Famous trio in Paris

The recently renovated Grand Palais in Paris hosts diverse exhibitions, among them, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén in the Galeries Nationales. From different backgrounds, the trio collaborated on numerous projects and its members became prominent personalities in the art world. Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) born in an aristocratic family had a traumatic childhood which shaped her career and, of modest origins, JeanTinguely (1925-1991) grew up in Switzerland, the country of automatons. The Swedish Pontus Hultén (1924-2006) was an artist early on and became a renown museum director and art collector. Their personal and professional relationships were so entangled that mentioning one inevitably brings up the name of the two others. The famous couple Saint Phalle-Tinguely lived separated for years, but even death could not sever their bond as following Tinguely's demise, Saint Phalle took care of his legacy with Hultén's support. The major exhibition set on two levels of the building is organized in ten chapters to present the abundant material including paintings, sculptures, drawings, archival films, letters, photographs, reliefs, models, catalogues, books, posters, diaporamas, mainly from the collection of the Centre Pompidou enriched by loans from major institutions.  

A lonely painting and two films in black and white from Pontus Hultén at the entrance sum up his career as an artist, while one of the series of Méta-Malevitch, Relief méta-mécanique (1954) from Tinguely awakes every ten minutes nearby. They started to collaborate in the mid-fifties, bound by a common interest in kinetic art. Gismo (1960), one of the five assemblages of wheels, discarded metal pieces, rubber, which were paraded in May 1960 in the streets of Paris takes half of the room, inert, in the way of the crowd of visitors slowly moving along a wall covered by photographs about the festive event. Letters, postcards, drawings, tell the story of the trio as their relationship evolves. From another series, Baluba (1961-1962), an amusing sculpture made of a drum and diverse objects is about a serious subject: a tribe caught in a political upheaval in Congo. The pink feather duster swaying on top was suggested by Saint Phalle. Their association goes both ways as Tinguely encourages Saint Phalle to pursue her idea of shooting at the canvas. The Shooting Paintings were born in 1961 and made her famous. One of them is hanging on the wall complemented by a video showing her in action. Among the overwhelming material (each piece is accompanied by videos, archival films of gallery openings or other social events) Tinguely's sculpture Meta-matic n° 17 (1959) allies ingenuity and aesthetics. It spews abstracts drawings in a parody of abstract art and hints at the new threat from robots. A smaller version, the first of the series can be found nearby, close to a very "tinguelyan" sculpture, Sculpture méta-mécanique automobile (1954) decorated with geometric shapes of primary colors. More works on display among them L'Accouchement rose (1964), Le Monstre de Soisy (1966) from Saint Phalle or a wall relief from Tinguely, attest to the frenetic activity of the artists which flourishes with two collaborative projects, Hon-en katedral in 1966 at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Paradis fantastique in 1966-67 for the French pavilion at the World's Fair in Montreal. These required not only creativity but also huge and complicated logistics. Here comes Hultén who facilitated the realization of the projects and secured also a resting place for the Paradis fantastique at the Moderna Museet. The next room is occupied by one work: Meta n°3 (1970-1971) first displayed at Centre Pompidou, a monstrous machine worthy prop for a sci-fi movie with added jarring rattles and clatters when activated for a few minutes.  

Moving to chapter three of the exhibition, visitors meet a panel of photographs from the Musée Tinguely then and now (1996 and 2025), a remnant of the famous Homage to New York (Klaxon) (1960) which autodestructed, movies, catalogues, a news reel from 1971, Meta-Kandinsky I (1956) and several sculptures from Tinguely coming alive one at a time. Missing the action can be frustrating with a ten to fifteen minutes wait for the next show. Le Soulier de Madame Lacasse (1960) takes a Dada flair with its proud toilet plunger and blue circle hanging from a fishing rod (a wink to Yves Klein). Across, Le Ballet des pauvres (1960) startles with its noisy non sensical accumulation of objects hanging from a large shaking metal piece for eight seconds every thirty minutes. 

The next three rooms are each focused on memorable collaborative projects, starting with HON-en catedral (SHE - a cathedral). The gigantic immersive installation at the Moderna Museet had a lifespan of three months (June 4-September 4, 1966) and we can look at the abundant archival material of the well documented exhibition and a few remnants like the head. Idem for Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce, another playful installation which included numerous attractions at the Centre Pompidou in 1977. Both were conceived and constructed under the aegis of Hultén who brought a new vision for the museums, from a passive viewing of art to forums with interactive activities open to a diverse public. The third project,  The Cyclop (1969-1994), an outdoor sculpture, took twenty-five years to build and involved the collaboration of numerous artists with various expertise due to its complex structure. The sculpture can be viewed in the Milly forest and is now preserved by the French state.

 The walk up a flight of stairs to the upper level provides a break before entering a dark space where we find a selection of works from Tinguely's retrospective organized by Hultén at the Centre Pompidou in 1988. They include four sculptures of a series of thirty Philosophers, each with an attribute like feathers for Jean-Jacques Rousseau or a snail for Jacob Burckhardt, facing a self-portrait made of a wheel, long chains, pulleys, a gruesome mask and a stuffed black bird. Tinguely is loosing his humor and dwells in the macabre, as confirmed by a last showpiece: L'Enfer, un petit debut (1984). Hell, a Small Beginning is a large installation made of the accumulation of heteroclite pieces on a platform, activated at the same time, producing a discombobulating sight and a mechanical unpleasant noise, a world in chaos. On the way to the last chapters of the exhibition dedicated to works from Saint Phalle, one more sculpture of Tinguely, Rotozaza I (1967), a machine  devouring and spitting balloons, attempt to deride the capitalist system, is just a quiet monster surrounded by a few benches offering a place to rest for the weary visitors. We can agree with Hultén that: "Tinguely's mechanic is not of good taste and is not attractive, it is often more frightening than beautiful." (my translation).  

