Suzanne Valadon (Biographies Diverses) (French Edition)

Suzanne Valadon ou La recherche de la verite by Jeanne Champion. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Suzanne Valadon ou La recherche de la verite , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Suzanne Valadon ou La recherche de la verite. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Nola rated it it was ok Apr 18, Marie-Laure rated it liked it May 10, Jenny rated it liked it Nov 06, Ulrika Eriksson rated it liked it Jul 19, Julie rated it liked it Aug 28, Bernadette Streater marked it as to-read Jan 03, Mary Mabry marked it as to-read Feb 27, Sarah Hodges is currently reading it Mar 30, In a more recent generation, such artists as Jacquemin, Cour- nault, and Soulas devoted themselves entirely to original en- graving, an austere and meticulous craft.

However, this renewed interest in original engraving is not due to its exponents but to painters, for whom engraving is only a minor form of expression. With the exception of Jacques Villon, one of the best-known etchers and one who is devoted to engraving, all our great painters do occasional engravings, and with outstanding skill.

In this field, as in that of theatrical decoration, painters have broken new ground. Work by Pi- casso, Rouault, Matisse, Braque, Vlaminck, Dufy, and Chagall, among others, has given unlimited scope to the field of en- graving, where young artists of today continue their research. Sculpture After the death of Rodin and Bourdelle, sculpture was set, in part, along a course laid by Despiau, that is toward a sober form of art, sparsely transposed and in an exceedingly pure style. Despiau had a following of many young artists, such as Belmondo, who learned from him.

WRITERS FROM FRANCE

In more or less the same spirit as Despiau come sculptors of vigorous talent such as Wlerick, Pommier, Poisson, or Dejean, who were equally familiar with Rodin's teaching. Maillol was a pure product of the ancient Greek school, accidentally born in our time. His women are goddesses, exuding animality and candor, solidly planted on their heavy limbs. Maillol was the French master who inspired the greatest admiration and imitation abroad. Whether they bear the name "He de France" or "Pomone," all his opulent creations have a family resemblance; they pay matchless tribute to rustic sensuality.

After these two great sculptors, Despiau and Maillol, who perpetuated Greco-Latin civilization, the faultless and mys- terious work of Gimond developed, as did the less tranquil work of Couturier, Martin, and Auricoste. Simultaneous to Braque and Picasso, others such as Lipschitz, Arp, Zadkine, and Giacometti were breaking away progressively from the imitation of reality. This is at exactly the opposite pole from Rodin, the whole for the part, it is, as Maillol wished it, twenty forms in one.

It is even, if preferred, matter dominated by solely intellectual theory. And this sculpture resembles the quest made by certain painters at a period which might appear to be an episode in the pictorial revolution, but which has nevertheless contributed to uphold this theory. Nearer, no doubt, to abstraction than to naturalism, it not only discards nature as a source of inspiration, but it exploits nature in order to incor- porate its elements according to certain spiritual precepts, into a sculpturally plastic world By the most direct and intense expression of these precepts, it combines the mediums proper to sculpture, volume and rhythm.

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821

Distortion must therefore necessarily take place, a feature of all plastic art which is remote from humanistic aesthetics, 'zoographical,' renascent or Hellenic forms of art. This is proof, perhaps, that we are in an experimental era. But in any case the need for the invention of forms dominates all others. A sculptor no longer copies nature, he no longer imitates aspects, he creates them, in the same way that nature creates a mountain or a man or a rock.

His sculptured form takes the place of reality, and is destined to supersede it. In general, all theories aside, it must be said that France is a country with great sculptors who set an example of a widely varying and constantly resurgent creation. Decorative Arts After the First World War, when money was in more active circulation, the trend toward decoration grew. With better renumeration artisans in furniture, glass, ironwork, and porce- lain were able to return to a perfection of craftsmanship that had been somewhat lacking.

In this respect the Decorative Arts Exhibition of marked the zenith of a revolutionary, invigorating style which rapidly spread to the provinces. This decorative arts trend, with resolutely modern ideals, drew [19] such a flood of recrimination that something akin to a negative period followed: It was at this exhibition that a renewal in the art of stained glass in architecture was noted. Glass which was stained and shaded throughout, along medieval lines, took the place of fragile and uncertain painting on glass.

With names such as Labouret, Decorchement, Barillet and Paul Bony, who later transposed Rouault's sketches for the church at Assy, and Max Ingrand, a whole thriving tradition is encompassed. However, without doubt, the main contemporary acquisition is that of the art of tapestry, which had been fading out ever since the eighteenth century, and which experienced a com- plete resurrection in the first quarter of the twentieth century, with Jean Lurcat one of the instigators.

By attempting to simplify composition through a return to the mural, and by reducing the number of colors employed — which were of vegetable, not chemical, dye— Jean Lurcat tackled the very root of the problem, technique. As for the spirit in which this work was undertaken both by him and by his excellent group of specialized painters Coutaud, Guigne- bert, Lagrange, Picart le Doux, Saint-Saens and Vogensky , the outstanding works produced by Aubusson manufacturers offer proof enough. Many recognized and expert painters followed the decorator Jacques Adnet to Aubusson— Savin, Brianchon, Legueult, Roland Oudot — where they created tapestries of a less system- atic inspiration than Lurcat's, with colors of great subtlety.

