Walter Spies' works on show at Jakarta's Wisma Seni Rupa

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)