THE "SEAS" I REALLY LOVE
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| Serpent Tree |
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| Figures at the seaside 1952 |
Nicolas de Stäel was no longer a stranger to me. I had seen quite a few of his paintings in different modern art museums around the world, and liked what I saw. There was something magic about his abstraction which I compared to boxes vividly coloured thick with oils.
A few months ago I discovered that there was a retrospective of his work in Le Havre. (After Dunkerque, Le Havre was not a favorite port on my Mother's list!). On the coast and not far from Rouen. It was not a TGV this time but the intercity which gives a pretty rocky ride. I arrived in 25°. The museum was on the sea front. Bliss! I hadn't seen neither sea nor ships for years and later before taking the train back to Paris I wandered along the waterfront.
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| Looking at the MAM |
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| From the sea |
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| Difficult to see peopl from the first floor |
What surprised me where the number of people there. Fortunately not enough to make it difficult to see the pictures.
De Staël was born in Saint Petersburg in 1914 and died in Antibes in 1955. This was the first exhibition focusing on his landscapes. He was one of the major figures in mid 20th century art. His paintings are filled with light and are modern. Not entirely abstract and not figurative either, although he introduced such elements into his paintings when he worked in the Ile de France and in the south and Normandy in 1952 .
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| Rooftops - 1952 |
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| Sea and Clouds 1953 |
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| Facing Le Havre 1952 |
After an abstract period, he seemed to reconnect with reality, combining the two styles.
He worked along side René Char in 1951 producing a new pictorial space for his poems.
What I love about his work is that it does not give an accurate depiction of what he saw but how he saw light, space and the elements around him. You saw the boats, the beaches, the skies and the light differed dramatically if he was painting in the north, the south, Sicily ......
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| Boats 1953 |
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| Le Lavandou, 1952, |
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| Agrigente, 1954, |
What too fascinated me that he was always inventing new forms and moving from using thick layers of paint which seem to stand out on the canvass to using paint which is so diluted that it appeared to be transparent. Especially in his final years. Unfortunately, this does not come through in photographs.
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| Calais, 1954, |
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| Landscape, Antibes, 1955 |
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| Vaucluse landscape n°2, 1953 |
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| seagulls 1955 - just before he died |
The exhibition comprised over 130 works (paintings and drawings.) What was so special about it was that a quarter of them had never been exhibited at all or never in Europe. Many of them come from private collections and some of the biggest modern art museums around the world. I was enchanted with his work and for once I can say, nearly all of it. I gather there is an exhibition on in the Picasso museum in Antibes, but will I be able to get there before it finishes? Next week Munich, onto Marseille, London.....so much to see.
One thing you may have noticed that he died very young. 41. I imagine that he was very sensitive and emotional. He had already lost a wife but this time around, he threw himself out of a third floor window. Desperately in love but unfortunately it was not reciprocal.
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