Walter Spies' works on show at Jakarta's Wisma Seni Rupa
JAKARTA (JP): J'ai deux amours: Paris et mon pays (I have two loves: Paris and my country), says a popular song. For German artist Walter Spies (1895-1942), the lyrics would have read Ich habe zwei Liebe: Bali und mein land (I have two loves: Bali and my country).
Having spent half of his life in Indonesia, Spies was virtually unknown in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. Thanks to Dutch Hans Rhodius who, with John Darling, wrote a book called Walter Spies and Balinese Art, the works and life of Spies have started to receive due appreciation. In Indonesia, for example, a documentary film has been made and will be released in the near future.
The Goethe Institut Jakarta in cooperation with the Ministry of Education will exhibit Walter Spies' paintings in commemoration of Indonesia's 50th independence anniversary and Spies' 100th birthday. The exhibition, called Walter Spies in Indonesia, will open today at Wisma Seni Rupa, Gambir, Central Jakarta.
Born in Moscow, Sept. 15, 1895, Spies, whose family were diplomats, was fed up with life in Europe after World War I. Under the spell of Gauguin's experiences, he nurtured fantasies about life on a remote Pacific island. So he signed up to work on a cargo ship, the Hamburg, which finally took him to Batavia, the old name of Jakarta.
September, 1923: after his arrival in Batavia he went to Bandung where he found employment as a pianist in a silent movie theater.
Later, wanting to see more of the country, he traveled to Yogyakarta armed with a letter of recommendation from his old friend in Holland, conductor Schoonderbeek, for the Dutch singer Maria Sitsen who needed a pianist.
"Spies' life changed the moment Sitsen took him to a grand reception at the royal palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta," said president of the Walter Spies Foundation in Bali, A.A.M. Djelantik.
The sultan, who was impressed by the unusual attention Spies paid to Javanese dance and music, invited Spies to return to his palace the next day and offered him a job as a conductor of his European music ensemble.
Excited, Spies accepted the offer and worked in the royal palace for three years. During his stay there he acquired a thorough knowledge of Javanese music.
His knowledge of Javanese music, and later Balinese, resulted in the transcript of 20 Javanese and eight Balinese music pieces. Unfortunately almost all of them have been lost. Only years later, Javanese and Balinese music expert Colin McPhee, building on the only transcript left from Spies, resumed this tedious work and created two beautiful compositions.
At a festival held in the royal palace, Spies met Cokorda Raka Sukawati of Ubud, Bali, who invited him to spend his holiday in Ubud. In 1925, Spies went to Bali for the first time and immediately fell in love with the island. In 1927, he decided to stay in Bali for the rest of his life and there built a Balinese house of his own in Campuan, Ubud.
Local culture
He instantly blended with the local culture, made friends and finally jointly established, with Dutch painter Rudolf Bonnet and Cokorda, artists' cooperative Pita Maha which aimed to develop the arts in Ubud and its surrounding villages.
The existence of Pita Maha is said to have transformed Ubud into the arts center we know it as today.
"Pita Maha was not an ordinary cooperative. It set artistic standards to which painters and sculptors voluntarily adhere. It was also crucial for the promotion and marketing of their products," said Djelantik.
Bali also cast its magic spell on Spies' paintings. It was in Bali he achieved the ultimate realization of his aesthetic self. What he found there came close to his ideal of man and nature in harmony, and after his intense studies of Balinese life, art and culture, his paintings started to display his particular style of magic realism.
His deep understanding of Bali and its people was reflected in his paintings which increasingly assumed the same closeness that the Balinese feel between themselves and nature, which included not only forms from the real world but also the unseen world. This idea is clearly manifested in his paintings, in which, in addition to idealistic romanticism, elements of deep mystique and magic surrealism become apparent. His paintings Wasserlandschaft (1933) and Die Landschaft und ihre Kinder (1939) show those characteristics.
There was also a mutual exchange of influence between Spies and Balinese painters. Spies was greatly influenced by Balinese culture and some Balinese painters were influenced by his painting technique.
Spies was a complete artist. He was a painter, musician and choreographer.
Due to his close contact with local dancers and musicians, Spies was directly involved with many performing groups.
"He helped local artists transform ancient ritualistic and classical dance forms into choreographic productions suitable for showing before tourists," said Djelantik.
He choreographed the spirited Kecak dance which was previously a ritualistic dance. Later, Balinese dancers incorporated an episode from Ramayana into it, and thus gave birth to the Kecak dance that we know today.
In cooperation with artists of Singapadu village, another non- ritual dance called Barong was also created. This version has also become a daily performance which attracts tourists.
Spies was also a guide and a promoter of Bali's beauty and cultural richness. He was the expert on Bali whom foreign visitors wanting to know more about Bali would seek out. Barbara Hutton and Charlie Chaplin were among the many celebrities who stayed at his house in Ubud. He also assisted Baron von Plessen who made the film Die Insel der Diamonen in Bali. He provided data and photographic material for Beryl de Zoete's work Dance and Drama in Bali and he gave advice to writer Vicky Baum for her book Liebe und Tod auf Bali.
In 1939, Spies was imprisoned on charges of homosexuality. As an act of protest, his friends performed a small orchestral concert in front of his cell in Surabaya. He was later moved to Sumatra. When World War II broke out, as a German detainee, Spies was sent to India by the Japanese in 1942. The ship which transported Spies and many German detainees was bombed and Spies was among those killed.
The exhibition, which will last until Sept. 24, will feature 10 original paintings by Spies, four of which are displayed by courtesy of the Presidential Palace. There will also be 17 paintings of Balinese artists whose techniques obviously show Spies' influence. (als)