TYRA KLEEN’S JOURNEY THROUGH JAVA AND BALI RETURNS TO JAKARTA

Images Courtesy of Embassy of Sweden in Jakarta / Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm

Tyra Kleen’s Legacy in Indonesia

More than a century after Tyra Kleen travelled through Java and Bali, the Swedish artist’s impressions of Indonesia return to the place that inspired them. Presented by the Embassy of Sweden in Jakarta, Tyra Kleen – A Swedish Artist Celebrating Indonesian Culture: A Journey Through Java and Bali 1919–1921 brings together selected reproductions of Kleen’s artworks and photographs, offering a glimpse into her encounters with Indonesian culture between 1919 and 1921.

Set on the 85th floor of Autograph Tower, the exhibition places Kleen’s century-old observations against the contemporary city below, creating a meeting point between Indonesia’s cultural past and its evolving present.

Created in collaboration with the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, the exhibition features selected drawings, lithographs, and photographs from Kleen’s time in Java and Bali. She became particularly fascinated by local traditions, court dance, religion, and spiritual practices, approaching them with a combination of artistic sensitivity and ethnographical curiosity.

Among the works on view are illustrations from Het Serimpi, Kleen’s documentation of the ritual court dances of Solo, alongside works from Mudrãs, which explores the ritual hand movements of Hindu priests. Her photographs of Bali offer another perspective, capturing dancers, priests, and scenes of everyday life in the 1920s.

Presented by Interni Cipta Selaras

Kleen’s work occupies an intriguing space between art and documentation, reflecting her interest in the relationship between culture, religion, spirituality, and human knowledge. Born in Stockholm in 1874 into a diplomat’s family, she became an artist, writer, dancer, women’s rights activist, and ethnographical researcher, travelling extensively across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Often travelling alone or with female friends—unusual for women at the time—she approached her journeys with both artistic sensitivity and ethnographical curiosity, particularly in Java and Bali.

Her journey to Indonesia was part of a broader interest in Asian cultures and religions. Rather than travelling simply as a tourist, she sought a deeper understanding of the cultures she encountered. In Java and Bali, she found a particularly strong connection between spiritual practices, artistic expression, and ways of understanding the world.

Kleen was prolific and exhibited internationally during her lifetime, but changing artistic movements eventually left her work outside the dominant narrative of modern art. Later in life, she was no longer active as an artist. When she died in Stockholm in 1951, she left her extensive art collection to the House of Nobility in Stockholm, with instructions that it should remain unopened for fifty years.

That decision eventually gave her work another life. Today, Kleen’s art is being rediscovered through exhibitions and renewed interest in her journeys, bringing attention to a body of work that sits between artistic expression, cultural observation, and personal exploration.

“I am very proud that we have managed to bring a small piece of Tyra Kleen’s art back home. Her work reveals her deep fascination with Indonesian culture, art and spirituality, while offering a remarkable perspective on the connection between Sweden and Indonesia,” said Daniel Blockert, Ambassador of Sweden to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and ASEAN.

“Her return” to Jakarta is also part of the celebration of 76 years of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Indonesia. Here, the exhibition becomes an opportunity to revisit a particular moment of cultural encounter while considering the connections that continue to grow between the two countries through art, ideas, and human exchange.

Seen today, Kleen’s works inevitably carry the perspective of their time. Yet their return to Indonesia offers another way of looking at her legacy—through a contemporary audience revisiting the places, traditions, and cultural expressions that first captured her imagination.

TYRA KLEEN – A SWEDISH ARTIST CELEBRATING INDONESIAN CULTURE: A JOURNEY THROUGH JAVA AND BALI 1919–1921
 UP at Thamrin Nine, 85th Floor, Autograph Tower, Jakarta
 9–30 September 2026