Other branches of decorative arts came to the fore: Since the exhibition, the field of furniture has been explored by Ruhlmann who can be called the direct descend- ant of eighteenth-century cabinetmakers and by Pierre Chareau and Rene Prou, whose work was the forerunner to the many variations designed by Franck, Moreux, Jacques Adnet, Rene-Herbst, Serge Roche, Arbus, Nacenta, and So- gnot, to mention only a few From geometrical nudity to a cer- tain complicated baroque style which appeared during the period of the World Exhibition, at the same time as the "French Family Home," where talented decorators displayed furniture for ordinary homes, a trend toward a sound style can be detected.

It is balanced and functional; ornamentation is not scorned, but is used soberly, in the manner of the great [20] periods; the aim is to provide an ideal harmony between furni- ture and its setting. Although the Societe des Artistes Decorateurs was founded more than fifty years ago, it has not lost its enthusiasm and youth; it is well aware that this period is critical.

Here is an extract from an introduction to one of their recent catalogues: We believe that man reflects what he sees around him, as much as what he hears or what he reads, and that a nation which is well and attractively 'equipped' will be of a higher intellectual standard than a nation which neglects the question of the ever-present background to life. Montmartre Imagine a town such as Paris, where the best brains of a vast kingdom have gathered in one point, where they interpenetrate and provoke mutual inspiration. Consider this Universal City where every street leads to a bridge or a square where a great event from the past is conjured up, where every street corner has taken some part in history.

Goethe to Eckermann Montmartre is the most famous village in France, and anyone who knew it at the start of this century — with the last of its windmills, its country inns where drinks were served under the arbors, the chimes of the old church, and the convolvulus- covered houses — would agree that Montmartre was the most charming village in the world. Today, from the neo-Romanesque basilica of the Sacre Coeur to the Place Dancour, from the Place du Tertre to the Lapin a Gill, Montmartre always means a special way of being frivolous, inimitable, and Bohemian, which singles it out as one of the most privileged parts of Paris.

But to return to painting Even before Jongkind, forerun- ner of modern art, came from his native Holland to live at Place Pigalle, Theodore Rousseau, the famous Barbizon artist, had already, at the age of twelve, put brush to his first canvas while in Montmartre. And this took place on a scene almost as wild, under a tormented sky in the best Ruysdael manner, as those painted by the elder of Montmartre painters, the roman- tic landscape painter, Georges Michel, nicknamed "Michel- de-Montmartre.

The Impressionists, who were rediscovering nature, were delighted to find a village so near to Paris where tiny gardens, alleyways, and taverns had remained so unspoiled. Although he worked at Pontoise, Pissarro kept his pied-a-terre in Mont- martre, and Cezanne, when he visited him, tarried in the Rue des Saules, which had already been immortalized by Corot.

Until he left for the south of France, that most Parisian of Impressionists, Renoir, stayed in Montmartre. His celebrated "Moulin de la Galette," painted in , is a crowning glory to youth and the joy of ordinary people. He was fascinated with the pictures of the new school, met Degas, Pissarro, Gauguin, Seurat, and enrolled at the Cormon studio, where he struck up a friendship with Toulouse-Lautrec, who was passionately attached to Montmartre.

From this period we have the famous portrait of Pere Tanguy, who, in his picturesque shop in the Rue Clauzel, was the first dealer for the Impressionists. And so it was not by chance that Montmartre became the chosen ground for the independent painters of Van Dongen at first, and then Picasso, were to be found in an extra- ordinary group of shanties — made up of beams and boards, it is true, and sumptuously called "studios," but so unsteady and so dangerous, built on such haphazard foundations, that Max Jacob dubbed the site the Bateau-Lavoir floating washhouse.

On stormy nights the construction rocked alarmingly, and did, in fact, remind one of the rickety floating washhouses which were then moored along the Seine. Owing to certain mysterious excavations which had been carried out, it was also known as the Maison du Trappeur. It was here, at 13 Rue Ravignan, looking onto a shady vacant lot now known as the Place Emile Goudeau, after a Montmartre humorist, that modern art was born. From onward, artists and writers gradually took pos- session of the Bateau-Lavoir.

In spite of daily material trials, which were borne joyously, schools were formed. Fauvism, led by Vlaminck and Derain,' was already emerging triumphantly from the Ecole de Cha- tou. And here, in the studio owned by Picasso and Juan Gris, as in the neighboring cafes, a new form of art, Cubism, was being born from the interminable discussions which Braque, Derain, Metzinger, Apollinaire, Andre Salmon, the art critic Maurice Raynal and the mathematician Princet held day and night. This was one of the great moments in the history of con- temporary art.

Apart from the painters, some of the first tenants of the Bateau-Lavoir were a costermonger, a laundress, and a restorer of old paintings, a solemn gentleman with a white beard. Maurice Raynal claimed that he was the person presented as the Minister of Fine Arts to the Douanier Rous- seau the day Picasso gave the still famous banquet for him in his studio. To a background of garlanded Chinese lanterns, the Doua- nier had presided over the modest table and free-flowing wine, organized in his honor, during which speeches extolling his glory were given with humor and kindliness.