Niki de Saint Phalle had a solo retrospective curated by Hultén then Director of the Centre Pompidou, almost a decade before Tinguely, in 1980. The two-month-long exhibition included significant works like "Shooting Paintings"," Nanas" and large scale sculptures. The sample selected here reflects her engagement for the feminist cause with several "Nanas" who made Saint Phalle famous. Among them, Crucifixion (ca. 1965) the most provocative is a distressing sight: a powerless puppet without arms, legs open, debased by her garter and hair curlers. La Mariee (1963) of the same technique with plaster than L'Accouchement Rose seen earlier, is a clear reference to women's condition, smothered by the social pressure to conform. King Kong 1963), a large bas-relief and two light humored pieces L'Aveugle dans la prairie (1974) and La Promenade du dimanche (1971) complete the display, with added movies and archival material. 

The last room brings a tinge of nostalgia and gloom with photographs of Tinguely's grand funerals (1991), letters from Niki de Saint Phalle to Tinguely in 1993, after his death, evoking "cannibalism", "communion". "I am taking your strength, your soul joins mine." Indeed, she incorporates movement in her series of  Tableaux éclatés (Shattered Paintings) like Ganesh II (1992) or Jean II (Méta-Tinguely) (1992) dedicated to Tinguely. Her ties with Hultén stay strong and fruitful with the establishment of the Musée Tinguely in Switzerland, a solo exhibition in Bonn in 1992, preservation of the Tarot Garden in Italy and The Cyclop near Paris. Niki de Saint Phalle spent her last years in California.

The abundance of works and archival material, at times overwhelming, makes the show a landmark exhibition. Collective projects overlapping for years even decades render a chronological presentation futile and contribute to iterations. No museal display will recreate the excitement and fun generated by installations like Hon or the Crocrodrome or reenact the Tirs Paintings, however it provides an intimate view of the synergetic relationship between the members of the trio, even when separated by distance or worse, death. The unique setting allows the display and activation of an astounding number of works from Tinguely, bringing them to life one more time for the exhibition. Hopping from sculpture to sculpture to catch the action, we almost forget that Tinguely was not only a gifted machinist, he was a leader of the Nouveau Realism movement and the group ZERO from Düsseldorf. Niki de Saint Phalle, a self-taught artist, encompasses several artistic trends, from art brut to pop art, action painting, collective art and giant interactive installations as she engaged with the feminist movement. Pontus Hultén, the facilitator, provided an unwavering support to the two artists as he pursued his own career. In this statement, Niki de Saint Phalle acknowledged his role :" They are few essential people who cross a life. Pontus is one of them for Jean and myself" (my translation). 

The trio brought crowds to the museum then, and now, one more time, entertains visitors of all backgrounds, from hardened art connoisseur to children on school trips.     

photographs by the author:

- Jean Tinguely "Méta-Kandinsky I"(1956)

-Niki de Saint Phalle "La Promenade du dimanche" (1971)

- Jean Tinguely "Sculpture méta-mécanique automobile (1954)

-Niki de Saint Phalle "La Mariée" (1963)

-Niki de Saint Phalle "Jean II (Méta-Tinguely) (1992)

Léger and the New Realists

The exhibition "Léger and the New Realists" at the Musée National Fernand Léger, Biot (June 2024-February 25) has taken a more casual and playful title at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. "Tous Léger", meaning "All light" a word game on the artist's name, features Fernand Léger's works as the backbone of the show underlying his influence on the Nouveau Réalisme movement which flourished in the sixties, almost a decade after his death. If Ferdinand is a name fit for kings, Fernand has a  proletarian overtone more suitable for Léger who never forgot his working-class roots and joined the communist party for a while. From Cubism, the prolific artist evolved to his own Tubism, and later to a highly personal figurative style characterized by heavily stylized thick black drawings covered by bands of bold colors floating on top, "la couleur en dehors". While living in Montparnasse, he became a fixture of the Parisian art scene and mingled with younger artists labelled Nouveaux Réalistes by the art critic Pierre Restany in 1960. The show which features about one hundred works including paintings, sculptures, short videos and photographs, emphasizes his legacy as he influenced artists beyond borders and time. 

The themed exhibition starts on a metaphysical subject about the four elements of life represented in art. Léger added a fifth element, color: "Man needs color to live; it's just as necessary an element as fire and water". Pairing works from Léger with his younger peers, The Birds 11 (1981), a wall relief from Arman, accumulation of metal clamps transformed in a flock of birds is found next to Composition aux deux oiseaus sur fond jaune (c. 1955) from Léger, Venus bleue (c.1962)  a monochrome sculpture from Yves Klein close to a painting from Léger La Danseuse bleue (1930), or La Baigneuse (1932) along La Source (1965/2044) from Alain Jacquet. Each element (plus one) is represented: water, earth, air, fire, and color. The straightforward connection between the works makes for a pleasant display.

