Walter spies biography wife

German-born artist Walter Spies — , who spent much of his life in what is now Indonesia, was noted for a unique style that combined Western and Eastern elements, exploring spiritual motifs drawn from the artist's adopted culture while applying techniques of contemporary European art. Spies was an energetic and influential traveler among multiple cultures whose talents extended far beyond painting.

He performed both Western and Indonesian musical styles, co-wrote a pioneering study of dance on the island of Bali, and stimulated new developments in Balinese art. Scholars had studied Indonesian expressive culture before Spies arrived in the archipelago, but Spies spread the word about its beauties as he entertained celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin at his home on Bali.

The ongoing Western fascination with Indonesian arts was partly the result of Spies's efforts. His father was a German diplomat.

Walter spies biography wife: wife Rose, where they became

The Spies family was wealthy and well connected in their foreign home, and they were interested in the arts as well as in political affairs. Spies met the Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin as a child, and he began composing in contemporary styles when he was quite young. He also had a strong affinity for the natural world, collecting reptiles and amphibians that he would sometimes release at the family dinner table.

When he was 15, Spies was sent to school in Dresden, Germany, but he returned to Russia on summer vacations, and he was there when World War I broke out in Spies's father was arrested immediately, and when Spies reached military age in he too was arrested by Russian soldiers and sent to an internment camp at Sterliamak in the remote Ural Mountains.