I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih review a vivid testament to a life lived hornily

"Murni or I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, to go by her full name was a Balinese artist who shrugged off all the norms and expectations that life chucked at her and instead made art with total abandon. By the time she died aged 39 in 2006, taken by ovarian cancer, she'd left behind a body of ultra-simple, mega-bold, hyper-colourful painting that functions as a testament to a life lived honestly, independently and very, very hornily."

"Murni paints hybrid figures, half-plant, half-human, part-animal, part-woman. Branches grow out of bare bums, heads poke out of scale-covered fish bodies, long limbs loop and distend, bodies twist and undulate. There is endless symbolism here. High heels, mermaids, fish, mirrors, eyes, clocks. It's heavily surreal, a sort of ultra-feminine comic book take on Giorgio de Chirico. Everywhere you look there are cocks throbbing and piercing and erupting"

"They also took a simple, bold approach to surreal mythical painting, but with different results. Totol's monochrome beasties wear military hats in an outwardly political move; Mokoh's creatures are notably more traditional and Balinese; and Mondo's approach is way closer to classical portraiture. All different, but with so much shared intention that it's easy to see why this group was so attracted to each other."

Murni (I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih) was a Balinese artist whose ultra-simple, mega-bold, hyper-colourful paintings celebrate desire and sexuality. Early works present enigmatic hybrid figures—half-plant, half-human, part-animal, part-woman—with branches, scaled fish bodies, looping limbs and undulating forms. Recurring symbols include high heels, mermaids, fish, mirrors, eyes and clocks, combining surrealism with an ultra-feminine comic-book sensibility. A small circle of contemporaries—Mondo, Mokoh and Totol—adopted similarly bold surreal mythical approaches but produced distinct visual results. Later paintings become more brazen and explicitly erotic, depicting worship, penetration, bound breasts and playful, provocative sexual imagery.

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