The next room is plastered with quotes from artists and their portrait photographs on one side and a chronological history of the Realist Movement on the other. An abbreviated timeline sums up key art events with a verb, starting in 1956 "assembler" (to piece together) about Niki de Saint Phalle's "assemblages". 1960 is labelled "s'autodétruire" (to self-destruct) alluding to Tinguely's first self-destructing machine, 1961 "brûler" (to burn) and "tirer" (to shoot) referring to the Fire Paintings from Klein and the Shooting Paintings/Tirs from Nikki de Saint Phalle. It ends in 1965 with "nana-fier", a word made up with the famous Nanas from de Saint-Phalle. Brief comments (in color) provide more information, if they can be read. The confined space is crammed with visitors and it takes some patience to reach the first row. A video showing Yves Klein live in the process of burning a canvass with a firefighter in full gear holding a hose at his side brings a smile and some nostalgia. Across, reading the quotes from the artists on the busy wall is another daunting task. None of the texts are translated in English. 

Moving on, "La Vie des Objets" (The objects' life) assembles a collection of works underlining the new status of the object as a source of inspiration and becoming the main subject of the compositions. Gloves, scissors, tools or even debris are arranged in a new kind of still lifes by Léger and Nikki de Saint Phalle. Arman adds an emotional connection to the object in his Colères, here a furniture in the Henri II style, antique greatly prized by the bourgeoisie, destroyed in a presumed fit of rage. For Palette Katharina Duwen (1989) Daniel Spoerri "fixes" his companion's tools, found objects at the flea market. No need to visit The Louvre to find beauty, beauty is everywhere proclaims Léger. In La Joconde aux clés (1930) a beautified set of keys takes over the painting as a miniature Joconde watches in the background. Everyday objects are a visual treat. Seita (1970) from Raymond Hains, a giant used matchbox alludes to the cross-pollination with the Pop art movement born in America as Interior with Chair (1997) from Roy Lichtenstein is spotted close by. 

Beauty is also found in the streets. Artists soak in a new visual urban environment filled with posters, stamps, letters, numbers, lights. Raymond Hains and Jacques Villeglé  tear posters, Robert Indiana makes posters, Fernand Léger a still life with letters (Nature morte, A.B.C., 1927). A blown up photograph of César visiting a junkyard to collect material is the background for one of his sculpture made of compressed metal displayed like a precious art work on a pedestal. The machine is taking over and the anonymous portraits stay emotionless. Nikki de Saint Phalle collaborates with Larry Rivers for Tinguely's portrait, an assemblage of pieces of machinery. Léger discovers ceramic and Martial Raysse introduces neon. 

"L'art c'est la vie" (Art is life) introduces the next display, a room filled wall to wall with colorful works of modest size. The Nanas from de Saint Phalle appear in serigraphs: they play football, volleyball, ride bicycles and go to the circus. Their curves are not sensual but celebrate women's liberation from the constraints  of society. Early on in the fifties Léger paints the proletariat's new life enjoying leisure time like in Le Campeur (1952) or Circus (1950). In a giant photomontage Flower Worship (1982), Gilbert & George  profiles a relaxed half recumbent subject almost smothered by a pile of vibrant colored flowers generating an overwhelming state of happiness. "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful" would say  Mae West.

Art and architecture intertwine. Blown up photographs of monumental works wallpaper the last room: the façade of the church in Plateau d'Assi decorated with a mosaic from Léger or details of de Saint Phalle's giant sculptures found at the famous Tarot Garden. "Art est partout" (Art is everywhere) and sculptures are dreamed for public spaces like Wall Street (c.1975) from de Saint Phalle or La Branche Rockefeller (1952) for Léger. A massive glittering sculpture of Miles Davis and his trumpet (de Saint Phalle) fit for the entrance of an amusement park overshadows a discreet and nostalgic painting from Léger Les Musicians (1930) bringing back a pre-war time of music and dance in the streets of Paris. On the way out, Untitled (n° 2557) (1986), a large graffiti work from Keith Haring is a reminder of Léger's far reaching legacy. 

In the forties and the fifties, on the American side of the Atlantic, Abstract Expressionism was booming as Léger was refining his figurative style to address themes about a new social order born from a growing class of workers called proletariat. In the sixties, America's art scene was bustling in New York City and California with Pop art, Minimalism, Conceptual art as New Realism was thriving in France. The art critic Pierre Restany coined the name "Nouveau Réalisme" in 1960 and published a manifesto summed up by this statement: "New Realism-New ways of perceiving the real." Meanwhile, the crowd of philistines would ask, is this art? Compressing, tearing, burning, shooting, self-destructing,.... Back to Léger, the show emphasizes his new art addressed to folks favoring figurative to abstract and themes about everyday life, his way to democratize art. Léger shunned emotions and intellectual pursuits and emphasized the healing power of colors. Little metaphysical preoccupations transpire from the works exhaling a whiff of political awareness. The exhibition makes a point about Léger's far reaching influence, sometimes stretching its case. Following the visit Léger's legacy takes a new outlook: at the crossroad of art history, he started to bring the street to the museum and the museum to the street. 

Upon leaving I felt unburdened by heavy thoughts, just carefree, cheerful... light. Joy is contagious. 

