TWO DAYS OF WEALTH AND COLOUR
Switzerland may be small but Oh My, how rich in art and collectors. I am beginning to know a little about the country through modern art and collectors. Basel, Bern, Zurich, Geneva, De Gallen and this week, I added Lausanne and Martigny and the Gianadda Foundation. It’s not easy to get to Martigny but there have been moments when I have seen exhibitions advertised and was about to go....then the wish came true. A wonderful exhibition was advertised at the Hermitage in Lausanne. Asger Jorn. My love of colour, the period in question C.O.B.R.A. and many other points concerning this artist was not going to stop me going. Then a very close friend suggested Aloise at the Art Brut museum - which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe. I would then take the train to Martigny the following day. My 48 hours were going to be very full.
I arrived late morning in Lausanne, rushed to the hotel and asked how to walk to the Hermitage museum. «Walk? Lausanne is very hilly and it’s a long walk up....» "Nonsense" I said and following directions, off I went. How right he was. I was to learn later that I had walked three kilometres up a very steep hill across a very rough garden to finally arrive an hour later at the Hermitage. It was a shame that the weather was overcast and on the verge of rain. The view of the lake would have been tremendous and rewarding. Instead the clouds hung down and threatened me with a burst of rain. I found the entrance to the museum and went in.
No-one? I couldn’t believe it. The exhibition is coming to an end but as I went alone into the first room, silence reigned around me.
Asger Jorn (Danish -1914-1973) seemed to have an energy which was always renewed despite his tuberculosis and cancer. He was one of the most active artists of his time creating movements of art. COBRA (Copenhague, Bruxelles, Amsterdam 1948-1951) The name was coined by Christina Dotrement from the initials of the joint artist’s cities. The movement only lasted for four years. Then followed a very confidential movement S.I. 1957. A much more political environment. He worked and taught with the Bauhaus forming the MIBI, yet another movement. There were 4 in 18 years. When he was not busy creating art movements and his work, he was alas, coping with his tuberculosis. He federated energy and created movement, colour ...when Hitler appeared on the scene he came to Paris, worked for Fernand Leger and Le Corbusier, discovered Paul Klee, the surrealists.... and of course Pierre Alechinsky who is still alive today and actually presented the exhibition.
Jorn has, as so many artists of that period, a very broad palette. I discovered his work in the Danish centre years ago and was «hit» with colour and abstract imagination. I love his first period and his last. Even his paintings of the quarrels between his children are full of life and not angry at all. His conference with six people, his sketch of the clown in danger, his ink drawings, water colours, Chuchotement, Le Bon Sauvage (me of course), Comme si les Cygnes chantent....and of course one of his last paintings, Kyotosmorama which I first saw at Beaubourg and just stood and stared......
In the last rooms two groups of adolescents led by a very uninteresting art teacher arrived. There was no discipline and only bored answers to equally boring questions....only one young man hung around after the others left. «It’s wonderful, isn’t it...» he said. I just nodded my head and gave him a big smile. He sighed and joined his group and I went back to gaze at Kyotosmorama.
And some drawings done when he was ill.....
It was a good thing that there was a
long walk down to the centre. My head was bursting with colour, ideas,
abstract and not.
Off to the Art Brut museum.
This, once and for all, is not my art. I can take it in small doses and one or two pictures at a time but when an artist such as Aloise is exposed with some 120 of her works cloistered together, I come out feeling as schizophrenic as she was. Jean Dubuffet may well have done the right thing in recognizing her talent as did her Dr Porrel-Forret in making sure that she could work in reasonable comfort. However, seeing all her works, back and front, on top of one another and in such a tiny environment left me cold and unappreciative. With half as many, perhaps I could have enjoyed her work more. I wandered around the rest of the museum and once again was overwhelmed by the detail in art brut and the madness which so frequently goes with it.
Just imagine multiplying this kind of image - back and front - by over 100 and in a relatively small space. But looking at a couple of paintings - that I seemingly enjoy them.....
I had my catalogue from the Hermitage so the evening was a delight. Tomorrow it would be Martigny.
