1927- Walter Spies

^{In almost everybody’s opinion, Walter Spies was the greatest and certainly the most flamboyant painter to live in Bali, Where his name has become a legend. Born is Russia to the parents of German diplomats, Spies was both a brilliant artist and musician. At the early age he was thrown into the creative maelstrom of the pre-second world war German avant gerde movement. Lover of the great German director, Fritz Murnau, Spies was in close contact with Otto Dix and Oskar Kokoschka, both who influenced his painting. In a letter to his father in 1919 he writes that he wishes to free himself of indoctrination and prejudices about taste and beauty and paint freely like a child with the skill of Chagall and Klee. Bali was to give him the freedom to realize his wish.}Walter Spies was born on 14 Sep 1898, so he was about 25 years old when he came to Indonesia in 1923, and about 29 years old when he moved to Bali in 1927.In almost everybody's opinion, Walter Spies was the greatest and certainly the most flamboyant painter to live in Bali, where his name has become a legend. Born in Russia in 1898, where his father Leon was a German diplomat, Spies was both a brilliant artist and musician. After World War I, he was thrown into the creative maelstrom of the Weimar Republic, embracing the German artistic avant-garde. Lover of the great German film director, Frederich Murnau, Spies was in close contact with Otto Dix and Oskar Kokoschka, who both influenced his painting. In a letter to his father in 1919, Walter writes that he wishes to free himself of indoctrination and prejudices about taste and beauty and paint freely like a child, with the skill of Chagall and Klee. Bali was to give him the freedom to realize his wish.

The young, handsome Spies first traveled to Indonesia in 1923 at 25 years of age, in part to flee the grasp of the older and very possessive Murnau. He finally settled in Bali in 1927, where he created his best canvases during the 14 years he spent on the island. Often called a surrealist for the dream-like quality of his paintings, Spies' works combine a rich and fluid imagination mingled with Balinese scenes and myths. While a great painter, his production was limited as he was always busy with countless other projects, such as supporting local arts and artists and co-authoring books on dance and drama. As Bali's most famous European resident in the 1930s, he entertained such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin and conductor Leopold Stokowski, some of whom bought his works.

Persecuted as a homosexual, he was helped by Margaret Mead and her husband Gregory Bateson, who testified that his 'transgressions' were not inconsistent with Balinese culture. He was deported with others as a prisoner in 1942 for holding a German passport. The ship was bombed, and, as the ship slowly sank, the prisoners perished in their locked cells, because the captain declined to free them. Walter's tragic death has only added to his romantic myth.

There is one painting attributed to Spies on the island at the Agung Rai Gallery. One of his best, from the collection of Dutch heiress, Marianne van Wessum, just sold at auction in The Hague for over
$500,000.