The Anthony Forge Collection of Balinese Paintings (early 19th
century – 1970s) Top marks for the incidental collection The
Australian Museum holds one of the world’s most significant
collections of Balinese paintings. This is one of the few
anthropology collections that allow the Museum to claim high
international status. This collection of 160 paintings is
arguably the best documented, mainly because Professor Anthony
Forge, who assembled the collection, comprehensively studied the
painting tradition in Bali in the 1970s. Collecting paintings
was not intended, but it grew organically during his fieldwork
as a useful means of engaging with the artists-informants and as
a vivid illustration of this evolving tradition. So the
collection was simply a minor part of an extensive
anthropological study, documenting and attempting to understand
the tradition of Balinese ‘visual narratives’. As his intention
was to document stylistic and iconographic change over time,
Forge purchased a considerable variety of paintin