David, the local market in Indonesia is very, very big, and pretty enthusiastic. The people in that market have areas of interest that cover all aspects. The type of keris such as Marius has fits into one niche of that market.
Going back into the early 1980's there was a keris exhibition held in Solo by the ASKI boys, and some of those makers exhibited work that explored the idea of the keris as a canvas for art, some of that art was decidedly outside the keris tradition. Some people were highly critical of it:-
"yes, its art, but is it a keris!!???"
Other people were very impressed by that work, and bought it.
In fact, going back into the 19th century old keris were being used as the canvas for art work.
Some Indonesian collectors like this sort of work, others detest it.The distinction is probably pretty much similar to art lovers in the Western World who like modern art, and those who are hardcore traditionalists.
My personal attitude is that in a comprehensive keris collection we should not discriminate against any particular type of keris. But the key word here is "comprehensive", and not all collections are comprehensive, some people prefer to target a particular class of keris.
As for the lexicon of local iconography, in my experience very, very few people in Indonesia who are involved with the keris have much understanding of this at all.
The dominant culture in Indonesia is Javanese culture. This has always been true and is true now. There is a core of Javanese values, but the peripherals change constantly and always have. Jawa accepts and adapts everything that comes into the society.
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