It was now my second day in Aix. Although I had seen the Jean an Suzanne Planque collection in Alsace in 2010 (and much to my surprise had nothing on the Blog about it) I wanted to go again. Jean and Suzanne Planque were Swiss.
« The American Icons » was also on in the same museum, The Granet. Remember? I had seen this exhibition in Paris.
http://discovmaggsie.blogspot.com/2015/07/wandering-down-nostalgia-lane.html
I did pop in and look at the Icons again upsetting a couple of guards as
I went in at the end of the exhibition rather than the beginning. At
opening hours that is sometimes the best way to see a show. All those
spectators are squashed into the first galleries and no-one at the end.
It was a pleasurable few moments.
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| Richard Diebenkorn (1923-93) "Berkeley 47" |
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| "Berkeley 23" |
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| Philip Guston (1913-80) "For M.", 1955 |
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| Philip Guston, "Evidence" 1970 |
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| Brice Marden (1938-) "6 (Course,)" 1987-88 |
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| Roy Lichenstein (1923-97) "Figures with Sunset", 1978 |
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| Looking down the staircase |
I had not visited the Granet since my Mother died. This was really going down memory lane.
After a short look at "The Icons" I wandered through the museum looking at a few curiosities before going into the Planque Collection.....
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| Pierre Alechinsky (1927-) "Seculaire", 1996. Loved this |
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| Pierre Alechinsky, "Hivernales", 2009 |
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| The drawing of what could be the original |
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| Found many centuries BC |
How strange, the collection was no-where to be seen. I then discovered that the Chapelle des Penitents blancs has been renovated and is now an annex to Granet. I suppose about a kilometer away and despite a small map which had been given to me, it was not so easy to find.
It’s a beautiful chapel. Only the vaults are from the original. Renovating it means that there is a clear 700 m2 of exhibition space and added to the 4500 m2 of today, the museum now has over 5000 m2 of exhibition space. My hope was that the collection would be shown to its advantage and not crowded with paintings sitting on top of one another.
A word about the White Penitents. As you can guess, they wore a white habit. It’s a very old fraternity dating from 1264 in Rome.
The obligations of the members was to care for the sick, bury the dead, provide medical service for those unable to afford it, and give dowries to poor girls. It’s difficult to believe today that such a Chapel was the home of such a fraternity.
Now onto the Planque. What I had remembered about this collection was the amazing number of Picasso. I knew that I would not be disappointed. The collection was superbly presented, even better than in Alsace.
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| Picasso - "Femme avec chapeau dans un fauteuil" 1939 |
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| "Woman's head with hat" 1939 |
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| "Arlequin", 1917 |
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| "Guitare, journal et bouteille sur une table", 1921 |
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| "Le Sauvetage" 1881-1976 |
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| "Homme et Femme. Tete", 1969 |
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| Photograph with Planque |
The collection is the result of a passion, of curiosity and of a perceptive look on modern painting, brought together by Jean Planque (1910-1998) . His is a touching story too.
« In the 40s Jean Planque bought for himself or for friends, a few paintings by great masters of the XIXth and XXth centuries. This was the beginning of a long quest which neither his education nor his studies had predisposed him to. This fortuitous encounter with art led him to collect masterpieces by Picasso, Klee, Dubuffet or de Staël. The specific character of this collection is not only due to the fact that it is made up of works by the most important artists of the century, but above all it reveals a rare coherence between the pieces conserved. It is the fruit of an enthusiastic eye on modern painting; an eye that wished to understand an art that tried for numerous decades to change the way people looked, to break the standards set by tradition; it is in some sorts a perceptive eye, the one of an amateur who confided he had a passion, that «burnt for the paintings. »
He became the courtier for Beyler (the Foundation in Basel which I always visit with enthusiasm)
He did not choose unknown painters but rather those already famous. His curiosity and his enthusiasm allowed him to approach the greatest artists of his time, in particular Picasso, Giacometti and Dubuffet, who treated him as an equal. From Cézanne to Picasso, from Degas to Bonnard, from Van Gogh to Rouault, Dubuffet and Kosta Alex…..
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| Picasso "Marine" 1967 |
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| Picasso, "Femme regardant par la fenêtre" 1959 |
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| Antoni Tapies (1923-2012) 'Gris avec bande transversale claire" 1960 |
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| Nicolas de Staël (1914-55) "Paysage, Marine" 1954 |
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| Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) "Composition orange et noir" 1958 |
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| Roger Bissière (1886-1964) "L'ike de Ré" 1950 |
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| Roger Bissière |
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| Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) "Légende de la Rue" 1963 |
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| J.D. "Téléphoniste 1" 1964 |
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| Kosta Alex (1925-2005) "The Girl from Southern France" 1966 |
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| K.A. "The Man from Montparnasse" 1970 |
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| Jean Planque "La Sainte-Victoire, de nuit" 1951 |
There was also a lot of Hans Berger's work. A whole gallery. He had been an intimate friend of Planque's . J.P. met him at the Beyler foundation when he was 47 and the artist 75. Their ideas coincided about art. They became great friends at once and Planque defended his work even if Berger was relatively unknown .
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| Self portrait 1967 |
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| "Apple trees "- 1911 |
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| Hans Berger (1882-1977) "Pastels" 1966 |
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| H.B. "Johannes", Artist's Father - 1911-13 |
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| Self portrait - 1909 |
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| "Première sortie" - 1966 |
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| "Seven sketches of women" - 1911 |
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| "Provence Pins et Collines" 1910 |
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| "Pré et Amandiers" 1910 |
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| Alexandre Hollan (1933-) Le Grand Chêne, 2006 |
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| Kosta Alex (1925-2005) "Man with a hat n°40" - 1963 |
As in Alsace, the exhibition was divided into five sections. However, it will not surprise you at all, that I headed and found at once, the Picasso collection. Then took a couple of hours to "delect" the other pictures.
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| Francisco Toledo (1940-) "Composition avec figures" 1960 |
And to finish with a famous Picasso. Unfortunately it was in a glass case with a division in it.....
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| "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" 1964 |
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