Closer Acquainted with Walter Spies,
Foreign Artist Who Lived and Loved in Bali

Discussing Balinese traditional painting, the Walter Spies figure are unforgettable. He supplies a great contribution to the development of several traditional arts especially of painting art and entertainment art. The Cak dance that is popular with the tourists is as one of his compositions. So does the Balinese traditional painting, especially in region of Gianyar.

Walter Spies (1895 – 1942) is German nationality. He was born in Moscow and very attract with arts world. In his life, Walter Spies was renowned as a piano musician. His painting skill also emerges within his life, so he capable both in music and painting.
He came to Indonesia because he was attracted by his friend’s entire story about the paradise land in the east that was full of color and sunlight. For the first time he stayed in Indonesia, he worked as piano player accompanying the movie performance at the cinema in Bandung (West Java). Few months latter, he moved to Yogyakarta training the music orchestra in Keraton Yogya (Yogya Palace), and sufficiently learned gamelan jawa (Javanese music instrument) seriously.
The shadow that is full colored and shiny sunlight forced him to visit Bali. In 1952 by the invitation of Tjokorde Gde Raka Soekawati who officiated as Ubud Regent, Walter Spies finally paid a visit to Bali. Upon his arriving, he realized that what he had heard about Bali is a reality. Walter Spies was charmed by watching the beautiful panorama of Bali natural sight that was full with flower color and of sunlight. The society existence that religiously and agriculturally makes his soul shaking. Walter Spies had fallen in love with Bali.
In 1927 after he ask a permission to leave Yogyakarta to Sultan Yogya, Walter Spies stayed in Bali, in Ubud. He was introduced by Soekawati with two Ubud’s painter they are Anak Agung Gde Sobrat and Anak Agung Gde Meregeg. Both painters show their painting style of wayang (puppet) that adopt the theme from Ramayana and Mahabharata epoch.
Walter Spies asserted an input and comment to both of painters. He suggested improving their theme and style into more modern ones. For examples, the puppet style transforms into human realist painting, and the theme changed becomes the daily life of the Balinese. Finally, the input from Walter Spies obtains a positive reaction from Ubud painting. This as the rising of the new painting style named Ubud painting style.
In 1929, together with the arriving of the Dutch painter named Rudolf Bonnet, this new style later on being improves. In 1936, Walter Spies, Rudof Bonnet, and Tjokorde Gde Agung Soekawati, with other painters form Ubud area creating the first arts organization in Bali named Pita Maha. The group that accumulates the painter and sculptor improved rapidly. This group produces many famed Balinese artists.
Walter Spies died when he was a prisoner of the Dutch colonialists. Van Imhof Ship that takes him together with other prisoners from Padang (West Sumatra) to Ceylon abused by the Japanese battle plane in the middle of India Ocean. Even though the Walter Spies’s corpse disappeared swallowed by the ocean wide, his name has always been memorized in the history of Balinese fine arts development. (Gung Man)

Batuan Style Painting

Another development in painting started appearing during 1930’s in the village of Batuan in Gianyar, south Bali. Unlike Ubud to the north, Batuan was an ancient court center, which dated at least from the 11th century. With this strong historical and cultural foundation, artists in this area remained relatively free of Western aesthetic influences. They developed a very different style from that of Ubud, which was relatively open to change in the arts since the late 1920’s. Although several of the artists in Batuan had contact with Pitamaha artists’ association through its branch in the village, their paintings at the time generally did not reflect as much outside influence until much more recently, particularly since the 1980’s.
Anthropologists Margaret Mead (American, 1901 – 1978) and Gregory Bateson (British, 1904 – 1980), were doing a research in this area from 1936 – 1939, had little impact on the arts. However, they did provide arts supplies to see what the painters would create in response to the increasing social-cultural changes and tensions in Bali. They also commissioned some paintings for comparison. Works done mostly with black ink on paper from this early period reflected the artists’ concerns with magic, power, and ritual. Other themes came from Indian epic literature and indigenous Balinese-Javanese folk tales, along with religion and dance.
In spite of developments in response to tourism and the changes in aesthetic taste, Batuan Style works today still retain some unique identifying features dating from the 1930’s. They usually have an expressive and vibrant vitality with detailed features and lines. Like traditional wayang (puppet) paintings, multiple scenes in a single work retain the narrative element. Small, stylized figures fill the spaces, and Western-style anatomy was not a major concern until recently.
In most cases, little use is made of depth because light and shadow to any degree tend to be rather uniform throughout. As a result, Batuan style paintings appear somewhat dark and mysterious. This feeling is further reinforced by themes of black magic and intense rituals set amidst lush, decorative foliage in which supernatural beings and creatures lurk. Muted colors on dark backgrounds create mysterious and somber appearances, sometimes to the point of being rather terrifying and frightening.
While the themes used in these paintings are taken from literary sources, legends, folk tales, and daily life all, they all tend to have elements of supernatural. Watercolor or tempera on paper are preferred, although large works with acrylics on canvas also increasingly are being made by a few artists. Some painters caricature visitors and show the Balinese having humorous encounters with them. These works of historical events are like pictorial journalism as seen by the artists of Batuan.