 

photographs by the author:

-Fernand Léger "La Joconde aux Clés" (1930)

-Nikki de Saint Phalle and Larry Rivers "Jean III (Méta-Tinguely)" (1992)

-Nikki de Saint Phalle "Nana Santé" (1999)

-Arman "Colère (meuble de style Henri-II)  (1961)

Giacometti Forever at Tate Modern

 

At level zero in the Switch House of Tate Modern, far from the hustle and bustle of the main building, The Tanks, a gallery named after its previous use as an oil storage for the power station, deserves a visit to view a display of Giacometti's sculptures. The eleven selected works represent the artist's post WWII period and include one of his surrealist pre-war compositions.

A short passage leads to a dimly lit cavernous earthy colored space with a high ceiling. The sculptures are lined up about one meter from the rough concrete walls, enhanced by the projection of their shadows. Quatres figurines sur pédestal (1950-1965) starts the show. Due to their size, the four statuettes anchored on a thick pedestal of the same bronze set on high legs appear remote, too far for human connections. Giacometti described his torment at the sight of four prostitutes across a room as he shied away from them. About desire, gratification and repulsion, the sculpture hints at his struggle with impotence due to a bout of mumps during his adolescence. The very personal work is followed by two elongated, emaciated, naked figures, the taller androgynous (Grande figure II 1948-9) and the other female (Femme de Venise IX 1956), characteristic of his post-war style. Three busts set on pedestals next to each other emphasize another side of Giacometti's practice. Buste of Diego (1955) made from memory is about his brother, his preferred model. Buste d'Annette IV (1962) one of a series of eight features his wife and Buste d'homme (dit Chiavenna I) (1954) is a rare bust of an unknown sitter. The horrors of the war did impact Giacometti profoundly and inspired three small sculptures of maimed females (c. 1958) with broken and missing limbs set on a stand. They also reflect the influence of Cycladic and Egyptian art with their hieratic postures, long necks and legs. In the middle of the room, Homme qui pointe (1947) casting its shadow on the floor could not find a better setting under a discreet spotlight. Of human size, skeletal but solidly anchored on  two feet and legs spread on a base, Man Pointing aims an accusing finger to the empty space on his right side. Clearly the sculpture refers to the victims of the Second World War. It also becomes a symbol for all victims of war and implies a universal guilt. Still haunted by the last work, on the way out, I almost missed a sculpture nestled in a small rotunda. In the center, on top of a pedestal-altar, L'Heure des Traces (1932) is the only work from Giacometti's surrealist period in the exhibit: a heart in a cage and above, a walking stick-like figure crossed by a reclining stylized female shape, like a 3D drawing, floating in space, a gateway to the world of dreams and the subconscious.

The show which appears modest at first, gives a valuable insight into Giacometti's career with a sample of his works gathered in the fittingly bare industrial space. Of Swiss origin, Alberto Giacometti  (1901-1966) moved to Paris in 1922. While living in the French capital, he mingled with intellectuals and artists and, as he became close to  André Breton and his entourage, adopted surrealism and abstraction in his practice which turned back to the model and figuration around 1935. Following a lull in his creativity during the war spent in Switzerland, he became famous in the fifties and sixties with his sculptures of walking men, standing women, and portraits of family and friends. The slowdown in  productivity during the war was also marked by his miniature sculptures (as small as matches) reduced literally to bones, almost vanishing, Giacometti's way of rendering distance, alienation, loneliness. Homme qui Pointe made "in one night between midnight and nine the next morning" according to the artist, illustrates the spontaneous gesture of the sculptor who stated: "For years, I have made the sculptures that have offered themselves, already finished, to my spirit; I have limited myself to reproducing them in space, without changing anything about them, without wondering what they might signify." Shunning abstraction, conceptual art or art movements, he adopted a more philosophical outlook to his practice as upon his return to Paris, he grew a close friendship with Jean Paul Sartre, beacon of existentialism. In 1948 Sartre wrote "The Quest for the Absolute", an essay for the catalogue of Giacometti's exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City and the author of  "Being and Nothingness" reviewed Giacometti's work... until their irreparable fall-out. In one of his insightful comments about Giacometti's sculptures he described "these moving approximations, still halfway between nothingness and being, still in the process of modification, improvement, destruction, and renewal, assumed an independent, definitive existence."

In the semi-obscurity, the bronze sculptures enhanced by their ghostly shadows are coming alive under the spotlights bathing their scarred surface. The scenographic setting allows the visitor to feel a deep connection with the works, triggering thoughts and emotions. It offers mainly a frontal view of the sculptures and the wall texts fail to provide their size, however size becomes irrelevant. The sculptures shrink and grow as we walk back and forth in front of them and experience distance and nearness. The silence adds a sepulchral aura to the space and a wish from Giacometti comes to mind: " If I were true to myself, I'd bury all my sculptures so that they wouldn't be found for a thousand years." The show could be entombed in the bowels of Tate Modern for centuries, Giacometti's rediscovered works would be as pertinent as they are today. Human condition is a universal, timeless subject. 

                                                        

photographs by the author:

- On the pedestal: "Standing woman" (c. 1958-9), "Standing woman (c.1958-9) and "Woman with Broken Shoulder" (1958-9)

- "Four Figuries on a Stand" (1950-1965), "Tall Figure II" (1948-49), "Woman of Venice IX" (1956)

-"Man Pointing" (1947)

Lema Sabachthani "Why have you forsaken me?"

