Soon, however, a stylistic evolution took place. The first one led to the invention of the sleek style. It was apparently evoked by Walter Spies in 1929, who, while commissioning two woodcarving from the Blaluan sculptor I Telagan Blaluan, gave him a lengthy piece of wood he had just obtained for this purpose. To his surprise, I Tegalan did not cut the piece of wood in two as ordered but produced instead an elongated work. Associated with a sleek working of wood, a style was born. Much of the future evolution of Balinese sculpture would consist in playing with natural proportions: first elongating them, then, after the war, shortening them, producing the style still in favor today. There were several masters from this style: Ida Bagus Glodog, Ida Bagus Taman, Ida Bagus Ketut Roja, Doyotan and Sondoh.

Another Master of the new style was Cokot, from the mountain Village of Jati, North of Tegalalang. Cokot used a minimalist technique. He mountain for strangely shaped niches and turn them, with as little he log as possible, into an assembly of spooks and demonic figures.

Ichnographically, these characters were derived from figures often found as part of the decoration Balinese temples, but Cokot treated them in a free way, and, more importantly, took fore by embedding them into huge trees and branches. He thus created a strong, expressionistic genre unique to this day. Ida Bagus Nyana and Cokot were artists from the Pita Maha years, but their productive career took them into the 60s and 70s. Most of today's Balinese sculpture is inspired from their works.