SHARING WITH ME

This morning I spent an hour or more going through all the paintings which I could find on Internet by Salvador Dali. As you can imagine there is a plethora and it confirmed my reactions to the exhibition I saw earlier in this week - but it also helped me to go a little further. His surrealist period has always been too much for me. I get a little tired of the repeated symbols and in a retrospective such as this with probably most of the paintings dedicated to the surrealistic period which began in the late 30’s. It is a little overpowering. Not apparently for the public who "ummed and ahhed" in front of many of the paintings we know so well, pointing out to one another the reasoning behind each symbol. I somehow can’t be bothered. Yet I did discover that a some of his work caught my attention - certainly not the big paintings but the smaller ones and a sculpture which I did appreciate. 
 Imagie mediumnique-paranmique vers 1934 Transformation d'une peinture ano

I had already been to see «The Sources of Aborigine Painting» a few weeks ago and had hoped to take my granddaughter.  When she went through the little book I had purchased I could see at once that this was not for her. So we went to see «Animals can teach us a lot» 23/11. Swan was hoping for much more explanation about the dreamtime and the aboriginal paintings themselves. This was not the case. So yesterday I went off with Laurent. The exhibition is a block buster. About the exhibition The exhibition presents for the first time in Europe a major artistic movement, born in 1971-1972 in the community of Papunya, at the heart of the central Australian desert. By transposing to recycled wooden panels the motifs employed in ephemeral ritual paintings, the Aborigine artists of Papunya created an astonishingly inventive formal art, saturated with meaning. These works change the manner of understanding the territory and conceiving the history of Australian art. With more than 160 ca

Obviously an eye has to be trained to see and see something else but there are moments when I can quite happily ignore what is around me and walk through a gallery or a museum seeing nothing that my eye appreciates. This was the case with «La Maison Rouge» a few weeks ago. A contemporary collection by Italians, Giuliana et Tommaso Setari. There was one inciden. I saw this - and thought it was for real.  I was a bit startled when a man came up to me and said «...he does look real, doesn’t he?» We started to chat. He was retiring the following Tuesday and had spent a great number of years as the Curator of one of our largest classical museums. A comment I will not forget. «Madame, I read a lot. I see a lot and have seen a lot but someone has got to explain how to look at this work...I don’t understand what I’m seeing.» We tried to work it out together and did not get very far..... Another exhibition which left me a little cold was «Au-dela du Street Art». «Beyond Street Art». Last ye

Strangely enough, the exhibition the second time around seemed easier to handle. By that I mean it didn't appear to be so large as handling this period of history is certainly not easy. Also, I remembered Claude’s comments  and could for some, pass them onto Marielle. Apart from looking at what I had seen, I was more interested in looking at what we had had little time to see. Finally, Claude had covered 98% of the exhibition in the two hours we had been with him.  Charles Walch - Le Coq glorieux  - Liberation The Liberation is a moment of jubilation of course, but a dark period too. The French communist party is legitimized - Picasso becomes a member, and a hero. The horror is the discovery of witnesses returning from the camps and the stories told. I found that many of the paintings tend to depict this horror and probably then decompression occurs. 

Abstraction takes a place of honor and is no longer considered to be «degenerate art».  Picasso. Faune Jaune et bleu joua

Am working backwards this time. The morning was spent in «Art in War» with Marielle and after lunch I went off alone and  backwards into the Michael Werner collection. There was no need to rush. Much to the surprise of the attendant I asked to go in at the end rather than start at the beginning - and thank goodness. 
 Kirkeby in the 80's Gianni and I had discovered the Danish Per Kirkeby in Brussels at the beginning of the year «Hidden Images» - 14th of February. Here without expecting it was one whole room dedicated to Kirkeby. A couple of people wandered through - fast - I stood in the centre of the gallery alone, turning around - and around before discovering each painting.Many of the paintings had been enormous in the Beaux Arts but with the exception of a few, most were around the same size. As there was a young girl attendant following every step I took and quite bemused by my interest, I forgot to try and take a photo. This is a picture I saw on Internet amongst m