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Lot Essay
Invited by his close friend Prince Sanidh Rangsit, Theo Meier moved to Thailand in 1957. However, the artist returned to his much beloved Bali annually and the island, which he has lived on since 1936, has remained a great source of inspiration.
Usually he visited Bali during the dry season and loved to stay in the house of Jimmy Pandy in Sanur. It was a time which the now famous and tourists-infested beach of Sanur (Batu Jimbar) was much lesser known and visited and the only famous hotel there during those days was the Tanjung Sari where many famous international socialites would choose to stay.
During the 70s the famous Paul Getty became a friend of Theo and bought several paintings of the artist for his private museum. He was very attracted by all the Sanur beach-inspired works of which Theo would fill the canvas with the luring colours of the sunsets thereby immortalising the typical golden-orange sky of the Sanur beach. What was most captivating to the artist and earnestly depicted was the elusive yet magical moment of a tropical skyscape just before the fall of night which in those days were prolonged as electricity was not used in Bali.
While the tropical sunlight provides the best inspiration for a colourist such as Theo Meier with its glorious offerings of numerous possibilities for the artist's palette, the graceful and elegant Balinese people was the perfect model and muse for the artist. In many ways, Theo Meier shares a common preoccupation with his fellow artists such as Le Mayeur, Covarrubias and Hofker; belonging to the same category of traveller-painters who were estranged by the Occidental civilisation and seek to be inspired by a 'primitive' and thence pure community.
The works of these artists, in a myriad of styles, was each a sensitive evocation of the humble simplicity of indigenous life. The present work, Temple procession, Bali shows Theo Meier assimilating the twin influences of Gauguin, in his crude depiction of Balinese people and that of Van Gogh, in his exuberant use of colours. This scene of the temple procession was presented by the artist in his characteristic flamboyance which heeds no precision of composition and line but a complete surrender to the artist's most spontaneous' impression. In the foreground were the Balinese girls, depicted in crude and raw forms, carrying the various flower and fruit offerings on their heads as they walk towards the temple. Intricate details such as the adorning flowers on the girls were depicted with a mere smash of the brush and larger objects such as the trees in the background as well as the little pagoda were rendered in angular shades of primary and secondary colours. In summation, it is a work that is as much as it is lacking in intricacy as it is abounded with spontaneity and honesty of the artist.
Arguably the Balinese people and landscape have offered the best subjects for Theo Meier who thrives on exotic people and beautiful landscape, it offers an expression for the artist's lust for life that characterises his greatest works, most notably from this period in Bali. The present work is an exquisite work packed with the various strands of influence - the art of traveller-painter, Gauguin, exotic culture - which had converged in Bali to produce an artist with an inimitable and indomitable ability to seemingly recreate on canvas the stuff of life itself.
Usually he visited Bali during the dry season and loved to stay in the house of Jimmy Pandy in Sanur. It was a time which the now famous and tourists-infested beach of Sanur (Batu Jimbar) was much lesser known and visited and the only famous hotel there during those days was the Tanjung Sari where many famous international socialites would choose to stay.
During the 70s the famous Paul Getty became a friend of Theo and bought several paintings of the artist for his private museum. He was very attracted by all the Sanur beach-inspired works of which Theo would fill the canvas with the luring colours of the sunsets thereby immortalising the typical golden-orange sky of the Sanur beach. What was most captivating to the artist and earnestly depicted was the elusive yet magical moment of a tropical skyscape just before the fall of night which in those days were prolonged as electricity was not used in Bali.
While the tropical sunlight provides the best inspiration for a colourist such as Theo Meier with its glorious offerings of numerous possibilities for the artist's palette, the graceful and elegant Balinese people was the perfect model and muse for the artist. In many ways, Theo Meier shares a common preoccupation with his fellow artists such as Le Mayeur, Covarrubias and Hofker; belonging to the same category of traveller-painters who were estranged by the Occidental civilisation and seek to be inspired by a 'primitive' and thence pure community.
The works of these artists, in a myriad of styles, was each a sensitive evocation of the humble simplicity of indigenous life. The present work, Temple procession, Bali shows Theo Meier assimilating the twin influences of Gauguin, in his crude depiction of Balinese people and that of Van Gogh, in his exuberant use of colours. This scene of the temple procession was presented by the artist in his characteristic flamboyance which heeds no precision of composition and line but a complete surrender to the artist's most spontaneous' impression. In the foreground were the Balinese girls, depicted in crude and raw forms, carrying the various flower and fruit offerings on their heads as they walk towards the temple. Intricate details such as the adorning flowers on the girls were depicted with a mere smash of the brush and larger objects such as the trees in the background as well as the little pagoda were rendered in angular shades of primary and secondary colours. In summation, it is a work that is as much as it is lacking in intricacy as it is abounded with spontaneity and honesty of the artist.
Arguably the Balinese people and landscape have offered the best subjects for Theo Meier who thrives on exotic people and beautiful landscape, it offers an expression for the artist's lust for life that characterises his greatest works, most notably from this period in Bali. The present work is an exquisite work packed with the various strands of influence - the art of traveller-painter, Gauguin, exotic culture - which had converged in Bali to produce an artist with an inimitable and indomitable ability to seemingly recreate on canvas the stuff of life itself.