MIXED THOUGHTS


 
Following the documentary on Monet, I saw that the following day there was one on James Ensor (1860-1949).  Admittedly I fell asleep in the first five minutes and kept on nodding off during the hour. Most unusual for me but the woman in front slept during the whole film and then appluded enthusiastically at the end. I am not there yet.

Ensor, was a major figure in the Belgium avant-garde art scene of the late 19th century. Some people say that he was important in the develoment of Expressionism in the early 20th. He is quite eccentric, macabre and probably quite modern for his era. Definitely politically engaged but what I enjoy most is his satyr and interest in carnaval, masks, role playing and a theatrical approach to his work.
Death and the Masks
Apart from his Mother’s portrait, a few self portraits and several other paintings, from what I have seen to date, no-one has a real face. A mask, or something which is exaggerated in terms of a face. His colour too is fantastic. Fauve? Perhaps and even at times I wonder if there isn’t a little Emil Nolde which creeps into his work. I gather he was not well acknowledged at his time. To be quite honest, I only discovered him by accident in Belgium some years ago. His clowns,  his masks and of course the painting which really must have caused an uproar, the figure of Christ entering into Brussels amidst a seething crowd of clowns and disguised well known people of that period. (So I was told but names I don’t know nor remember)
Christ's truimphant entry into Brussels
.

Was the documentry good? Well, I guess I slept for a good 10 minutes of the 60 but it certainly did not have the energy that Piquet’s did the proceeding day. Sometimes there is a pace in such films which is soporific. Ensor must have been bounding with energy creating such a curious world of the macabre and magic. Is there some amusement in seeing him on the back of his donkey on a beach in  Ostende (?). Once again, a film - even if it did win an important prize - was slow. Except for a couple of scenes with Pierre Alechinsky (84) who had more energy than those colourful clowns whom I love but they faded into a distance and lolled me back into my doze.

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite