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, ...
Fautrier left me somehow puzzled. Why this time more than with other painters. Perhaps that his pallet was so varied and an artist which could not be identified so easily. The questions that came to mind. « Why am I so intrigued with abstract art? » « Why do so many of the realist artists and of no particular period, leave me indifferent? » That doesn’t mean to say that I don’t appreciate their work but most of the time, the paintings are reassuring and have an immediate identity. Many of my friends can’t understand my attraction to abstract work. « Squiggles. » « Paint splashed onto a canvas » Don’t know what I’m looking at »…and the comments go on. Perhaps that is why I am so attracted to abstract work. For me, there are so many hidden images and colours which intermingle giving way to space or sometimes crowded into a small space. They make me « study » a painting. Realism doesn’t. So what would it be now? Where had time gone? Da...
Onto Naoshima…In my mind today I am somewhat confused by what transport we took. The men had taken me in hand and I followed them both meekly! (More or less). Sometimes we had a reserved place in a train but a lot of the time we didn’t. This is perhaps why I am confused. I’m certain that we didn’t take the Bullet train to Naoshima ( Naoshima is an island) but when I saw it for the first time, I was taken aback. A huge streamlined Duck. Pristine clean inside and out not to mention how comfortable and fast it was. The Shinkansen as it is known also known is a network of high speed railway lines in Japan. The maximum operating speed is 320 km/h (200 mph). Hate to say it, but it’s more comfortable than our TGV and certainly more spacious. In simple terms, I would describe Naoshima as an Art island It is known for its many contemporary art museums. In all, there are five major sites on the island - and although we arrived on a Sunday mid-afternoon we were to discover that most ...
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