The Douanier, much affected by the praise and wine, sang songs he himself had composed, accompanying himself on the violin. Bursting with happiness, he even confided to Picasso: But the echo of their enthusiasm, their work, their festivities, and their hopes persists in Mont- martre, where clouds of vivid pink, the same as those painted by Utrillo, are strewn tenderly over the firmament, as they are nowhere else.

Montpamasse If the fame of Montpamasse really dates only from 19 10, at No. All that Montpamasse means is contained in the span of time and glory allotted to these two names. Gauguin left Montpamasse to live out his mad quest; Modig- liani left his beloved Italy to end up in the one place in the world where, out of all eternity, he knew his genius would emerge. In the early years of the century, the district basked in an undeniable reputation. Baudelaire had frequented the Grande Chaumiere.

At a later date, in order to attend the Tuesday reunions held [21] by the review Verse and Prose, which was founded by Paul Fort and which had Andre Salmon as secretary, Picasso and his followers came down from Montmartre more often than not by foot. They had to cross all Paris, but the atmosphere of La Closerie was worth it. Here, in a colossal uproar, everyone drank and reconstructed the world, after having carefully pulled it to pieces.

New arrivals were greeted by the booming voice of Moreas, who would ironically call out such phrases as: In , everything changed. When the artists' Montmartre was invaded by the new rich and the pseudo-artist, another suitable colony had to be found. In 1 9 1 1 Picasso moved in, preceded by Rousseau, and followed by Vlaminck and Pas- cin. Until , the pavement Cafe de la Rotonde was one of the best-known haunts in the world. It was there that Lenin hatched plans which were to overthrow the political structure of the world.

Suzanne Valadon ou La recherche de la verite by Jeanne Champion

From Russian terrorism to international Marxism, from popular songs to the select few versed in geometrical poetry, from pro-Cubist art to anti-Cubist art, from a super- fluity of amorous ladies to a superfluity of hermaphrodites, from a surfeit of discouraged painters to a surfeit of unlucky ones, from too much life to too much death — all this was to surge upward and burst forth in one incredible, brightly hued, powerful movement, so rich in its variety that the effect was confusion.

It was all this that Andre Warnod was to christen Ecole de Paris a few years later. After the Armistice in , Jean Cocteau rented a vast studio through a courtyard at No. By this initiative, which already showed him to be something of a talent scout, Cocteau led the snobbish set's discovery of this extraordinary meeting point, which stretched from the Gare Montparnasse to Ras- pail.

This second invasion was necessary. The outsiders completed the Montparnasse of the artists, and led it to complete fulfill- ment. While painters were being discovered at the Dome pave- ment cafe, others discovered the wonderful Rue de la Gaite, with its theater run by Gaston Baty, the odd little cafes, its local underworld, and Bobino, its lively music hall. The Bal Negre in the Rue Blomet became fashionable. Everyone dined chez Rosalie, Rue Campagne Premiere, where Modigliani was a habitue, where one could meet Foujita with his slits of eyes under a severe fringe and golden rings in his ears , where one could even strike up an acquaintance with Marie Wassi- lieff; she would recount her life with Granowski, the Polish painter, who was always in the background, dressed as a cowboy.

Elsewhere, such girls as the beautiful and charming Kiki, artists' models like the dusky Aicha and Youki, Foujita's wife before she became that of the poet Desnos, shot to world fame. This is not an overstatement. People flocked here from all over the world, either to study the academies did a flourishing trade or to breathe the air of Montparnasse. Not to mention adorable women, if somewhat mad. But work went on in Montparnasse too. Painters and sculp- tors built up a collective expression.

The activity of La Ruche, this community dwelling on the outskirts of Montparnasse, in Vaugirard, Passage Dantzig, has only to be recalled. What else can be said about Montparnasse, which is so near and yet so far? Gauguin, who left his studio at the Rue de la Grande Chaumiere for a more spacious one on the Rue Ver- cingetorix, decorated it with a painting in the Maori manner and entitled it "Te Faruru" [Here, We Love]. And, in fact, love was the order of the day in Montparnasse.

Today it is more subdued. Although only the "flower vendors" and "ghosts" remain, as Leon-Paul Fargue, the magician of words, wrote, he also added: And nothing is so moving to those passing by the Montparnasse cafes at night than to remember that this was once the back- ground for joie de vivre, in the purest, widest meaning of the term. It is a memory of an incredible intellectual feast, of a momentous period in the Ecole de Paris.

This was the adolescence of the century. All talked about the subtle quips uttered by poet Robert de ' Montesquiou-Fezensac, the aesthete, the Folies of Boni de Castellane, and the recent reception given by the strange Marquise Casatti Wiener and Doucet played at the two pianos. The upper class came in tails; the painters, in sweaters. Some women were in suits, and others decked out in pearls and diamonds. We took some of the glitter from all these stars away with us. The war had just been won, a lot of money was being "made," and morals were more and more lax. It all took place under the benevolent aegis of Moyses, the host and friend to all of Paris.

All this provided an ideal sounding board for mediums such as psychoanalysis, for "The Beggar's Opera," Rene Clair's first films, the Negro Revue, music by Erik Satie or Florent Schmitt, theories upheld by architect Le Corbusier, books by Proust, Gide, or Cocteau, the avant-garde theater, the first paintings by the youthful Christian Berard, and the beginnings of Surrealism.

Mechanical progress no longer surprised anyone. Even the definition by Fernand Leger, "A bolt more beautiful than a rose," offered it an aesthetic future. Quotations were freely made from Paul Morand's book Rien que la terre. Vlaminck bought his racing cars, and by night, in his studio, painted his violent night landscapes and haggard perspectives in the full glare of the headlights. Meanwhile, at Le Bceuf, to a background of Charlestons, blues, and gin-fizzes, the hours from midnight to dawn saw the celebration of vitality in its most voluptuous form.

How strange and crazy these times were The accounts written by Blaise Cendrars and Valery Larbaud were breaking down the frontiers. The "blue train," even though only re- cently started, became a commuter convenience, and everyone flocked to the "Pacifies" and the "Trans-Siberians. Le Bceuf was madly up to date. After its transfer to the Rue de Penthievre, the Bceuf-sur-le- Toit was never replaced. This blend of elegance, reckless eroticism, and culture belongs only to the era. Florent Fels, one of the original witnesses, wrote: A different view of the modern world started at Le Bceuf-sur-le-Toit.

It is not out of place in this book. Saint-Germain-des-Pres "You cannot bathe in the same river twice," said Heraclitus. This is borne out by the evidence that, after Montmartre and Montparnasse, Saint-Germain-des-Pres is today the chosen site for artists and intellectuals. And yet the people are still the same as are found in this Paris, full of surprises; far from being at odds with each other, past and present are good neighbors in this district, like the forty members of the Academy, called "Immortals," and the two thousand students of both sexes who are at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

The district of Saint-Germain-des-Pres with its old man- [23] sions, antique shops, booksellers and bouquinistes on the quays, and its delightful streets, is one of the Paris districts where the atmosphere of the past has been retained best. It is easy to wander about there at leisure, and memories abound. Saint Germain himself, Bishop of Paris, was buried in near the basilica which now bears his name. Pope Alexander III consecrated the new choir in the church during the twelfth century. Three hundred years later, Henry V climbed its church steeple, casting a last glance to see whether Paris was really worth a Mass Racine dwelt on the Rue Visconti, then called the Rue des Marais, where Balzac later took up printing.

In , Ingres worked at No. It was around this period, at an hour when the kindly Corot was leaving the Rue des Beaux- Arts at dawn to reach the scene of a picture, that a pale, weary man passed him unseeingly on this street where he also lodged. That would have been the poverty-stricken and marvelous Gerard de Nerval, returning from his strange walks through the night Many of them came here and are still living here, like Dunoyer de Segonzac. Chardin, one of the purest artists in French painting, was born on the Rue de Seine, where his father was a carpenter, and he lived and died on the Rue Princesse.

It can therefore be seen that Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the intellectual capital of Paris, existed before the Liberation of Paris in And the scene was perfectly suited to its unique destiny. Its own charm, the proximity of the Latin Quarter and the Grandes Ecoles Faculties , the fact that Montparnasse was so near and that there was a tradition in literary cafes which extended from the Procope, where Verlaine was per- petually drunk, on the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, to the Soleil d'Or, Place Saint-Michel, where the celebrated Soirees de la Plume were held at the beginning of the century — all this added up to Saint-Germain-des-Pres.

It should be added that the fame and fortune of this area, a magic name today in the two hemispheres, are due mainly to the magnetic attrac- tion of three celebrated cafes — Les Deux Magots, the Cafe de Flore, and the Brasserie Lipp, which have been for many years friendly meeting grounds for publishers, professors, literary men, art connoisseurs, and artists. Moreover, it should be said that at the beginning the success of this Big Three was not due to a more or less corrupt feminine presence. These cafes were mainly for men, artists and writers, and were a faithful reflection of the extraordinary calm of this provincial district in the heart of Paris.

Toward the atmosphere changed, at a time when the writer and diplomat, Jean Giralidoux, took his coffee at the Cafe des Deux Magots every morning, where Andre Breton, leader of Surrealism, issued his biting manifestoes from the next table. All exponents of modern literature, painting, architecture, and music lived, loved, worked, and drank in the shadow of the ancient church. Poets from all over the world came there to test their youth, to shake the world with their reviews, nocturnal frenzies, manifestoes, and laments The rest was made up of anybody from anywhere with nothing much to do, but the fact remains that, until , Saint-Germain-des-Pres was more or less a place for the elect.

Less than ten years later this happy isle had become a sort of Mont-Saint-Michel, where French intellect and the western tourist trade were combined.

It is not our place to give a list here of all the cafes which, from the Montana to the Rhumerie Martiniquaise and from the Pergola to the Reine Blanche, offer asylum to diverse youths with highly advanced ideas, in the throes of real or simulated solitude, who are neither better nor worse than their predecessors. To quote an old saying: God looks after his own!

What does it matter that Saint-Germain-des-Pres has become Saint-Germain-des-Caves cellars , and that the kings of jazz come there to flatter the foreigners visiting Paris by night, or those passing through by accident, or the reputedly dissolute intelligentsia? What does matter is, not the export brand of existentialism advertised, but the actual quality and, no doubt, the novelty of Jean Paul Sartre's works. What counts is, not the behavior — nor the abhorrent company — of a habitue of the Cafe de Flore, but the emotion aroused in him by the play at the Theatre de Vieux Colombier.

It is the degree of intimacy with which he feels the art of Nicolas de Stael, another child of this century. In reality, stripped of its nocturnal trappings, Saint-Germain-des-Pres remains a hallowed place which furnishes prodigious intellectual stimulation. Tradition is intact there, under a thousand travesties — in the bookshops, in the antique shops, in the picture galleries, to say nothing of the nearby Louvre — and it lives alongside the new order in one of the only places where such coexistence is possible, often on the same street, and sometimes in the same shop.

One feature is common to people and places: In Saint-Germain-des-Pres the air [24] breathed, the people observed, the things encountered — all combine to stimulate curiosity, which leads to culture in the most direct way. Xo doubt creative thought flows where it chooses, but it knows the right addresses! The success of the tourist trade in Saint-Germain-des-Pres is a surface element, built on age-old foundations. In a century, in ten years, Le Bar Vert or La Rose Rouge will have been forgotten, but l'Ecole des Beaux- Arts on the Rue Bonaparte will flourish as it does today, and voices will be raised in amazement when reading Cocteau, to think of the impertinent youth of certain members of the Academy circa The Seine will still inspire the passers-by and their dreams.

Time will wear itself out against Saint- Germain-des-Pres, which, through its natural situation as much as its special sort of attraction, will always be one of the essentials of French culture. Montmartre is a tavern; Montparnasse, a crossroads. Saint-Germain-des-Pres is an age-old quartier, one of the com- pass points of intelligence in Paris, and maybe even its in- tellectual capital. The publicity surrounding its name has added nothing to its glory, which is too deeply rooted, but it has attracted youth from all over the world.

With each journey over, a new course is set. Therefore, nothing is lost. Painting The Societe des Artistes Francais was founded in The famous Salon held in the Palais de l'lndustrie in the Champs Elysees was more or less the only link between artists and the public. A high court, consisting of ninety examiners who were respectfully obedient to the members of the Institut Academy of Fine Arts , carried tremendous power. However, not a single work of any of the official "masters" of that time — Toudouze, Chartran, Blavette, Schommer, Popelin, Fournier, Pinta, Moulin, or Amedee Gibert — is remembered today, whereas in this same year, , the forty-year-old Renoir was painting one of his most radiant pictures, "Le Dejeuner des Canotiers.

This prize carried with it a twofold interest. From the master's point of view, the aim was to have successful students, which increased his reputation; for the student, winning the Prix de Rome meant being assured of an enviable and lucrative position in life. A glance at reproductions of certain pictures painted by these "masters" is enough to imagine the works of the students! Whether they represented legendary scenes such as the in- credible "Deluge" by Commere, historical pictures such as "La Mort de Baby lone" by Rochegrosse, or "Le Salut aux Vieux Brave" by Monge, or, more simply, "La Femme Libellule" by Landelle, whether they represented religious scenes, portraits, or life studies, they all show a conventional stamp, a superficial search for effect, and a pretention to earnestness.

These Academistes of the 1 s were constantly talking of tradition, but rarely have painters displayed such a total lack of understanding for the great pictorial tradition. Diligent and solemn as they were, bent on winning ribbons and medals or honorable mentions, if they did happen to study the great masters of the past, mainly to copy them, they received no valid message, since they never consulted them other than superficially.

It fell to "barbarians" such as Claude Monet, who was admiring Watteau's "Embarquement pour Cythere" at the Louvre, or Renoir, "Les Noces de Cana" which was his favorite masterpiece, and which he asked to see again before his death , and to all the others who were contemptuous of the fashionable painters, to pick up the strands of tradition, which throughout the ages has enabled succeeding generations to contribute new conquests to the fund of human knowledge.

It is recognized that Impression- ism was more than a new technique. It interpreted a special ' way of feeling, direct communion with nature, a desire for truth and spontaneity. Cezanne made no mistake when he thought that he had "repainted Poussin from nature" and, by escaping from the confusion of feelings, "he had re-established reality. With the exception of the Surrealists, modern art is entirely based on these principles, and all schools of painting find a justification in them, including the abstracts.

Neo-Impressionism, led by Seurat, is the logical continua- tion. It too tended to split up color, but tone was divided in a scientific way. Works by Seurat or Signac were painted solely in pure colors, which were separated and balanced, and which present a visual combination according to a calculated method embodying the basic principles of Neo-Impressionism.

During a slightly later period, at a time when Gauguin, at Pouldu, was in search of elements for his synthesis, the painter-theorist Maurice Denis suggested, in an article in Art and Criticism which appeared in , the name of Neo-Traditionism, which was in balanced contrast to that of Neo-Impressionism. The canvases by Gauguin, Emile Bernard, Daniel, Laval, Anquetin and Schuffenecker which were exhibited, among others, at the Cafe Volpini in , were powerfully colored and heavily outlined.

It was because of this that the terms. Cloisonnism or Japanism were frequently bandied about. In these unusual works, the naivete of Breton calvaries and images d'Epinal popular colored prints were detected, to- gether with the influence of Japanese prints and Romanesque stylization. Symbolism was born from the sum of this study of synthesis. From the start of this period the diversity of temperaments supplied the critics with varying themes, while Albert Aurier and I were expounding the philosophy inherent to the new expression.

As a reaction against commonplace and petty naturalism, which imitators of the great Impressionists also exploited, we provided the conception of a picture which was a 'flat surface covered with color arranged in a certain order. As for academic art, if it survives as an episodic feature, if it does appear even in abstract art, it is no longer recognized or represented by any authoritative body. This turning of the tables after such a long servitude was logical and necessary; it is in the order of eternally live classicism.

Fauvism For knowledge of any particular thing, it is absolutely vital to know how it was brought about. How can the Symbolist phenomenon be portrayed if nothing is known of the Im- pressionism and the Neo-Impressionism that preceded it? No thing, no person, is isolated.

Odilon Redon was far from being a seer, imprisoned in his visions; he was also a connois- seur of workmanship, admiring Corot, copying Delacroix, and striving to reach Rembrandt and Diirer through the medium of Bresdin. It would be difficult to understand Cubism or Expressionism and the varying movements which have fused in the crucible of the Ecole de Paris if the spirit and aims of Fauvism were not evoked. Fauvism was the first artistic revolution of the twentieth century.

It was not a school with theories and manifestoes but a result of the fellowship of a few painters, temporarily in agreement over the principle of rapture over pure color, handed down from Van Gogh. They were all weary of the inconsistency of certain followers of Impressionism, and Cezanne's lesson had not yet been learned. Matisse, working in Gustave Moreau's studio, employed a Divisionist technique, but he soon observed that this mechanical system of breaking up hues led to a breaking up of structure, and that all that remained, in fact, was "a tactile animation comparable to the vibrations of the voice.

Thus many varied and outstanding individuals had no common denominator other than their opposition to official conventions, and certainly their not inconsiderable tempera- ments! When speaking of Fauvism, it would be unthinkable to overlook Gustave Moreau's teaching at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts; he played a great part in the liberation of many a young artist of this period.

Gustave Moreau, who was himself under the influence of the Symbolists and Pre-Raphaelites, was immoderately fond of the florid style and ornamentation, which earned him a reputation as "the hanger of watch chains on Olympian Gods! The creative spirit took precedence over technique. I believe only in what I do not see, and solely in what I feel.

Only inner mood seems to me eternal and undeniably sure. The Fauves retained only the best, and were not distracted from the work of Van Gogh, which seemed to them to be definitive. Vlaminck, said by Derain to be "the most painter plus peinlre of all of us," stated: A classical painter is not one who takes up and adapts what has been well done once. The classical painter recreates the world for himself, in the same way as life is given. He does not bother about others, but about himself. The Primitives created the world in which they lived, and they saw it through their own eyes, according to their own vision, and not from a model.

The first man that I was to love was my father, and yet I never took him as a model to beget a picture — or a child. There is no model other than life; to serve is not to be a servant. From Matisse's words, "I seek only to apply colors which reflect what I feel," it seemed clear that the supremacy of the individual, and of his sensations, was here to stay. It was on this twofold revolutionary assump- tion that Fauvism worked itself out. It has already taken its place in the history of art as one of the most dynamic move- ments in contemporary painting, and it is entirely due to this movement that live art has its place in the modern world.

But this common source of inspiration did not prevent the Cubists from thinking that the Fauves had demanded "more from color than color could give. The main point is that Cubism was a collective research in plastic creation, which brought about complete freedom in the art of painting. The Cubists were always seeking rhythms and geometrical patterns, and Apollinaire stated, "Geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the writer. The spirituality of Cubist painters is evident in their state- ments. The eye is no longer king. It should leave a goodly share to intui- tion and intellect, alternating with one another.

The Cubist pictures were painted in the spirit of humility; they were, according to Gleizes, "angular, gray, and austere. During the analytical period, these neutrally toned pictures with their weak light are remarkable for their attempt at impersonality. On the other hand, the compelling severity of forms met the rigors of a collective discipline which did not hesitate to use systematic means to become more obvious and intelligible. The Impressionists adored light; the Fauves, movement.

Nothing of the sort with the Cubists. Their light did not come from the sun, but from a laboratory; it was an abstract element in the demonstration. When one considers that the aim of this quest for stability was the full expression of reality, from all its physical aspects the absolute independence of the picture-object — in contrast to existing conventions — and the viewers summoning a sym- phonic kind of appreciation as little connected to the visible as music appreciation is to reality, it must be admitted that Cu- bism will be considered, basically, one of the most remarkable modern endeavors to liberate the mind through vision.

Much has been written on Cubism and its creators. No attempt will be made here to define the creative part played by each of its founders in this collective venture, neither to scrutinize Picasso's work to find out if it "reaches beyond the normal conditions of art," nor to study the work of Braque to underline the aesthetic link between this painter and Chardin. The exhibition Les Createurs du Cubisme, which was or- ganized in by the Gazette des Beaux- Arts and the weekly Beaux- Arts, provided an expressive summary of Cubist activity up to The term Cubism originated with a remark by Matisse, who thought that certain landscapes painted by Braque seemed composed of "cubes.

By this new expression was growing increasingly abstract. In 1, at the Salon des Indepen- dants, the first exhibition by this school grouped the works of many of its followers, joined by Delaunay and La Fresnaye, who exhibited his "Le Cuirassier. This highly success- ful event touched off a collective awareness which was to have a bearing on a large section of modern aesthetics. The second and last exhibition of the Section d'Or was held in 3 on the Rue de la Boetie.

In 19 14, war broke out Art historians agree that the Cubist movement took place between and 19 Of course this means the period of transformation and ascent; for example, some of Picasso's most perfected Cubist canvases those of the Musiciens period were painted toward At a later date, around , after [32] the Surrealist venture, Picasso reverted to a figurative form ot art which was expressive, even expressionist, and which led him to paint simultaneously the front and profile views of his faces. And so the Cubist principles which took shape in with the prophetic "Demoiselles d'Avignon" were still as vigorous a quarter of a century later.

Braque considerably softened his original style by removing a too obvious geometrical layout, static architecture, and a breaking up which was too facile; but this ex-Cubist retained the simultaneous vision of the object and its method of develop- ment on the same plane, according to a reversed concept of space. Another Cubist is Jacques Villon, and so is Andre Lhote, the creator of a "sensitive Cubism" with ornamental tendencies. This persistence of an expression which has had a consider- able influence on fashion and the decorative arts of our time has other aspects in its favor, and is attested to by Maurice Raynal, who says: From now on art will go through periodic phases of cubism, enabling it to recapture, through a tem- porary retreat, the necessary elements of uninvolved purity, in order to fully exploit the field of artistic sensibility.

All new plastic languages evoke and lay bare the world anew, and it is known that they invite the eye not only to see "differently," but to see "something different. The aim sought after by all, which Braque summed up in the phrase, "Not to reconstitute anecdotal facts, but to con- stitute pictorial facts," seemed attained.

Futurism Marinetti had already published his manifesto in Paris the previous year when he met his countrymen, the painters Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni, and Luigi Russolo, in Milan during the year 19 They decided to issue a second manifesto to young artists, also signed by Giacomo Balla, who lived in Rome, and by Gino Severini, who was in Paris. The following main points are quoted: When painting a figure on a balcony, seen from the room, we do not restrict the scene to the vision afforded by the frame of the window, but endeavor to convey the visual sensations of the street in their entirety: This means a simultaneity of atmosphere and, therefore, dis- location and dismemberment of objects, scattering and fusion of details, which become freed of current logic and independent of one another.

For a short while Apollinaire belonged to this new school, and even wanted to group all the pioneer trends under the name Futurist, but Marinetti objected. After , interest in Futurism declined; but Marinetti did not give up his movement. Toward 1 there were approxi- mately five hundred Futurist painters, including the remark- able Prampolini.

In the beginning there were only five Without discounting the impetus which linked Futurism with the most vital and original aspects of modern life, or the interest contained in its conception of "simultaneity" and space the latter placing the spectator in the center of the picture , it can be said that this revolutionary movement was more valiant than original, and that its attempts to break away from naturalistic traditions did not give it enough substance to provide a lasting expression. Orphism What is Orphism? Mainly two painters and one word.

The poet Apollinaire first used the word in , during the lecture he gave in Berlin at the Galerie Der Sturm at Delaunay's exhibition. Through the evocation of the name Orphee, which was the keynote of the poems in his recently published Bestiaire, he strove to bring the research by Delaunay, the Czech painter Kupka, and a few other young artists closer to the poetic and musical fantasies which he so favored. Delaunay studied Chevreul's works on "the law of color contrast" and exploited all the resources of the prism. This proved him to be a forerunner of non-objective art.

And so it can be seen that Orphism is linked to the names of one poet and two innovating artists. Neo-Cubism Neo-Cubism is not a school, or even a distinct term. La Fresnaye, who had come under the influence of Gauguin,. He said, "Painting is two things, the eye and the brain. One must work on their mutual development: La Fresnaye sought, above all, a sober, useful method by which to assemble a balanced structure of noble proportions, in the classical tradition.

This he found, but he adapted it to his temperament by connecting line and color so that the breaking of form and the multiplica- tion of planes were softened and harmoniously blended. The master of "L'Artillerie," "La Conquete de l'Air," and "Paysage a Hauteville" displayed art of such humanity in which an outlook similar to Gericault's and Poussin's, through Cezanne's intermediary, was detected , that he could not long be contented with absolute theories. In 1 he was already writing to his friend Georges de Mire: La Fresnaye, who died in as a result of the war, was formed by Cubism.

His work primarily bears the stamp of a strong personality which would have found its expression in any period. Although Andre Lhote took part in the first Cubist exhibi- tion in the Rue Tronchet and in the first showing of the Section [33] d'Or, he always refused to belong to any group. He was in- fluenced by decorative sculpture, but he then discovered, with Cezanne and Picasso, "constructive" elements which were to serve as a basis for his subtle, vital, and sanely ordered aes- thetic. The geometrical transcription of a picture such as "Rugby" 7 , which hangs at the Musee d'Art Moderne, is a sign of the talent of this nonconforming Cubist, whose particular discipline rebelled against every system.

