Indonesian Art - Women with Eggs

Indonesian Art - Women with Eggs

In this elongated, impressionistic wood sculpture, the slender Balinese woman, holds a large egg (symbol of fertility) in each hand. This graceful statue was created by Nyoman Muliarta in the village of Batuan in Bali.

This style of carving began in the 1930's, under the influence of Miguel Covarrubias, the Chilean artist, who visited Bali during that time. The favored wood for this style is crocodile wood (from Panggal Buaya, in Balinese, meaning crocodile teeth). Crocodile wood is known as the 'ivory of woods ' because of its similar color. Like ivory, this wood will darken with age from white to a creamy custard color.