Arie Smit

Arie Smit was a Dutch-born artist who became one of the most influential figures in modern Balinese painting. Trained in graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Rotterdam, Smit was sent to the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1938 as a military cartographer for the Dutch army. Captured by Japanese forces during World War II, he endured over three years of forced labor across Southeast Asia. Following his release in 1945, Smit chose to remain in Indonesia and became a citizen in 1951. He taught lithography at the Bandung Institute of Technology, where he also pursued his personal artistic practice.

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Smit first visited Bali in 1956 and soon made it his permanent home. A transformative figure in Balinese art, he is best known for founding the Young Artist movement in the early 1960s. In Penestanan Village, near Ubud, he provided materials and encouragement to local youths, catalyzing a vibrant, naïve painting style that celebrated scenes of daily life with bright, expressive colors—distinct from Smit’s own more structured aesthetic.

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Throughout his prolific career, Smit developed a unique visual language marked by bold color harmonies, rhythmic compositions, and a technique he described as “broken colors.” Inspired by Impressionism and Fauvism, he painted not on site, but from sketches made outdoors, capturing the essence of Bali’s light, people, and landscapes in his studio.

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In recognition of his contributions to Indonesian art, Smit received the Dharma Kusuma Cultural Award from the Balinese government in 1992. That same year, the Arie Smit Pavilion was inaugurated at the Neka Art Museum in Ubud, housing his works alongside those of contemporary Balinese artists.