Retrospective Exhibition. Basle 1908-Berne 1982. A Centenary Tribute
Paintings by Theo Meier
at Pasifika Museum of Pacific Asia.
Nusa Dua, BTDC area. Tel: 774935.
In the late 1920s two European painters, Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet, came individually to settle in Bali, and introduced to the island’s artists new subjects, forms, materials, techniques, and, most importantly, a Western concept of ‘Art’. That is, the appreciation of an object or a painting for its beauty and skill of creation, as opposed to only having value in a utilitarian, ritual or ceremonial context. The rigid stylistic and iconographical traditions of Balinese ‘Art’ and subject matter, which was mainly religious and mythological themes, had been slowly developing before the arrival of European artists. Its traditions and development can be seen in numerous Galleries and Museums around Bali. But, having foreign artists painting and teaching in Bali resulted in a significant milestone, for the better or the worst, in the development of Balinese art.
Not all the Western painters resident in Bali at the time agreed with Spies and Bonnet’s teaching and influence. One man who objected was Theo Meier. He believed an artist should not teach. He should be the student, the one who learns from foreign artists as well as from foreign art. Spies and Bonnet, in Meier’s opinion, were corrupting Balinese art. Meier was convinced that culture should influence the artist, and not the vice-versa: “I had in mind a country where the painter lived, as one might say, unobserved. But, belonged in his activity to the whole. Perhaps I hoped to find a place where the painter was shaped by the power of its culture”.
Theo Meier was born on 31 March 1908 near Basle (Switzerland). At the age of twenty he got a scholarship to the School of Art in Basle. Through visits to the many art centers of Berlin and Dresden, Meier gained an inspiration from the life and work of Paul Gauguin. He was struck by the primitivism and decorative qualities of Gauguin’s paintings. In 1932, a group of friends sponsored his voyage to Tahiti. There, Meier sought the beauty, both in the colors of tropical nature and the local women, which had been Gauguin’s inspiration. Yet, the colorful, primitive simplicity that characterized Gauguin’s work was little in evidence, and, Meier concluded, was probably part of that artist’s romantic imagination, or even fantasy, more than reality. Arriving in Bali in 1936, where he stayed until 1955, Meier found what was to be his dream in a return to simplicity, purity and nature. The ritual music and dances of Bali, and particularly the beauty of its women, inspired him. In 1959, Meier visited Thailand and eventually settled in Chiang Mai. During all the years in Thailand, Meier traveled back and forth between Chiang Mai and Bali. His last twenty years were very productive, alternating between Thai and Balinese themes and even, towards the end, mixing both. Ultimately he succumbed to cancer and died, in Berne (Switzerland), on 19 June 1982.
In their ‘Retrospective Exhibition. Basle 1908-Berne 1982. A Centenary Tribute’, the Pasifika Museum presents a very comprehensive collection of the works of Theo Meier. Apart from his content, which was an interest in rituals, mysticism and all things Balinese, it is difficult to ascertain if or how Balinese culture and painting influenced his own painting style. Maybe, his emphasis on flat areas of unmodulated and unmixed color bounded by hard edges, a more frontal presentation with little or no perspective, and a blatant unapologetic decorativeness, were, for him, the traditional Balinese aesthetic concerns which he incorporated into his art. Perhaps, Balinese painting was a confirmation of his thinking at the time, mixed with his knowledge of contemporary Western art. Starting with paintings such as ‘Landscape in Switzerland’ (1931), we can observe that Theo Meier received quite a comprehensive ‘classical’ artistic training, if somewhat influenced by Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. However, by 1948, and firmly established in Bali, it is possible to detect Balinese influences already at play within his art style in works such as ‘Landscape with Gunung Agung’. A much more expressive approach, perhaps influenced by Balinese Batik cloth, appears in the 1949 canvas ‘Balinese Girl calling the Birds in Candi Dasa’, while the 1953 landscape ‘Rice Fields at the foot of Gunung Agung’ shows the absorption of traditional Balinese concepts of representational painting into Theo Meier’s style. Throughout his time in Bali, Meier continued to paint nude portraits of local Balinese beauties. These works are clearly influenced by his ‘hero’ Paul Gauguin, and the 1953 portrait of Meier’s wife, ‘Made Pegi sitting under the Mango Tree’, is a very good example. Also, ‘Procession in Mas’ (1954) shows Meier’s ongoing interest in Balinese rituals. Finally, in the painting ‘Kan Keo with a Balinese Offering’ (1981), we see all of Meier’s themes, a beautiful woman, Balinese motifs, and a bold ‘primitive’ painting technique, come together superbly in this great master work. One of his last paintings.
The above mentioned paintings are just a handful in this outstanding retrospective exhibition that displays almost seventy Theo Meier works of art, mostly oil paintings dating from 1929 to 1982 and done in Europe, Tahiti, Bali and Thailand. It is not the exotic in itself that lends Meier’s work its quality, but rather the warmth and understanding that the artist gave to each of his paintings. This is Meier’s own version of paradise.