  Stations of the Cross (1958-1966), the title of a major series from Barnett Newman, is about Jesus's long agony on Mount Calvary followed by his crucifixion and death, an event reenacted yearly on Good Friday by the Catholic Church. The Aramaic subtitle Lema Sabachthani, Jesus's anguished plea while dying on the cross, widens the impact of the work: "Why have you forsaken me". Following a heart attack in 1958, Barnett Newman made two paintings which grew to a series of fourteen plus one completed in 1966, inspired by the artist facing his own demise at a time of reckoning in a post-WWII era. The fifteen paintings, gift from Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, are permanently located in the Tower 1 of the East Building at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

Usually quiet, the gallery is the perfect space for the fifteen canvasses of the same size (6 1/2 by 5 feet) lined up on the walls in harmony with the architecture. The high glass ceiling lets the natural light gently bathe the room and the display is an invitation to sit on a bench surrounded by the works. The neutral colors, black and white, induce a state of tranquility and contemplation. A slow walk along the stations allows an immersive view of the large rectangular paintings for an "enveloping effect" (Greenberg) intended by the artist. A description of each abstract piece would be fastidious and pointless. A brief look from the first to the sixth painting will reveal slightly different shades of  white for the background, a black vertical band of  almost the same width on the left side and black zips on the right side with variations from brushstrokes, speckles or smudges. One cannot refrain from evoking Japanese calligraphy, updated by Newman. The ninth, tenth and eleventh canvasses are beige and white and match the series's vertical design, pillars? crosses? totems? A funerary black background and white zips relate to the final stages of the journey to Calvary ending with the death of Jesus (twelfth and thirteenth paintings). Fourteenth Station (1965-1966) is white, ethereal, immaculate, so bright that it feels like looking at the sun through white clouds. It reaches perfection without visible brushstrokes. A discreet light grey strip is found on the left side. A close look reveals the "spatial infinity" Barnett Newman was pursuing as he wished to visit the tundra to "... have the sensation of being surrounded by four horizons in a total surrender to spatial infinity." Traditionally the fifteenth Station of the Cross, when present, corresponds to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one of the mysteries of the Church. Here the fifteenth painting, of the same heavenly white than the fourteenth, features a thin jagged blood-red border on the left side, the only warm color in the show and a narrow black strip on the right. The question stays unanswered: "why have you forsaken me".  

The last two paintings provide a clue to Newman's quest for the sublime and a path to infinity, art's higher goal than a search for beauty. Inspired by the indigenous art from the Northwest Coast of North America he wrote about the typical Kwakiutl artist: "For him, a shape was a living thing, a vehicle for abstract thought-complex, a carrier of the awesome feelings he felt before the terror of the unknowable."  "The Kwakiutl artist, the abstract shape he used, his entire plastic language, was directed by a ritualistic will towards metaphysical understanding." The art historian Robert Rosenblum wrote about Newman in his essay on The Abstract Sublime: "(Barnett Newman) ...explores a realm of sublimity so perilous that it defies comparison with even the most adventurous Romantic explorations into sublime nature." Barnett Newman creates art with a new purpose and as a viewer we have to learn new ways to look at it. Contemplation requires time and introspection to reach the spiritual enlightenment the artist aims to communicate. The artist himself wrote about his work in 1967: "I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of my own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality and at the same time of his connection to others, who are also separate." One more quote from The First Man was an Artist : "We are creating images whose reality is self-evident and which are devoid of the props and crutches that evoke associations with outmoded images, both sublime and beautiful. We are freeing ourselves of the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, myth, or what have you, that have been the devices of Western European painting. Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man or "life", we are making it out of ourselves out of our own feelings.  The image we produce is the self-evident one of revelation, real and concrete, that we can be understood by anyone who will look at it without the nostalgic glasses of history." With 14 stations about human suffering, could the 15th painting be a sign of hope?  

Donald Judd who wrote extensively about Newman's work stated: "A painting by Newman is finally no simpler than one by Cézanne". Agree. 

                               

  

photographs by the author:

"First Station" (1958)

View of the gallery

"Be II" (1961/1964)           

Revisiting Colescott at the Rubell Museum DC

The nearly one hundred works assembled at the Rubell Museum DC for the exhibition American Vignettes: Symbols, Society and Satire include five of Robert Colescott's paintings found in the section labelled "Satire". They  represent a mature stage of his practice, when in his sixties he reached the height of his career. Born in 1925, following a seemingly unremarkable childhood, Colescott went through tempestuous decades in his professional as well as his personal life before settling in Tucson, Arizona, in 1985. Never associated with art movements or groups of artists, he refined his unique technique along his peregrinations, from Paris where under the influence of Fernand Léger he adopted a figurative style to Cairo where he discovered Egyptian art and the rich colors of North Africa. The core of his practice was centered around a theme born from a deep family rift overshadowing his early childhood. On his mother's side, his ancestors were slaves from Southern plantations and his father was of mixed black, white and Native American descent. The couple moved from New Orleans to Oakland, California, looking for better opportunities as "white", leaving their "black" roots in Louisiana. Success unfortunately did not concretize. Colescott who was a light-skinned black person identified as white until his mid-forties, including while in the Army during WWII. Racial identity went deeper than his skin color, and shaped his career.   

New Orleans was the perfect setting to discover Colescott a decade ago at the Arthur Roger Gallery and during the travelling exhibition 30 Americans in 2014 at the Contemporary Art Center. The Crescent City's vibe in sync with his work made it relevant, like being home. This time, the gathering of  five of his large paintings in one room is the occasion to revisit his legacy. Starlet (1976), the earliest, reflects his cartoonish style of the seventies. The poster-like composition features a white Hollywoodian starlet on a snowy background wearing only scarf, woolen hat and gloves, bathing in the light of a projector, as she is pursued by a half-naked suitor under the lewd gaze of the black director. The unabashedly pornographic scene includes in the lower left corner a clapperboard labelled: "Sex On The Slope Scene II" and on top the title written with penises. Funny? Tasteless? Shocking? The previous year, the artist had produced a painting still considered revolutionary and recently bought by The Lucas Museum in Los Angeles (opening in 2026). In George Washington Carver Crossing The Delaware: Page From An American History Textbook (1975), Colescott introduces appropriation to revisit history and challenge the cultural values of the classical painting from Emmanuel Leutze Washington Crossing the Delaware, (1851). At the time, he began a very productive period of his career as he underwent pivotal personal changes, embracing his blackness. 

No subject is off limit for Colescott, including religion. Modern Day Miracles (1988), the title of the next painting hints at a divine intervention. The composition features two different worlds. At the top a white leonine figure with abundant hair and a beard, God in his immaculate gown, ready to have intercourse with a black lady wearing only a pink bra. A blue brushstroke like a slash isolates the scene from a group of smaller black characters at the bottom. The snippets of their domestic life provide a glimpse into black communities aspiring to be part of the American Dream: electricity, food, kitchen appliances, medical care. Fishes are found in a sandwich, in a frying pan on top of a stove, veiled hint  to the Christian religion and its beliefs in miracles. The protagonists appear naïve even submissive and abide by the stereotypes of black portrayal. Only one happy fellow holding a bottle of wine shows his missing teeth through his wide smile. Could God be the artist?         

Most likely inspired by Colescott's sojourns in Egypt in the mid-sixties, Arabs: The Emir of Iswid (How Wide the Gulf) (1992) treats of history, international politics, wars and economies. At the bottom of the painting, two nude females shackled at the wrists sit on oil drums labelled Arabia on the left side and heaps of bananas labelled Africa on the right. In the background, armed soldiers and a group of men wearing keffiyehs surround the captives. Towering the group, the portrait of a powerful figure with two stars on his shoulders profiled on a map of Egypt oversees the brutal scene. Red and green banners with yellow stars complete the setting. Scribbles in Arabic, el-Iswid (an archeological site on the Nile Delta) spelled on the map, three minute silhouettes of oil rigs, bring more to the story which takes a while to decipher. The title gives a clue referring to the Gulf War of 1990-1991, Operation Desert Storm. The black figures could also represent allegories of two cultures: Arabs on the left side, Africans on the right in this attempt at history painting. 

Mythology is a boundless source of inspiration for artists and the story of Pygmalion, the sculptor falling in love with his creation is represented in a number of well-known chef d'oeuvres from Gérôme  to Rodin and was made popular by the famous musical My Fair Lady. At the center of Pygmalion (1987),  Higgins/Colescott dances with his black Elyza. The couple is surrounded by a black face version of two  females defining the canons of beauty, Mona Lisa on the right and the Venus de Milo on the left. Accessory characters in the process of beautification are represented with curlers at the hairdresser or in front of a mirror. Neglecting scale or perspective, the interwoven portraits, white or black, appear to float on a tight background of geometric abstract patterns or blue skies. A lonely wide-eyed male at the bottom center raises his eyebrows, disapprovingly. The lively round of personages contributes to a story  about the pressure on the black community to conform to white European standards of beauty, smothering their culture. The story of Pygmalion fits the artist who claimed "I am playing God with a woman". 

A commemorative medallion of the Louisiana Purchase, historic treaty between France and the United States in 1803, overshadows Sunset on the Bayou (1993). Two white males exchange a purse filled with gold coins to seal the casual transfer of land and its people as a brown pelican, Louisiana's State Bird, looks on. In contrast to the official portraits, quintessential New Orleans scenes fill the rest of the painting. A mother cuddles her daughter as the caption mentions quadroon and octaroon and another caption in French reads "we do not talk about these things". These "things" are drops of blood which defined status in a complex creole society. The personal struggle of Colescott, tormented by his racial background which tore his family apart, is reflected in this very Southern story. Always deflecting the pain with a touch of humor, he includes a po'boy for a smile and also a caricature of the "black" person as seen by white people.  

In 1997, the selection of Robert Colescott, first African-American artist to represent the United States with a solo show at the Venice Biennale, brought its share of controversy, and the nineteen paintings on view were qualified as "kind of competent American regionalist narrative painting" by the art advisor Allan Schwartzman. In 2022 the first retrospective of Colescott's work in thirty years took place at the New Museum in New York City. Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott allowed to revisit his legacy in today's context. He was a pioneer, unwavering in his mission to give black culture a voice in history. He chose appropriation, satire, and in an obsessive way treated of race and sex, introducing transgressive art through bold narratives, regardless of cultural sensitivities. He paved the way to a new generation of artists like Carrie May Weems, Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall,... the list goes on.

Just remembering Colescott's quote when looking at the five paintings: "I am not a writer. I present an image that can leave it to you to write the story." 

  

                                                        

photographs by the author:

"Modern Day Miracles", 1988

"Sunset on the Bayou", 1993

"Pygmalion", 1987

Next to the gift shop at Hirshhorn

 

What do Banksy and Basquiat have in common? Both their names start with a B, both are graffiti artists and both are famous with works reaching sky high prices. An exhibition at the Hirshhorn simply titled Basquiat X Banksy highlights the connection between the two artists who never met. Basquiat died in 1988 from a drug overdose and shadowy Banksy still very much alive, born in or near Bristol, of unknown birth date, graces buildings in various countries with his works. The latest, a series of animals, appeared in August 2024 closer to home in London. The exhibition scheduled to last more than a year is located in the basement, next to the gift shop.     

