Adrianus Wilhelmus (Arie) Smit (born April 15, 1916, Zaandam), is a Dutch-born Indonesian painter living on Bali.
Arie Smit was the third of eight children of a trader in cheese and confectionery. His family moved in 1924 from Zaandam to Rotterdam, where Smit eventually studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts. In his youth he was most inspired by the work of three artists named Paul (Signac, Gauguin and Cezanne). He was sent to the Dutch Ea...
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Adrianus Wilhelmus (Arie) Smit (born April 15, 1916, Zaandam), is a Dutch-born Indonesian painter living on Bali.
Arie Smit was the third of eight children of a trader in cheese and confectionery. His family moved in 1924 from Zaandam to Rotterdam, where Smit eventually studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts. In his youth he was most inspired by the work of three artists named Paul (Signac, Gauguin and Cezanne). He was sent to the Dutch East Indies for military service in 1938, where he worked as a lithographer for the Dutch army's Topographical Service in Batavia, engraving relief maps of the archipelago. Etching Balinese mountains onto maps ignited his desire to one day go to Bali.
In early 1942 Smit was transferred to the infantry in East Java, but was soon captured by the invading Japanese forces. He spent three and a half years in forced labor camps building roads, bridges, and railways in Singapore, Thailand, and Burma. After the war ended in 1945, Smit was released and...
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