As far as I know she is still
alive and working even at 90. One of the "grande dame" of French painting.
A retrospective of work she had donated to the Beaubourg centre was on
my list and luckily I checked the list this week as it will be finishing
in a few days.
Until I went the other day, I did not know that she was also better known for the «bleu Asse» from which she has derived innumerable modulations since the beginning of the 50’s.
2002-2009
2002-2009
Blue still life 1955
2007
Geneviève Asse defines our world in very poetic terms:
“Beyond the horizon, the dawn, the shadowy greys, black-blues of clear seas, whites which disappear in the texture of the canvas, nothing external beyond time.” (Working Notes, 1974)
Blue is my favorite colour and the electric blue which she adopted as her own, even more so. The work is perhaps not exciting but entering into her brushwork , a landscape or behind her doors is very restful and I sat in front of her steles, my eyes turning from one to another for possibly 20 minutes. I slowed down and walked back home very peacefully.
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,
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
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
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