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To him, Bali was simply the "object" of his paintings and the means to gain access to the famed Balinese Woman. If he met with success, it was mainly because this much-relished theme corresponded with the expectations of the Jakartan elites - his main
market. As a Westerner, and thus a former "colonialist", he provided them with an expected validation: he was "their" exotic figure in love with exotic Bali. A living paradox, he was rewarded with their recognition. The price of his works reached ever-new heights. However, this success was a trap. Antonio Blanco had to produce works that corresponded to his image: nudes or portraits of Balinese women or celebrities. This shackled his creativity. Bali itself was simply a background to his painting, never an autonomous theme. His technique, too, didn't evolve. Even though he surrounded his characters with a haze of red or blue, his approach remained formalist and his manner tightly academic. He never questioned "form" or "colour" as his American contemporaries were doing during
the same period.

In other words, Antonio, Blanco was the  victim of his own image. He failed to develop his, natural talent to the optimum and thus missed the opportunity that was his - to become the best expatriate painter in Bali. 

Blanco's success had another, deeper, consequence for Balinese culture. He popularized a false or outdated image of the Balinese woman. If we can accept that "sexual exoticism" was, in the 20s and 30s, an unavoidable consequence of Western domination that treated the world as its object, such an approach was not only passe, but also reactionary 30 years later. Antonio Blanco's works have extended the historical prejudice toward Balinese women more than was warranted. The Balinese woman is a modern woman who doesn't accept being the doll of sexual tourism.

In short, Antonio Blanco's career may be said to mirror the imbalances that have characterized the relations between Bali and the Western world during the 20th century. Bali has been treated like a political, economic and cultural commodity of the West. Antonio Blanco has formulated in art, albeit unwillingly, this basic imbalance.

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