From the outset, the star of the show is Basquiat with his giant black and white portrait photograph covering a whole wall at the entrance. Under his gaze, we progress along a maze of ropes set to control the crowd (absent today) as we catch a glimpse of "Downtown 81", a movie featuring Basquiat, displayed on a small television screen above our heads. In the first room, the attraction to Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) from Basquiat is irresistible with its splashes of Caribbean colors, exuberance and size (almost 14 feet wide and 8 feet high). The lively scene of a boy with his dog drenched by the water of an open fire hydrant is filled with fun and glee. Nearby, Banksy's Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search (2018) of similar size, provides an update to the black boy's story. The fiery colors have vanished and the scene of two white policemen on a pale grey background frisking the child is chilling. The scared dog is cowering in fear and the busy officers (one male and one female) fully equipped with manacles and radios surround the  powerless boy, turning the playful activity into an unlawful trespassing. The two paintings made the news in recent years: the former was bought by the famous collector Ken Griffin in 2020 for 100 million, and the latter made a stir when it premiered illegally in the street outside the Barbican in 2017, in conjunction with an exhibition of Basquiat's work. Now protected by a sheet of Perspex, the piece has become a permanent resident on the outside wall of the Barbican. Its museal version made in 2018 on birch wood was auctioned at Phillips for almost 10 million in 2023. Following these two major pieces set in conversation for the first time in a museum, the twenty small framed drawings on paper or wood lent by the collector Larry Warsh require a close attention to be deciphered. Two cartoonish miniature self-portraits (?) with a caption "SAMO as an anti-art form", torn papers on cardboard covered with doodles and lists of random words lacking the poetry of the Surrealists who used the technique to stimulate their creativity, two small collages, one featuring Duchamp's portrait, the other, a warholian piece made with coupons of Chesterfield cigarette packages are accompanied in the last room by a collection of  sketches and scribbles made from 1980 to 1983 at the height of Basquiat's short career. Samples of his visual language: crown, hood, car, train, anatomic parts, symbols, can be found in his larger works. Some visitors will inevitably mumble their thoughts: "My three years old can do that". 

Basquiat's retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris in 2010 at the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary is still vivid in my memory, so are the show at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art during Prospect.3 and random encounters with his works. The display of framed scraps of paper from the graffiti artist who became a celebrated neo-expressionist lessens the impact of his legacy and would be better aimed at collectors, art historians and "art specialists" of all kind, than at the general public.

What about Banksy? Through his peculiar black-and-white stencil technique, the graffiti artist delivers witty political messages, often using appropriation like in this piece. His easy, catchy references, and recognizable design makes him a popular graffiti artist (with a knack for advertisement), a sort of Robin Hood of the art, offering million-dollar works for free to the passerby... works later acquired by celebrities for their private collection. 

The wall texts feel somewhat inflated: "two of today's best known artists", verbose: "Banksy honors Basquiat's legacy while calling attention to the menace of systemic racism that impacted his life and still exists for people of color in many areas of the worlds today" and the curators' attempt to categorize the drawings under headings like "found objects" or "visual language", falls short of its goal. 

Thanks to the collectors eager to share their treasures but it seems that the Hirshhorn Museum opened only its backdoor to the "two of today's best known artists".

photographs by the author:

Jean-Michel Basquiat: "Untitled (train)", 1981

                                    "Untitled (Ego)", 1983

                                    ""Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump", 1982

Banksy: "Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search", 2018  

"Blue Rider" at Tate Modern

 

Wassily Kandinsky liked riders, Franz Marc liked horses, both loved blue. The name Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter) was coined by the two artists over coffee at Marc's summerhouse in Sindelsdorf according to Kandinsky. The seemingly casual encounter became historic as the name intended for the title of a publication and related exhibitions, would eventually designate a tightknit group of artists based in Munich and their transnational connections from France, Italy, East Europe to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Preceded by the N. K. V. M. ( Neue Künstlervereinigung München), the Blue Rider's gestation was marred by broken friendships and reputations in the midst of a turbulent pre-war period, a flourishing time for German expressionism. The publication of the almanac in 1912 concretized the ideas behind the inclusive Blue Rider reaching to painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, poets, dancers, art critics, writers and ensured its posterity. Gabriele Münter, a pillar of the group, became the guardian of its legacy hiding documents and works of art considered degenerate during two world wars. Upon her 80th birthday in 1957 she donated one thousand pieces to the Lenbachhaus. Most of the one hundred and thirty rarely seen works gathered for the exhibition Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider are drawn from the collection. Paintings, photographs, documents, sculptures and personal objects fill twelve spacious rooms at Tate Modern in London.

