Recently there has been a lot of talk about whether or not photography should be permitted in museums or galleries. Certain museums are a little more lenient than they once were. Perhaps as there were so many people sneaking photos (I am always caught) and other still refuse. The Orsay museum is one of them. In many ways I accept the curator’s point of view. If visitors are clicking away, are they really looking at the picture? When some tourists rush through the Louvre photographing everything in sight, I wonder what they see when reviewing the thousands of shots once back home? However, I was disappointed yesterday as the exhibition I went to see «The Angel of the Odd - Dark Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst» as macabre as it is, the last room with paintings of Munch, Ernst, Miro, Dali, Friedrich, Brassai who seemed to be searching for the worrying strangeness of the modern city, while Masson and Bellmer paid hommage to works of Sade. I had been given the specific magazine of this exhibition and there are only a few and rather dull photo of these later surrealist artists. Not one that interested me. Naturally I have looked on Internet and so far have found nothing either.
This is the first time we have seen an exhibition like this which follows a trend appearing in Europe throughout the 19th century. Terrifying and eerie images which captivate the viewer - most of the time in horror. Vampires, ghosts, haunted castles, and so often cruel imagery. It’s the blond «virgin» or angelic young lady who seems to be eaten, killed, raped or...by the vampires or other. And those characters such as Meduse or even the female vampire or witches all seem to have dark hair. Gets back to that exhibition I saw on hair the other day. Blonds are beautiful and dark hair is dangerous. I once belonged to the dark hair category. These are just a few examples of what we were looking at.
 |
| Carlos Schwabe (1866-1926)The Death of the Gravedigger1900 |
 |
| "The Death" |
This is not my period and after an hour of vampires and witches I was happy to move on.
 |
| Johann Heinrich Füssli"The Nightmare" 1781 |
 |
| "Mad Kate" Johann Heinrich Füssli 1806-7 |
 |
| William Blake 1803-05"The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun |
However, I am so disappointed that the 20th century artists are not represented visually in anything I can find. There were some fabulous pictures.
I have looked for the video which was made for the exhibition. It is not yet on You Tube. However, if you can get into this, you will be able to see it directly on the Orsay Home page. It's well done and will let you sleep happily......
Musée d'Orsay: The Angel of the Odd. Dark Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst
Commentaires