ABSTRACT
The arts and literature in Bali have not always constituted a sphere of life divorced from politics (see MacRae, Chapter 3, this volume). One of the untold tales of modern Bali which can illustrate this fact, is the fate of the leftist artists and writers of the period between 1950 and 1966. Nor is Balinese art likely to remain as politically silent as it has been during Suharto's New Order period. As Bali experiences the dramatic changes that have been sweeping the whole of Indonesia since 1998, the role artists can play in shaping public and state discourses has become a matter of public interest and discussion. In view of this change, it is important now to re-examine areas of history and art history that have been hidden by the repressive measures of the New Order or obscured by its particular politics of representation.