Interviewed by Flo- rent Fels in , Andre Lhote said: If ever a day should dawn when I become convinced that art is something other than the ar- bitrary use of nature according to the whims of sensitivity, I shall stop painting. Maria Blanchard had a very rare quality for a woman: In 1 Jacques Villon joined with Cubism, which satisfied his taste for order and discipline.

Suzanne Valadon ou La recherche de la verite

He was a rhythmist in that the elements in his composition were laid out according to the "pyramidal vision" of Leonardo da Vinci, that is: Describing his working method, he himself said: I summon up a construction, a pattern of arabesques and rhythms — in fact I meditate on nature, which remains my starting point, and I transform it according to a very carefully studied construction of the picture to be painted.

I am striving to express, and to discover, a space in which to achieve my work. I am also very absorbed by research in color and color values. His art, which is dedicated to light, tends, through analysis of the three dimensions, to reach the invisible fourth. This subtle and serene work, unique in its kind, reaches back to the enchantment of the Impressionists, but it is never- theless one of the direct outgrowths of the Cubist experience, and reflects a spiritual mood which has left its imprint on contemporary art.

Marie Laurencin, a friend of Apollinaire's and the Bateau- Lavoir painters', was present during the stirring discussions which led to Cubism; she remained practically untouched by the theories of the time. One detects, however, in certain still- life studies and in compositions showing her assembled friends, signs such as a spareness, a layout and stylization which cer- tainly stemmed from aesthetics of the Rue Ravignan.

With her beginner's palette of only white, black, and pink, this touching personality seems to have passed through the famous movement only to better assert her somewhat com- pelling femininity. She was the flower of Cubism. The only requisite to being a flower is freshness! This, Marie Laurencin retained all through life. Purism It was during the period between 19 15 and 7 that Amedee Ozenfant first outlined the principles of Purism in his review L'Elan. Both expressed concern over the fact that Cubism appeared to have abandoned its original method, and was turning to the baroque, or more particularly, the decorative arts.

They in- tended to reinstate a healthy, authentic, architectural form of art. These were their principles: Can painting be pure creation without any starting point in the world of objects? Moreover, the application of a rigorous objectivity prevented the Purist picture from becoming too individualized. This line of aesthetics was upheld in another review directed by Ozenfant and Jeanneret, L' Esprit Nouveau, between and , but the very exaggeration of its inflexibility prevented it from developing further, except in Le Corbusier's ar- chitecture and that of his disciples.

Purism certainly had an influence on such artists as Servranckx, Peri, and Baumeister, at a time when the abstract expression of the Stijl group, led by Van Doesburg and Mondrian, was flourishing in the Netherlands.

1. See a Problem?!
2. Thach Weave.
3. Microlenses: Properties, Fabrication and Liquid Lenses (Series in Optics and Optoelectronics).
4. .
5. Newsletter?

After three years in London, Ozenfant has lived in New York since ; he has established an art school which enjoys a great reputation, and he continues his research. As long as Ozenfant is alive, Purism is not dead. In any case Purism has a place in every period — David and his followers, reacting against the weaknesses of the eighteenth century, were Purists. The Purism practiced by Ozenfant and Le Corbusier is a reaction, and remains an exigency of style for a given period; it still retains its exemplary value. Cubism may be likened to a fifty-year-old tree, planted by [34] Cezanne, with many, many branches.

It has alternately been pruned and allowed to grow at will. Today its foliage no longer takes us by surprise, and we know that its roots reach far below the earth's surface, this ageless earth which is the past as well as the future. Neo-Realism When one considers the unprecedented hurly-burly of groups and schools between and , it could be thought that modern art was at that time based solely on doctrines. This i was not the case, for the strong realistic current or naturalistic, perhaps, but in any case, figurative which was recreated at that time attests to the French painters' ancestral link to human and sentimental values, upheld by the national traditions which Delacroix, Corot, and Courbet, to quote just a few, pursued in the nineteenth century.

As far removed as possible from the academic painters of the Salon des Artistes Francais and the out-of-date teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, this new realism strove above all for independence. And it was in fact independent, as much because of its diversity as its disdain for classification, mani- festoes, and literature of all kinds. They sought to construct a picture on the notion of unity, by measuring their compositions on expressive structures, where each plane was studied closely down to its subtleties, and never disrupted the harmony of the whole.

This art was concise, sound, and balanced, a homog- enous art which respected the noble pictorial craft and was "welling over with a wondering love of life. Dunoyer de Segonzac, in a note published by his biographer, Paul Jamot, defined the position: The world of illegibility, the lecture-picture and the puzzle- picture, which are a result of a decadent symbolism, is going to become dated, with its angular writing, in the same way as the lethargic and puddly 'modern style' graphics in In actual fact the great French tradition has been carried on quietly by Vuillard, Bonnard, Matisse and many others; in spite of its apparent eclipse, the noise of hooters and tam-tams has not prevented the performance of the concert.

There has been no break in the magnificent school which stretches from Jean Fouquet to Cezanne.

No artificial movement has been able to graft itself on to this tree, which is so healthy and so strong. It was precisely on the subject of these pictures that Claude Roger- Marx wrote in the Chronique des Arts: Its importance will not be further stressed, however, than it was in reality.