The intercity train takes about an hour and a half to get to Martigny. A tiny township of some 200 000 people, tucked inside mountains and well encircled. I am not a mountain lover but with the autumn colours and the different greens plus a brilliant sunlight and some 20° which was a great change after the previous day, it was quite different. As I found my way to the Foundation Gianadda, I was pealing off clothes.
The Hermitage had been a little difficult to take for a moment with the adolescent school group. Here there were no less than 6 groups of children - every nationality - rushing from room to room with the task of answering questions about different pictures on their questionnaire - then drawing what they had seen. They took over for a good hour - I moved backwards and forwards trying to avoid them and then went out for an hour
I returned to a comparatively empty space and also to my Picassos - the room was empty. I stood and gazed at her for how long? And the other which was not so joyful
Down to the cafeteria for a good but very expensive coffee - then this - so I thought perhaps you could help me choose my new car? Of course you will have to provide the machines for pumping up the tires and for a full tank.
Unexpected.
Now out into the garden where I had a salad overlooking a picture postcard Switzerland.
There was one more exhibition to see of a modern sculptor and Swiss painter, but let’s wander around the gardens first. Sculptures of all periods mingle in with streams, green grass and glorious trees. Miro, Ernst, Renoir, Chagall, Arman, and others I knew less....Claude Lalanne, François Xavier Lalanne and one where the ducks were having the time of their lives but I didn’t see the name of the sculptor.
Soulages? Serra? A few escaped children wandered in and out in seconds - so the three floors were to myself. A few pictures I quite liked and the relationship between the sculpture and the painting was successful. Who were they? André Raboud was the sculptor and Pierre Zufferey the artist. Both Swiss and from what I have read, well known in their own country. I had not come across either of them before but that is the joy of crossing borders - discovering the unknown even if at times I know that I can leave it for another day.
The return trip to Paris, 7 hours in all, didn’t seem to be long at all. I was in a reverie of colour and the following morning when I opened my shutters, the colour continued.....
(Choosing photographs has been very difficult ..I could have easily doubled the number.....)
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| Hermitage - Lausanne |
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| Art Brut - Lausanne |
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| Giannada Foundation - Martigny |
I arrived late morning in Lausanne, rushed to the hotel and asked how to walk to the Hermitage museum. «Walk? Lausanne is very hilly and it’s a long walk up....» "Nonsense" I said and following directions, off I went. How right he was. I was to learn later that I had walked three kilometres up a very steep hill across a very rough garden to finally arrive an hour later at the Hermitage. It was a shame that the weather was overcast and on the verge of rain. The view of the lake would have been tremendous and rewarding. Instead the clouds hung down and threatened me with a burst of rain. I found the entrance to the museum and went in.
No-one? I couldn’t believe it. The exhibition is coming to an end but as I went alone into the first room, silence reigned around me.
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| Mona Lisa 1944 - my first glimpse |
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| Pierre Alechinsky 1956-57 |
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| Femelle interplénataire 1953 |
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| Clown en danger 1953 |
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| Les enfants causent des querelles paternelles 53 |
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| La Lune et les animaux 53 |
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| Le Bon Sauvage 1969 (definitely me!) |
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| Comme si les cygnes chantent 1963 |
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| Kyotosmorama 1969-70 |
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| Le Bouffon 1945 |
In the last rooms two groups of adolescents led by a very uninteresting art teacher arrived. There was no discipline and only bored answers to equally boring questions....only one young man hung around after the others left. «It’s wonderful, isn’t it...» he said. I just nodded my head and gave him a big smile. He sighed and joined his group and I went back to gaze at Kyotosmorama.
And some drawings done when he was ill.....
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| 1960 |
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| 1960 |
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| 1963 |
Off to the Art Brut museum.
This, once and for all, is not my art. I can take it in small doses and one or two pictures at a time but when an artist such as Aloise is exposed with some 120 of her works cloistered together, I come out feeling as schizophrenic as she was. Jean Dubuffet may well have done the right thing in recognizing her talent as did her Dr Porrel-Forret in making sure that she could work in reasonable comfort. However, seeing all her works, back and front, on top of one another and in such a tiny environment left me cold and unappreciative. With half as many, perhaps I could have enjoyed her work more. I wandered around the rest of the museum and once again was overwhelmed by the detail in art brut and the madness which so frequently goes with it.
