Bali Arts and Crafts > Foreign Artists in Bali

^{Italian painter of note and student of Giancomo Balla, the
well known Italian modernist. Ambron came to Bali after seeing Krauser’s photo book
and an exhibition of Balinese art in Paris. There he rented a house from a gay Dutch
Sunday painter, Gokinga, in Kedaton, just outside Denpasar. Ambron was good friends with
Locatelli, another Italian, and Le Mayeur. Oddly enough these two Italian painters were
largely ignored by their other colleagues despite their obvious talent.}^{One amusing tale tells of a run in between Ambron and Mrs. Hofker.
They had met and were neighbors. Hofker, however, was rather shy and rarely talked to
strangers. Ambron with typical Mediterranean flair set about painting, choosing as his
model the famous dancer Ni Cawang. Mrs. Hofker came to him one day quite angry as Ni
Cawang was a favorite model of Hofker and as Ambron was willing to pay more she was not
showing up. It seemed that the marriage between Le Mayeur and Ni Pollak, made Ni
Cawang’s family aware that the unmarried Ambron might be a possible son in
law-another point not to be overlooked. In the end Ambron solved the problem by arranging
that she would model for both of them on an alternating basis.}