LARGE ANIMALS

As I am slightly crackers about «large» animals, the exhibition «Beauté Animale» tempted me. Perhaps it was something I should have chosen to do with my grand daughter as we would certainly have looked at it more closely. Having a card which gives me free entrance to 90% of museums around the world also makes me a little blasé. Not of any real interest ? Leave. There is always something to discover and I naturally look for «the modern touch». However, the history of animal painting from the Renaissance onwards didn't make any impact on me. After all those old stones I was still revelling in Duncan/Picasso and could not be enthusiastic about the history of animal painting.


Cats before the end of the 19th century were taken more for demoniac creatures. Not trusted at all. But with the pest and rats running around the cities, they became useful beasts and entered into the family home as domesticated pets.

The paintings of domesticated cats left me indifferent. As did the famous animals who had entered into our Jardin des Plantes Zoo. Zarafa, the giraffe in 1827 or Jack the ourang-outan in 1836....and I am sure there were others as well.
Le Chat Blanc

However, there were two pictures I enjoyed. Pierre Bonnard’s «Le Chat Blanc» (1894) and Francisco de Goya (y Luciente’s) «Combats de Chats» 1787. Both are remarkably modern and both are fun. Hardly realistic as most of the pictures in either period but believable - if you know cats! Not that I do very much but both these paintings seem to depict cats that exist and not cats which are so domesticated on canvas that they are too good to be true.
Goya






Roi des Rats -1998



To really make me smile, there was Katharina Fritsch (German, 1956...)  «Le Roi des rats» and all their tales were knotted together in the middle of the sculpture.

Two paintings of Francois Pompon.(1885-1933) Tete d’orang-Otan (1930) and the Ours Blanc (1929). which have cubic forms and seem to be very modern. As Pompon said even then, soon there will be no more white bears.

Tete 1930

The white bear 1929


Of course Jeff Koons. His poodle (1991) is so proud of himself. Just out of the Beauty Parlour and sitting  alone in all his glory showing off.

The poodle 1991

 

Did I say Picasso ? Would you believe a toad? But such a nice one.
Le Crapaud 1936





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