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| Lit à la de Coppet 1949 |
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| 1951-1960 |
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| Lit à la de Coppet 1949 |
Just imagine multiplying this kind of image - back and front - by over 100 and in a relatively small space. But looking at a couple of paintings - that I seemingly enjoy them.....
I had my catalogue from the Hermitage so the evening was a delight. Tomorrow it would be Martigny.
The intercity train takes about an hour and a half to get to Martigny. A tiny township of some 200 000 people, tucked inside mountains and well encircled. I am not a mountain lover but with the autumn colours and the different greens plus a brilliant sunlight and some 20° which was a great change after the previous day, it was quite different. As I found my way to the Foundation Gianadda, I was pealing off clothes.
One word for this exhibition. Spectacular. Werner Merzbacher (84) living in Zurich has over the years collected Calder, Derain, Ernst, Kandinsky, Léger, Matisse, Miro, Modigliani, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh....and I’ll stop there even if there are others on the list.....He was interested in one thing. Colour. «Our choice reflects what we are» he says. He expresses his life through the painters who took a risk in their lives and translated their period on canvass or in sculpture working on the side line in order to preserve their existence. Merzbacher is generous and just wandering around the exhibition you feel he is full of hope. He lost his parents when he was 12 at Auschwitz, drowned himself in studies and later immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1948. There he meets his wife and the trigger occurs. The Fauves, crashing with colour - early Kandisky and later, Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec....there is no real pattern in this exhibition but the link is colour and hope.
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| Kandinsky |
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| Van Dongen |
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| Kirchner |
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| Kirchner |
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| Paul Klee |
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| Paul Klee |
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| Max Ernst |
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| Jean Tinguley 1955 |
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| Van Gogh 1888 |
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| Van Dongen 1907 |
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| Van Gogh 1889 |
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| James Ensor 1892 |
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| Uberto Boccioni 1913-14 |
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| Severini 1912-13 |
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| A corner with Calder |
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| Miro 1952 |
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| Heinrich Campendonk 1918-20 |
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| Campendonk 1913 |
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| Lionel Feininger 1915 |
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| Toulouse Lautrec 1890-91 |
The Hermitage had been a little difficult to take for a moment with the adolescent school group. Here there were no less than 6 groups of children - every nationality - rushing from room to room with the task of answering questions about different pictures on their questionnaire - then drawing what they had seen. They took over for a good hour - I moved backwards and forwards trying to avoid them and then went out for an hour
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| One group |
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| and more came |
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| Picasso 1904 |
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| Picasso 1903 |
I returned to a comparatively empty space and also to my Picassos - the room was empty. I stood and gazed at her for how long? And the other which was not so joyful
Down to the cafeteria for a good but very expensive coffee - then this - so I thought perhaps you could help me choose my new car? Of course you will have to provide the machines for pumping up the tires and for a full tank.
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| Cesar - Volvo 1977 |
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| Clement 1898 |
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| Brush 1907 |
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| Peugeot 1913 |
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| Alfa 1930 |
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| To pump up |
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| Berliet 1900 |
Unexpected.
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| To fill up |
Now out into the garden where I had a salad overlooking a picture postcard Switzerland.
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| Lunchtime picture postacard |
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| Chagall |
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| Renoir and Guino 1917 |
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| Miro 1974-85 |
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| St Phalle |
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| George Segal 1983 but she didn't want to talk to me |
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| Dubuffet 1969-70 |
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| The ducks loved it.... |
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| Max Ernst 1967 |
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| François-Xavier Lalanne 1977-88 |
Soulages? Serra? A few escaped children wandered in and out in seconds - so the three floors were to myself. A few pictures I quite liked and the relationship between the sculpture and the painting was successful. Who were they? André Raboud was the sculptor and Pierre Zufferey the artist. Both Swiss and from what I have read, well known in their own country. I had not come across either of them before but that is the joy of crossing borders - discovering the unknown even if at times I know that I can leave it for another day.
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| First floor |
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| Zufferey 201 |
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| 2nd floor |
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| André Raboud 2011 and Zufferey |
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| 7-15 |
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| A few seconds later |
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| A later again |
(Choosing photographs has been very difficult ..I could have easily doubled the number.....)
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