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May 1, 2006
I found myself wondering why
Walter Spies had moved to Bali. PITA_MAHA
Could it be that he was trying to
be Gaugin? (Gaugin worked much
earlier, but as I understand it
his fame didn't really click until
1930 or so, so the dates seemed
about right.)
I found one good reference
on Walter Spies, and I "Walter Spies and Balinese Art" (1980)
started skimming through the by Hans Rhodius and John Darling
lead biographical essay... Edited by John Stowell
Published: Terra, Zutphen
Ah, so I see the critical "under the auspices of the
point was a chance meeting Topical Museum Amsterdam"
with a Dutch couple... ISBN nr. 90.6255.079.7
Spies was traveling with a
friend, met these Dutch (This claims to be the
folks, and they got him some first English language
exhibitions in Amsterdam, study of Walter Spies)
and from there he went to
Java and later Bali.
Java/Bali were Dutch
possessions at the time.
So it was more of a Also, as "German" people
colonial connection go, Spies' nationality was
than any kind of more of a technicality
romantic imitation of than anything else.
Gaugin's example.
He was born in Moscow to
But there was something a family in diplomatic
funny about the wording service, then he spent a
of this bio, it seemed to loose internment in the
be retreating into empty Urals during WWI where he
poetry at the point of had his first taste of
decision: "his apartment ethnographic study...
in Berlin had become like
a guilded cage to him". A better question
might be "Why did
I looked at the events he go to Berlin
more closely... As I in the first place?"
said, he was indeed
"traveling with a
friend", but really
this was a trip to a
"sanatorium" while his
roomate Murnau was
"recovering from an
operation"...
Already a suspicious mind might wonder
if there was some other reason to be in
this "sanatorium"...
And there was something funny going
on with Murnau when Spies told him
where he was going. Murnau was very
upset and needed to be calmed down
by some third parties --
Oh. Wait a minute.
WAYAN_SIKA
"Was Walter Spies Gay?", I asked
Sika, the friend in Bali we were
staying with. And indeed, later in the bio
I was reading, they mention
"Yes" he said immediately. that at one point the dutch
A number of the "Pita Maha" authorities went beserk
people were gay. And Sika about homosexuality and
went on to explain that when arrested Spies for a time.
he was a boy he was scared
to go over there. He didn't Funny, even at that
like the "man touching boy" point the article
business. isn't quite willing
to admit that he was
So anyway, that's the gay... and it was
answer: Walter Spies ran written in 1980.
off to Java-- and founded
a new arts scene-- to
escape a clingy, mondo
depresso boyfriend by the
name of Murnau.
The bio hints later that
Murnau did something or other
with film -- he was living in
Hollywood when he died in a
car accident "on the way to
his latest premiere".
So what did Murnau
do exactly?
Oh, he was a director.
He directed
"Nosferatu".
Walter Spies was on
(Released: 1922) the set during the
filming of Nosferatu!
While he was not listed
in the credits, it would
not be a huge surprise
if he helped with set
painting, or some such.
Murnau's last film was
"Tabu: A Story of the South Seas"
(1931), which opened shortly
after his death.
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