Walter Spies, tourist art and Balinese art in inter-war colonial Bali GREEN, Geff <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2482-5256> Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/9167/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Walter Spies, tourist Art and Balinese Art in jnter-War .Colonial Bali Geffrey Corbett Green A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2002 ■'CLP HALLAM Abstract This is an art historical study informed by post-colonial perspectives which critically examines the discourse concerning the role and the work of the artist Walter Spies in relation to Bali, Balinese art and the Balinese in the inter-war Dutch Colonial period. Drawing from a wide variety of sources, the thesis examines the development and characteristics of a new artistic form in the area of painting, variously described as ‘Balinese Modernism’, ‘New Balinese painting’ or ‘Tourist art’. I also investigate the origins and the perpetuation of the popular myth regarding the perceived role of Walter Spies as the instigator of this art. Through examining his cultural position in relation to the Balinese, I examine Spies’ role as a colonial figure and as a ‘servant’ of colonial cultural policy. This post-colonial examination takes into account the broader historical, political, cultural and economic realities of colonial Bali at that time. I deal with theoretical and methodological issues some of which make such a study problematic. In particular, how to deal with the ‘subaltern’ in historical discourse and the dangers of either essentialising the ‘Other’ or diminishing hegemonic imperial processes through a cultural relativism which seeks to value the importance of the ‘subaltern’ voice. In addition to this, the problematic and sometimes misleading use of biography is also investigated. I have synthesised a number of concepts to develop my post-colonial approach, based around the ideas of contact, contact languages and influence. These are used to explain the development of new artistic forms, as well as the discourse and processes which both moulded and reflected them. The study contributes to knowledge through the fresh analysis of the discourse of ‘texts’ and parts of ‘texts’ not previously used or explored in a postcolonial theoretical framework. Interviews with Balinese artists and the correspondence of Spies are deconstructed, as well as the films and paintings of Spies which are analysed as colonial discourse rather than as isolated aesthetic products. This project provides a new critique of the creation and perpetuation of colonial discourse through biography and imagery which I propose has much broader implications in the ‘post-colonial’ world. Introduction Bali has had a disproportionate amount of academic attention over the last 100 years, when analysed in relation to other parts of Indonesia, for instance, and from the 1930s onwards, ethnologists and anthropologists flocked to Bali to study its ‘unique’ and ‘unsullied’ culture. As a result of the work of Margaret Mead (Mead, 1935;1950), Gregory Bateson (Bateson, 1973), Jane Belo (Belo, 1970), Colin McPhee (McPhee,1966;1985) and Miguel Covarrubias (Covarrubias, 1937), together with Bali’s general fame as a ‘paradise’, multiple spirals of discourse have grown from, and around, this small island. These have affected the residents of the Island and how they see themselves, as well as generating a multiplicity of perspectives of the island from political, historical, economic and cultural viewpoints. These strands of ideas have developed into a broad platform of research about the island, which in recent times has taken a more revisionist and post-colonial nature. Writers like Nordholt (Nordholt, 1996), Robinson (Robinson, 1995), Vickers (Vickers, 1989) and Picard (Picard 1996) have challenged and debunked the notion, which has tenaciously remained and which has continued to be promoted, of Bali as theLast Paradise (Powell, 1930)1. The nature and importance of ‘traditional’ culture in Bali has pervaded the discussion of the island in one form or another and the name of Walter Spies often appears as part of that discussion. This study arises from an interest in the work of Walter Spies that was instigated by a book I bought in Bali in 1992 by Rhodius & Darling (Rhodius & Darling, 1980) which contained images by Walter Spies which had an instant appeal to me as a Western visitor to Bali. I had never heard of this artist and subsequently realised that his work was not well known in Europe despite his contacts with the German art world during the well-documented post-first World War period in European art history. As with the pictures, the picaresque romance of his story also initially appealed to me as a European traveller to Bali. My subsequent contacts with other visitors to Bali, some of whom had also purchased the same text, indicated a similar response to his paintings and life story. When I re-examined this text in 1996 with the idea of researching Walter Spies further, it became apparent that there were a number of questionable assumptions and omissions in this work, particularly in relation to Spies’ portrayed position as a colonial resident and father-figure to the Balinese artists. Further research indicated that this type of view was common to colonial discourse and that Spies’ position, work and influence would benefit from being reassessed from a post-colonial 1 Table of Contents Introduction 1 The theoretical and methodological basis of this thesis 12 Introduction 12 Methodology and sources 15 Theoretical approaches and sources 22 Summary 43 Endnotes 45 The development of painting in Bali in a historical context 47 Introduction 47 The ‘traditions’ of Balinese painting 48 The first arrival of the colonialists 52 The colonisation of southern Bali and the mythologising of conquest 53 ‘Babi express’: baliseering and the arrival of the tourists 59 The characteristics of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ Balinese painting 63 Summary 68 Endnotes 69 The modern in Balinese art 71 Introduction 71 The conventions for Balinese painting 72 The discourse concerning motifs of moderntiy in Balinese art 76 Case Study: the temple at Jagaraga 83 The Western objectification of the Balinese and their environment as ‘picturesque’ 87 The Balinese ‘modernists’ 90 The conventions of Balinese tourist art in the work of Walter Spies 94 Summary 97 Endnotes 100 A discussion of Walter Spies’ life and the construction of a particular narrative 102 Introduction 102 The invention of ‘Walter Spies’ 104 The life and death of Walter Spies 106 ‘Bali’s most famous resident’ : popular discourse about Spies and his life in Bali 114 Summary 120 Endnotes 122 Walter Spies as a colonial figure 125 Introduction 125 Sex tourism and relations of power in colonial Bali 126 The purge: the arrest and trial of Walter Spies 129 Discourse on the nature of Spies’ homosexuality 134 Reactions of the Balinese to the ‘new’ tourism and its results 139 Summary 142 Endnotes 145 A critical assessment of the painting and films of Walter Spies 148 Introduction 148 Spies as a ‘modernist’ 150 Spies as a film maker: The significance of Island of Demons and Kris 159 The real Bali’: an analysis of the Balinese paintings of Walter Spies 174 Balinese influences on Walter Spies 182 Summary 190 Endnotes 193 7. Balinese painting,Pita Maha and Walter Spies: the course and discourse of influence 196 > Introduction 196 > Balinese painters and the influence of Walter Spies 197 > Notions of influence 201 > New Balinese art and visual-linguistic synthesis 205 > Geographical factors 210 > The theme of ‘everyday life’ 212 > Rudolf Bonnet and art education in Bali 215 > The influence of Pita Maha 218 > Pita Maha and the market for Balinese paintings 223 > Conflict in Pita Maha and the autonomy of Balinese artists 228 > Summary 232 > Endnotes 236 Conclusions 238 Appendix 1 Bibliography Appendix 2 Image CD Appendix 3 Details of images referred to in this thesis Appendix 4 Thumbnail images Appendix 5 Glossary viewpoint. Such a viewpoint could then challenge what appeared to be the popular Eurocentric view which largely diminished the contribution and capabilities of Balinese artists and Asian perspectives as a whole. It occurred to me that part of this difficulty was based on a Eurocentricity in art historical investigation of this subject, which was based on ‘Western’ post ‘Enlightenment’ notions such as genius, individuality and secularism that might not be particularly appropriate in assessing art arising in a different cultural context and non-Western location.