Walter Spies letters emerge at Christie's auction in Amsterdam<\/p>\n
By Amir Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Twenty Walter Spies' letters, hitherto unknown,
\nemerged in the most recent Christie's Amsterdam auction of
\nIndonesian pictures, watercolors and drawings.<\/p>\n
The letters were addressed to Carl and Olive Gotsch.<\/p>\n
Carl Gotsch was apparently the director of music at the
\nKeraton (palace) Yogyakarta. When Spies arrived in Java in 1923,
\nhe took a job as a piano player in a cinema. Later, Gotsch hired
\nSpies as a piano player in his ensemble. Spies moved to Bali in
\n1927, but apparently maintained contact with the Gotsches through
\nthis correspondence.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that there is no mention of the
\nGotsches in Hans Rhodius and John Darling's Walter Spies and
\nBalinese Art (Terra, Zutphen, 1980).<\/p>\n
The letters, which date from June 17, 1928 to Feb. 18, 1940,
\nare sure to give further insight into Spies' life and artistic
\nwork.<\/p>\n
In one letter, Spies mentioned his interest in the biological
\nstudy of spiders and dragonflies.<\/p>\n
The artist also explained his struggle to complete an
\nillustration for a book on Indonesian cultural history by
\nStutterheim in his Sept. 9, 1929 letter. In the same letter, he
\nrelated his trip with Dutch artist Rudolf Bonnet to a temple in
\nBali.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated June 17, 1928, Spies conveyed his intention
\nto visit Yogyakarta in a car, which he had obtained in exchange
\nfor two paintings, with Victor Baron von Plessen. One of the two
\npaintings was sold in Christie's March 1997 sale, for a hammer
\nprice of S$750,000.<\/p>\n
Another letter, dated 1939 in Buitenzorg (Bogor), described a
\ntraveling exhibition of Spies' paintings which visited Batavia,
\nBogor, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya.<\/p>\n
The letters also provide an insight into Spies' social and
\npersonal life. Many of them mention visits to Bali of various
\ninteresting personalities, including historians Dr. Stutterheim
\nand Claire Holt, actress Barbara Hutton, filmmaker Victor Baron
\nvon Plessen, anthropologist Jane MacPhee (Jane Belo) and novelist
\nVicki Baum. Strangely, the letters do not mention Charlie
\nChaplin, Noel Coward, Margaret Mead, Miguel and Rose Covarrubias
\nwho were also known to have visited Spies in Bali.<\/p>\n
It is possible that the letters were not the entire
\ncorrespondence between Spies and the Gotsches. There is clearly a
\ngap in correspondence between January 1930 and September 1933 and
\nagain between November 1936 to February 1938. The first gap was
\nperhaps a difficult period in the artist's life. Spies' mentor,
\nfilmmaker Murnau, was killed in a tragic accident on his way to
\nattend the premiere of his latest film in Hollywood. In 1932, his
\nfavorite cousin Conrad was attacked by a shark at Lebih, South of
\nGianyar, and died of injuries. Not much of Spies' life in 1937 is
\nknown, except that he retreated to the mountains at Iseh, Karang
\nAsem, for a significant period of time.<\/p>\n
In his letters, Spies also spoke of his plan to establish an
\naquarium in Sanur. But perhaps the most interesting letter is the
\none that documents the progress of the building of Spies' house.
\nThis four-page letter of January 1930 includes simple sketches of
\nhis Campuan house. \"Because the whole thing stands, has a roof --
\nall sorts of magnificent carvings on pillars and 'balks' and
\nwindows and doors. Some of the walls stand alright. You know I am
\nvery crazy -- but I want to have a bridge from the mountaigne
\ninto my roof. It looks like that: very stupid on this sketch,\" he
\nwrote.<\/p>\n
Spies' accomplishments in music and dance are also evidenced
\nthrough the letters. He conveyed that he had coauthored, with
\nBeryl de Zoete, the book, Dance and Drama in Bali.<\/p>\n
In his letter dated Jan. 21, 1939, written following his
\narrest on New Year's Eve, Spies sounded optimistic. \"Even some
\npauses seem necessary sometime. But anyhow, everything in life is
\nto the good! And there is nothing, never that one didn't deserve!
\nOften moments in life seem senseless and wasted -- but they are
\nthere and they seem to be breaks or stops -- and always they are
\nsteps to new starts, with new perspectives.\" Spies' biographers
\nRhodius and Darling did not clearly state was he was charged
\nwith, but suggest that it had something to do with statutory rape
\nand homosexuality.<\/p>\n
Reincarnation<\/p>\n
In a letter signed June 22, 1939, written during his
\ninternment in Surabaya, Spies mentioned the completion of his
\nmost recent painting. He detailed a thorough description of what
\nhas been recognized as Scherzo for Brass Orchestra, a
\nsurrealistic piece which shows the repetition of a creature with
\na dog or deer-like body with a human head, perhaps even a kind of
\nself-portrait of the artist himself, dotting a landscape filled
\nwith tropical plants. Apparently, Spies considered the experience
\nof accomplishing this painting as a reincarnation. He said, in
\nexplaining the painting, \"everything seems to have settled inside
\nme and wants to come out in a hundred ways which look unlimited\".<\/p>\n
In this letter he also remarked on two other paintings,
\nMorning Light (1938) which is in the Sukarno collection, and The
\nLandscape with Her Children, which was sold in Christie's
\nSingapore auction in 1995 for S$850,000.<\/p>\n
The significance of Spies' letters, in particular, seem to be
\nthe mention of his internment between December 1938 and August
\n1939. Spies did not relate the fact of his imprisonment even in
\nhis letters to his mother, which serve as a primary source of
\nRhodius' biography on the artist, Walter Spies, Schonheit und
\nReichtum des Lebens (The Hague, 1964).<\/p>\n
Certainly the letters illustrate the long lasting relationship
\nbetween Walter Spies and the Gotsch couple. They cover the
\nartist's early life in Bali until just before his final
\ninternment by the Dutch, following Germany's invasion of Holland
\nin May 1940. Just before Japan's invasion of the Indies, the ship
\nVan Imhoff which evacuated German prisoners, including Spies, to
\nIndia was bombed by the Japanese. The artist did not survive the
\nattack.<\/p>\n
Since Indonesia's art boom, interest in Walter Spies has
\nincreased tremendously. The appearance of the letters in the
\nrecent sale will certainly be an important addition to the
\nscholarship of an artist whose life has proved to be tremendously
\ninfluential toward creative and artistic life in Indonesia's
\npast.<\/p>\n
The Walter Spies letters failed to sell at last month's
\nauction in Amsterdam. This was predictable as the most
\nprospective buyers, mostly from Indonesia, have been affected by
\nthe economic crisis. Although Spies' paintings are considered
\nhighly collectible items, the letters do not appeal to the
\naverage collector. These letters would appeal to museums or
\nfoundations. However, at an estimated price of US$7,000 for the
\nitems, most Indonesian museums and foundations would consider
\nthis a luxury beyond their means.<\/p>\n
The writer is curator at Museum Universitas Pelita Harapan,
\nTangerang, West Java.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/walter-spies-letters-emerge-at-christies-auction-in-amsterdam-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}