Last Tango in Big Sur

Modest Soul: A delicate watercolor and gouache painting by the late Robert Skiles demonstrates his light touch, and the influence of Asian culture.

Artist/raconteur Bob Skiles memorialized by friends.

By Paul Wilner

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Beatrice Wood, the Ojai potter who inspired Jeanne Moreau’s character in Jules and Jim, said he was her “favorite tango partner.’’

He was a World War II veteran, earning a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his role in the invasion of Italy.

Robert Skiles, who died Nov. 9 at 93, was memorialized last week at the Big Sur Historical Society’s annual potluck dinner, where he was remembered by his many friends.

An artist, collector and teacher, Skiles served for years on the board of the Monterey Museum of Art, acting as resident Asian scholar and ultimately donating his prized Japanese folk art pieces to the museum.

A central figure in the arts scene here for years, Skiles and his late partner, the musician Jean Perrine, organized the Big Sur Pot Luck Revue in the ’50s as a way for a diverse group, from bohos to gentry, to get around the “dry laws” of the time preventing locals from getting together to imbibe, and to present sometimes wild and always imaginative theatrical events.

Attendees included Henry and Eve Miller, sculptor Harry Dick Ross, Nepenthe’s Bill and Lolly Fassett, diplomat/journalist Nicholas Roosevelt, and many, many more.

While the festivities were flamboyant, Skiles was modest, recalled potter and Hartnell College art instructor Gary Smith, a longtime friend. “If he made a joke, it was at his own expense.”

But his contributions to the local arts scene, including The Eye of The Child, a folk art exhibition for MMA, were incalculable.

He had a great eye and picked up his Asian art collection for a song, Smith said, adding that despite the fun, Skiles was “a bit of a loner– he loved the spirit, and seclusion, of Big Sur.