Arie Smit: The Story and Where It Is Remembered

Arie Smit Guide: Penestanan’s Young Artists

Arie Smit was a Dutch-born painter who settled in Bali in 1956 and became closely associated with the development of the Young Artists style in Penestanan, near Ubud. In the early 1960s he encouraged local teenagers to paint by giving them art materials and support. Their lively, brightly coloured scenes of village life became a distinct strand of modern Balinese painting; they were not simply copies of Smit’s own work.

For a visitor, the useful distinction is this: Smit’s paintings reward attention to colour, rhythm and atmosphere, while Young Artists paintings tend to make everyday scenes legible through bold outlines, compressed space and an abundance of small figures and activity. Penestanan is the place to understand the movement’s local setting. Approach it as a living village as well as an art destination, and do not assume a studio or home is open to visitors.

How Arie Smit came to live in Bali

Adrianus Wilhelmus Smit was born in Zaandam in the Netherlands in 1916. In 1938 he joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and worked as a lithographer for the Topographical Service in Batavia.

During the Second World War he was captured by Japanese forces and forced into labour on the Burma Railway. He first visited Bali in 1956, and later made the island his home.

Smit died in Denpasar in 2016, shortly before his hundredth birthday.

What makes Smit’s paintings recognisable

Smit’s pictures are often recognised first through their colour, but colour is doing structural work. He used what the Neka Art Museum describes as “broken colours”: nearby patches of differing hues combine at a distance into trees, fields, figures or evening light. The eye does not receive every object as a solid block. It moves across short marks and recurring forms, then assembles the scene. A painting can feel bright without becoming flat because the colour patches create movement and depth together.

Look for repeated shapes that make a visual beat. A sequence of tree trunks, roofs, terraces or figures can guide the eye across the canvas. Smit simplified forms while keeping them recognisable, so a viewer can notice both the larger composition and the small changes inside it. His landscapes are not merely scenic records: colour relationships and brushwork give the place a mood and a rhythm.

That distinction matters when reading the work. A finished canvas is a considered arrangement, not an unfiltered view or a topographical document. Familiar Bali motifs—rice terraces, shrines, village paths and trees—are selected and reorganised to make a composition hold together.

The Young Artists style in Penestanan

In the early 1960s Smit supplied art materials to teenagers in Penestanan and encouraged them to paint. The group became known as the Young Artists. It is best understood as a movement or school of painting, not as a permanent academy with a fixed curriculum or membership list. Smit’s support created an opening; the painters developed their own characteristic visual language.

Young Artists paintings often use bright, direct colour, emphatic dark outlines and simplified figures. Scenes can be crowded with people, animals, houses, trees and events. Relative size may follow narrative importance rather than the rules of measured perspective: a person in the distance can remain as prominent as one nearby. This makes a picture read more like an animated account of village life than a window onto a single optical viewpoint.

The subjects matter as much as the handling. Daily work, gatherings, ceremonies and village activity provide a sequence of things to look at. Rather than reducing a scene to one central figure, a painter may give the viewer several small episodes to follow. Spend time tracing those details. What first appears exuberant and densely packed can reveal deliberate choices about which actions belong together and how the village is represented.

Smit’s influence is visible in the group’s confidence with colour, but the resemblance should not obscure the difference. His own paintings use broken colour and carefully balanced rhythms to evoke atmosphere; Young Artists works more commonly lean on clear outlines, simplified forms and the busy narration of a scene. The artists were not a set of pupils producing replicas. Their work took encouragement and some shared visual interests into a more decorative, often more crowded direction.

The broader guide to Balinese culture can help place this movement within the island’s wider artistic traditions. Looking at the paintings themselves comes first: ask what kind of attention each picture invites. A Smit landscape may ask you to follow colour across the whole surface before settling on one object, while a Young Artists painting may bring the eye back to a lively scene through outlines and repeated details.

Where to see Smit’s work and what to look for

The Arie Smit Pavilion at the Neka Art Museum opened in 1994 to show his work alongside paintings by contemporary Balinese artists. A museum display is a practical way to compare paintings directly, especially because reproduction can flatten the small colour shifts that make his brushwork effective.

On a first viewing, stand back far enough to see the composition as a whole. Notice where the brightest colours sit and whether they pull your eye towards a person, a gate or a distant ridge. Then move closer to inspect how the marks are made: one painted tree may be assembled from several hues rather than a single green. Step back again and see whether the fragments merge into a larger pattern.

For a Young Artists painting, try a different sequence. Find the main activity, then follow the smaller figures and objects around it. Check whether size indicates distance or importance; look at how outlines divide adjacent forms; notice whether the scene continues beyond the part that initially caught your eye. This slower viewing turns a crowded picture into a set of connected episodes.

Do not expect every work associated with Smit or Penestanan to look alike. Artists change over time, and a school’s influence can persist while individual painters adopt new subjects or techniques. The label is a starting point for attention, not a guarantee that two canvases share the same composition or purpose.

Visiting Penestanan with respect for its village setting

Penestanan is a village near Ubud. Lanes in the village can be narrow, and walking routes may be uneven. If you are travelling with luggage or have limited mobility, plan the drop-off at a road access point you can manage rather than assuming a vehicle can reach a particular door.

Once on foot, keep to the route you have chosen and be alert to local traffic, including scooters moving through narrow stretches. Do not block a lane while taking photographs or stand in a doorway to examine a building. A quiet road can still be someone’s everyday route to work, school or home. The village’s artistic identity does not make every courtyard, studio or house a public exhibition space.

If you come hoping to see painters at work, ask first whether a space welcomes visitors. A studio may be private, closed, or focused on work rather than visitor access. Do not enter through an open gate without an invitation, photograph people at work without consent, or assume that the Young Artists name identifies a single attraction. The historical movement and today’s working artists are related subjects, but a visitor should not treat private workspaces as museum rooms.

Pairing Penestanan with an art museum gives the outing a useful shape: the village helps you understand the movement’s local roots, while a collection offers a more reliable setting for sustained looking. If your priority is Smit’s own paintings, go to a collection that identifies his work rather than spending the day searching for an unmarked studio. If you are more interested in how the Young Artists style developed, make room to look at examples slowly and compare how different painters handle colour, figures and village stories.

Questions about Arie Smit and Penestanan

Did Arie Smit found a formal art school?

He encouraged young painters in Penestanan by providing art materials and support, and the group became known as the Young Artists.

Are Young Artists paintings the same as Arie Smit’s paintings?

No. Bright colour is a point of connection, but Young Artists works are commonly more outlined, simplified and densely narrative. Smit’s own work often builds a scene through broken colour and repeated visual rhythms.

Can visitors walk into artists’ studios in Penestanan?

Only when the occupants clearly welcome visitors. Penestanan is a living village, and a studio or home is private unless access is offered. Ask before entering or taking photographs.

Where can I see Arie Smit’s paintings?

The Arie Smit Pavilion at the Neka Art Museum presents his work with that of contemporary Balinese artists.

Plan the Ubud art visit around the work you want to see

Choose the visit by subject rather than trying to treat Penestanan as a guaranteed gallery circuit. For the clearest encounter with Smit’s colour and composition, seek a museum display that identifies his paintings. For the Young Artists story, Penestanan supplies the setting, but access to any particular painter or studio depends on an invitation. Allow enough unhurried time to look at the pictures themselves; the movement makes more sense when you follow a scene across the canvas instead of ticking off its name.

Start with the Ubud area guide to place Penestanan within the wider town, then use the Bali activities guide if you are building a broader day around art and culture.

Related guides: the majapahit conquest of bali, the kingdom of gelgel, kebyar dance.