------ Forwarded Message From: "Georges Breguet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:13:38 +0900 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Pino Confessa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Popo Danes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, natura <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Georges Breguet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Georges Breguet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: INVITATION EXHIBITION THEO MEIER. MARCH 22nd 2008, 5pm. PASIFIKA - MUSEUM PACIFIC ASIA. NUSA DUA - BALI
The President of the Honorary Committee: Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, Founder of the Neka Art Museum The Members of the Honorary Committee: Jettli Meier-White Leoni Meier Dra. Hj. Ani Sugandi Meier Lala Tamara Jon Zürcher, Consul of Switzerland Tjokorda Gde Dangin Popo Danes Moetaryanto Philippe Augier & The Guest Curator: Georges Breguet Have the great pleasure to invite you at the opening The retrospective exhibition displays almost 70 Theo Meier works of art, most of them oil paintings dating from 1929 to 1982 and done in Europe, Tahiti, Bali and Thailand. Beyond the large Pasifika Museum Pacific Asia Theo Meier collection, there are paintings on loan from Neka Art Museum (Ubud), Njana Tilem Gallery (Mas), ARMA Museum (Ubud), Museum Universitas Pelita Harapan (Karawaci), Dr Oei Hong Djien Museum (Magelang), Duta Fine Arts Foundation (Jakarta) and from Private Collectors in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, France and Switzerland. Many of the works of art are displayed for the first time in Bali to the public view. RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION Basle 1908 Berne 1982 A CENTENARY TRIBUTE Saturday, March 22nd, 2008, 5 pm at PASIFIKA MUSEUM PACIFIC ASIA NUSA DUA, BTDC area The exhibition will be opened by His Excellency Bernardino Regazzoni, Ambassador of Switzerland to Indonesia Short Biography of Theo Meier 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 and tried to make a living by painting portraits. Through visits to the contemporary art centres of Berlin and Dresden, Theo Meier gained a life-long inspiration from the life and work of Paul Gauguin. In 1932, a group of friends known as "The Idiots Club" sponsored his sea voyage to Tahiti. He returned to Basle in 1934, before travelling to Singapore in 1935, and finally reaching Bali in 1936. In Bali, where he stayed almost continuously until 1955, Theo Meier found what was to be his dream after all these formative years in a return to simplicity, purity and nature. The ritual music and dances of Bali, and particularly the beauty of its women, inspired him to even further heights. Settling in Sanur, Theo Meier married Made Mulugan, who gave him a daughter named Leoni. He frequented the company of other foreign artists living on the island before and after the war including Walter Spies, Jean Adrien Le Mayeur de Merprès, Willem Gerard Hofker, Emilio Ambron, Auke Sonnega, Han Snel, Rudolf Bonnet, Antonio Blanco, Renato Christiano, Donald Friend and many others. He also befriended Balinese artists and had a close relationship with Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai. During the Japanese occupation and after the war he lived first in Saba, then in Iseh on the slopes of the sacred volcano Gunung Agung, where he built a house. In 1942, Theo Meier married Made Pegi, one of his favourite Balinese models, who also gave him a daughter, Ani Sugandi. In 1955, Theo Meier returned to Basle and held exhibitions in Switzerland. But the tropics soon got him back. In December 1959, Meier was invited to visit his friend Prince Sanidh Rangsit in Thailand and he decided to settle in Hua Hin where he met his future Thai wife La-iad (Jettli) whom he married in 1964. The couple then moved to Chiang Mai where they eventually built a traditional house near the Mae Ping River. During all the years in Thailand, Theo Meier travelled back and forth between Chiang Mai and Bali. His last years twenty years were very productive, alternating between Thai and Balinese themes and even, towards the end, mixing both. He succumbed to cancer and died peacefully in hospital at Berne, Switzerland on 19 June 1982. Literature: Klaus Wenk, Theo Meier. Bilder aus der Tropen. Pictures from the Tropics. Stocker-Schmid AG, Dietikon-Zürich, 1980. Didier Hamel, Theo Meier. A Swiss Artist under the Tropics. Hexart, Jakarta, 2007. Photo: Paul Spies, Theo Meier in his Studio in Iseh. 1953. © Koninklijk Instituut voor der Tropen, KIT Fotobureau, Amsterdam. Drawing: Theo Meier, Balinese Girl fixing a Flower, 1962. Collection Pasifika Museum Pacific-Asia, Nusa Dua, Bali. ------ End of Forwarded Message
