part - Straight men
The artist needs his muse they say. The qualifications for the job are complex and elusive - enigmatic beauty, poetic mystery and other worldliness that inspires and tickles, especially when depicted visually. With many art museums such as the Mona Lisa, achieved and maintained the glory long after their death. Artists and muses are not exclusively heterosexual. A good example is Michelangelo's David, a statue that embodies masculine beauty. Her women are rarely or delicate feminine and often seem more like muscular men with breasts. As the poet Dante Beatrix, part of the attraction of the museum is the desire to own perfection, but unable to defile with carnal love. Eroticism is key, but not at the price of innocence.
Billed as the island of beauty topless in an age of intense sexual repression, it is not surprising that many Western artists have beaten a path to an island paradise to paint exotic Balinese ladies not feel ashamed about posing nude. Photography has led the trend in the first decades of the 20th century. The most famous and most influential of the first photographers was Gregor Krause, a German MD in the Dutch colonial service which took over 4000 image between 1912 and 1913. His daughters marriageable stifling, including a series of "swimming in nature" photos, has attracted much attention in colonial circles and stimulated the Dutch artist WOJ Nieuwenkamp publish an ode to feminine beauty Balinese magazine in colonial leader. In 1920, Krause's work was published in the first photo book dedicated to Bali. No wonder luscious nudes were a key element of this best sales publication which played a major role in the Bali on the map.
When the Italian painter, Emilio Ambron landed in Bali in 1938, one of his first observations is that the high density of scammers on the island reminded him of Capri. A true Italian lover, the Ambron release suggests that almost all straight men expatriate artists had romantic relationships with their models. Ambron was so excited by his good fortune that he developed a secret code to save the name and grade of the girl who shared his bed the night before as he drank his morning espresso. A good friend of Meier already known, they went on regular tours of the village which was also used for hunting trips. The more cooperative and shared intelligence artists muses.
Although possessive wife, Maria, was kept locked, the great Dutch artist taciturn, Willem Hofker could not escape his libido after being released in the Indonesian warm climate. It was there that he perfected his notorious habit of letting his hands wander as he touched the model to help take good pose. A practical woman, Maria went to a policy of "do not ask and do not tell." As Willem kept his emotions under wraps within the sacred walls of his studio and paid her own respects to her in public, she ignored the rest. Ironically, she would come to the defense of the rights of her husband with his daughters at one time. The villain in this case was Ambron who moved into a studio next to them in Kedaton, Denpasar. Ambron immediately committed one of the greatest beauties of the time, Ni Sadri, to pose for him. The problem arose after Ni Sadri refused to pose to Hofker more because it has been repaid with fruit for his trouble. However, the rich Ambron generously paid his models in cash. To solve the problem Ambron gallantly offered to pay Ni Sadri to sit for Willem until the painting was finished.
The list of expatriate artists with Balinese paramours continues. Sculptor Arthur Fleischmann, a Jew fleeing the seizure of Austria by Hitler, also landed at Kedaton. As the authors, he was very active as both artist and lover. Although a brilliant sculptor who would later become famous in Australia and Britain, a book dedicated to his work Balinese (Bali in 1930) is dominated by nude photos of his ex-lovers.
While stuttering enigmatic Italian portraitist Romualdo Locatelli seemed to live a conventional life with his wife control monster Ermina, several of his paintings suggest deep undercurrents of forbidden lust. The most controversial of these is a painting of scale of a nubile mermaid with long hair posing languidly on a bed strewn with flowers. Completely naked girl seems to be not older than 12 years and raising many questions about his sexual preferences. Locatelli who painted portraits of Mussolini, Pope and General MacArthur disappear in mysterious circumstances during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
With the Japanese invasion of Bali in 1942, the Golden Age of Bali would have ended. Walter Spies, a German citizen, had long since been sent to a camp by the Dutch and would tragically die on a warship prisoner sunk by a Japanese bomber. The Japanese imprisoned Willem, Rudolf and Maria, but they were miraculously allowed to return to Ubud to live under house arrest by an officer from the Japanese Navy who said the Imperial Navy did not artists prison. During this period, the working Hofker became increasingly erotic, embodied by his portrait of the great chest Gusti Mawar, leaving little doubt about the nature of their relationship. In my book on him, I speculated on the relationship between the danger of war and the human libido. Intrigued I ask Gusti Mawar and several of the girls who worked in the household Hofker. They confirmed my suspicions without fear. The respite proved brief in Ubud and all were quickly sent to a POW camp in Sulawesi.
Unfortunately, and this theme will also be continued in the next episode, the families of many of these artists Ambron and Hofker have vigorously denied and visibly worked to suppress or conceal the truth regarding sexual activities their forbearers. Ms. Hofker was particularly adept at this. As the Politburo of the Soviet Union, she was determined to write an idyllic account, highly edited their history. As we shall see, this was also the case of the family of Walter Spies which allowed Hans Rhodius, his first biographer, access to diaries of Walter Spies under the condition that any reference to his gayness be redacted. While sexuality of an artist does not decrease (or increase) the value or importance of their art, trying to understand Spies without admitting he was gay is ridiculous. More information on this and forbidden love between older women and young Balinese men follow.