Museums & galleries
Puri Lukisan Museum
The Puri Lukisan Ratna Wartha Museum is the oldest art museum in Bali which specialize in modern traditional Balinese paintings and wood carvings. The museum is located in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It is home to the finest collection of modern traditional Balinese painting and wood carving on the island, spanning from the pre-Independence war (1930–1945) to the post-Independence war era. The collection includes important examples of all of the artistic styles in Bali including the Sanur, Batuan, Ubud, Young Artist and Keliki schools.
What it is
Puri Lukisan is a small museum built around one of the earliest organized collections of Balinese painting and wood carving on the island, put together by artists and collectors involved in the Pita Maha movement in the 1930s. Rather than contemporary art, the focus is on tracing how Balinese painting styles developed from the 1930s through the decades after independence, with rooms grouped by the different regional schools (Sanur, Batuan, Ubud, Young Artist, Keliki). It suits travelers who want context for the paintings sold throughout Ubud's galleries, rather than a quick photo stop.
Getting there
The museum sits right in central Ubud, an easy walk from the main Jalan Raya Ubud strip. Most visitors staying in or near Ubud can reach it on foot in 5–15 minutes; from further out, a short taxi or scooter ride of 10–20 minutes covers it, depending on traffic near the palace area.
Time to allow
Plan on 1 to 1.5 hours to go through the galleries and gardens at a normal pace, more if you like to read the wall text on individual artists and styles.
When to go
Mornings tend to be quieter and cooler for walking between the buildings, which are set among gardens and connected by outdoor paths. Ubud's central streets get busy with day-trippers by midday, so an early visit also makes it easier to combine with nearby sites before the area fills up.
What to combine it with
Pura Taman Saraswati, a water temple known for its lotus ponds, is only 0.2km away and easy to fold into the same outing. Ubud Palace is a similarly short walk at 0.3km. The Blanco Renaissance Museum (0.7km), dedicated to painter Antonio Blanco, and the Agung Rai Museum of Art (1.5km), which covers a broader range of Balinese and Indonesian art, both work well as a follow-on stop if you want to go deeper into the local art scene.
Sources: open data from Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap · Updated August 5, 2026 · Edited by the World by City editors
