoman Lempad’, as well as modern paintings include ‘Affandi’.

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Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) is relatively new and has two large buildings containing artwork owned by ‘Agung Rai’. It is better to visit this museum in the afternoon because after watching the collection of the museum visitors can dine at the café located in the museum and continued to watch traditional dance performances are staged in the museum complex.

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“Take nothing but pictures….. Leave nothing but foot prints…. May It Be Without Error”

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