Wassily Kandinsky was forty years old when he painted Couple on a Horseback (1907). Glowing in the dim light, the enchanting work illustrates an early period of the painter who drew his themes from Russian folklore and his memories from a previous trip in a Northern Province of the Russian Empire. Nearby, Gabriel Münter's black and white photographs document her voyage to the South of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. If the initial display appears quite bare, it is followed by an abundance of paintings in the next rooms, offering a glimpse into the life of a small circle of friends. We can see a candid portrait of Kandinsky in short pants and leg warmers in deep conversation with Erma Bossi over coffee (Kandinsky and Erma Bossi at the Table, 1912), or having pastries and coffee (Man at the Table (Kandinsky)), 1911, both works by Gabriele Münter. She also depicts Alexej von Jawlensky, Olga von Hartmann, or catches an intimate moment between the couple Jawlensky-Werefkin during an excursion in the mountains. Wassily Kandinsky paints a portray of Gabriele Münter (Kallmunz-Gabriele Münter Painting II, 1903), Franz Marc of Maria Franck,  August Macke paints Elizabeth Epstein who paints herself, so does Marianne von Werefkin. The artists become familiar as they pose for each other and also share pictures of their surroundings. Fauves and Matisse are not far when Wassily Kandinsky paints his dining room and his bedroom in Munich's Schwabing neighborhood. Five of his paintings side by side made in Murnau between 1908 and 1910 about a garden, a street, a church or a cow, reveal the subtle path of the artist from expressionism to abstraction as a yellow horse (With a Yellow Horse, 1909) appears nearby. Their international connections are not forgotten and Robert Delaunay, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, are featured with two or three paintings each, scattered among the show. 

The exhibition takes a surprising turn as the joyful, colorful display abruptly turns black and white. A series of photographs from Gabriele Münter, memories of  her trip to Tunisia, triggers comments about colonialism, orientalism and exoticism to label artists most likely looking for new colors under new skies. "Performing Gender" in Room 5 features two artists, the androgynous dancer Alexander Sakharoff and the painter Werefkin who made his portrait, bringing up comments about sexuality, gender, the "third sex", but failing to mention that he was happily married for more than thirty years to Clotilde von Derp, herself a famous dancer and the couple was known as "The Sakharoffs". We are told that Werefkin who stated "I am not a woman, I am not a man, I am I" was "resenting gender binaries". She was an artist, longtime companion, soulmate, lover of Jawlensky. Lining up a dark passage, behind glass like in a curios cabinet, a selection of heteroclite personal objects and art pieces reveal the artists' broad interests and sources of inspiration. 

Following the interlude, the exhibition goes back on track reuniting Kandinsky, Marc and his wife Maria Franck-Marc in the next room where the noticeably larger works project an explosion of colors. Three paintings side by side from Franz Marc made in 1912 reflect his mystical quest (Doe in the Monastery Garden, 1912) and his technical mastery. Merging cubism, orphism, futurism, In the Rain (1912) represents a lively domestic scene of Marc's wife and dog under sheaths of rain surrounded by nature while Tiger (1912) and later in the show Cows, Red, Green, Yellow (1911), Deer in the Woods II (1912), illustrate his higher goals born from years of studying theology and Eastern religions, driving him to look for a natural order within the animal kingdom and the "underlying mystical design of the visible world". His life was unfortunately cut short on the battle field in Verdun in 1916. Kandinsky's religious paintings (St George III (1911), All Saints (1911), Improvisation Deluge (1913) or On the Theme of the Deluge (1913-14) ) are a step toward his ultimate search defined in his book On the Spiritual in Art, realized through a process of abstraction on the canvas. Objects "become immaterial" melting in a chaos of colors and shapes, as perspective becomes irrelevant in an infinite cosmic world. Schoenberg's music fills the next room and we can listen to his early atonal works (Second String Quartet op.10 and Three Piano Pieces, op.11) while looking at Impression III (Concert), 1911. It is a unique experience filled with emotions (at least for me) as we go back in time to the night of January 2, 1911, and connect with the artists. A brief  overview of color theory by Goethe, Chevreul, is outshined by a display of Marc's personal tool in a glass case. He used a prism to find "pure colors". A modern version is made available for the visitor to look at Deer in the Snow II, 1911. Color and light are inseparable and Lichtdecker Kandinsly, an environmental light installation from Olafur Eliasson  premiered at the Lengenhaus in 2006, offers variations of Improvisation Gorge, 1914, from Kandinsky under white light and shows its effect on our perception of colors. For a grand finale, a collection of works seems randomly hung on the walls. It represents artists closely or loosely associated with the Blue Rider, well known or less known, like a reunion of friends, the Delaunays, Klee, Bloch, Burliuk and of course Kandinsky, Münter, Marc, Werefkin, Macke. Twenty paintings to be savored one at a time. 

Kandinsky and Marc come out as the stars of the show, the former with more than twenty works of his pre-war career during which he had a huge impact on the birth of abstraction and the latter with six paintings rarely seen in one venue. The closest I have come so far with Marc's paintings is at The Phillips Collection where Deer in the Forest I, 1913, is hung in the children's room. Gabriele Münter overshadows the exhibition with paintings, woodcuts, reverse glass paintings, photographs, but her influence appears to be as a material and emotional support for the members of the Blue Rider, so is her friend Maria Franck Marc.

Wall texts are the backbone of an exhibition, leading the viewer throughout the show. Here the box-ticking about imperialism, colonialism, racism, neurodivergence, gender fluidity..., becomes tedious and off subject as the texts provide definitions of polytheism or theosophy, belittling the viewer.

Enjoy! It might be a while until we see another reunion of the Blue Rider's members.  

photographs by the author:

Wassily Kandinsky "Murnau with Church I", 1910

Franz Marc "Doe in the Monastery Garden", 1912

Gabriele Münter "Jawlensky and Werefkin", 1909