Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, when Indonesia was under European colonial regard as being as the Dutch East Indies.
Spies is often approved with attracting the attention of Western cultural figures to Balinese culture and art in the 1930s, as he became internationally known and hosted numerous anthropologists, actors, artists and further cultural figures. Spies influenced the admin of Balinese art and drama.
After the outbreak of prosecution in Europe, Spies was arrested as a German national and interned by the Dutch authorities as an opposition alien. In 1942 he was in the middle of 477 German internees who were deported by the Dutch to Ceylon, but their ship was bombed by Japanese planes. Spies and most of the additional prisoners died at sea.
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