Marielle and I had gone to see the most « hypnotic and unforgettable » exhibition in August dedicated to stained glass windows.
http://discovmaggsie.blogspot.fr/2015/08/hypnotic-and-unforgettable-hours.html
A few weeks later she told me that there was an exhibition of Alfred Manessier’s work in a small museum in the 15th. We had both been impressed by one of his glass stained windows in the aforementioned blog chapter.
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| Blue Landscape Saint Michel des Bréseux (Doubs) 1963 |
This was small private museum. The Mendjisky,
(
http://www.fmep.fr/) which I knew nothing about. Open every day of the week - but when we got there, it was not and was to be closed until the 28th August. Unfortunately, in France, we are not very good at informing the public about hours, closing times etc. Last Saturday I went off to another gallery. Closed for the afternoon. No point in getting distraught. That wont change anything, but on both occasions I was disappointed.
We finally got there yesterday. What a pleasure to discover « the other side » of an artist. This time there were only two stained glass windows which when the sun came through, the gallery lit up with all the colors found in the abstraction.
His background is what I would describe as « normal » for a man born in 1911. His family lived amongst the Masons in Picardy. His parents were a family of artists but Alfred was not permitted to study anything but architecture - a little safer as far as metier are concerned. After his father died (a wholesale wine merchant in Amiens) he changed over to his preferred occupation - that of a painter.
Not before long he turned to abstraction or the non-figurative movement and despite his work, described « degenerate », he was not molested by the Germans and later became a teacher.
Manessier left teaching in 1943 to paint full-time. There were a lot of mosaic patterns. He also began exploring other mediums.
Carpets, stained glass windows which became his signature.
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| Carpet - Before dawn - 1966 |
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| Carpet - Autumn tree 1970 |
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| Carpet - 1982 |
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| Announcing the Ressurection - 1982-96 |
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| Night is falling 1 - the sun came out |
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| Night is falling, 1and 2 1992-93 |
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Maquettes for the stained glass windows you see below
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At one point he became religiously oriented and yet his work remains totally
abstract
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| Sketch for litany prayers - 1952 |
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Some of it I liked very much,
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| Forms at twilight - 1952 |
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| Night - 1956 |
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| Forms at sunrise - 1951 |
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| Sea twilight - 1954 |
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| Sunset at the port - 1943 |
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| The lunatics - 1938 |
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| Catastrophe - 1938 |
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| The staircase - 1939- his surealist period |
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| The birth of dawn - 1989 |
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| Spanish rocks under the moon? 1990 The title is not right for me |
other works did not move me at all.
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| And does this look like the night? |
When we watched his video - which was very touching as his descriptions of his work were simple and understandable.
A painting must talk to you - and it could and can take months before there is any real communication established.
This is exactly how I feel about art when I go to exhibitions. Does it talk to me? Are titles are important? For me, some get seriously in the way, as a couple of his did. The images that I see may not coincide with the artist’s view at all. I like to see what I see and not necessarily search for how the artist has described his painting.
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| The Lamp - 1943 : well you can see something that could be a lamp, but does it matter? |
If I don’t agree, another search begins and sometimes that is very profitable as more and more images emerge and suddenly the painting begins to talk to me.
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| Fishing early in the morning - 1955 |
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| Winter night in the Picard swamps. - 1983 | |
Marielle and I had totally different reactions to this painting which she found rather opressive and I saw all the energy rushing out toward the window.....
When we were leaving, I told the young woman with a
lilting Italian accent, that yes, I had greatly enjoyed the exhibition but alas, it was poorly lit and the paintings were once again on top of one another. If an artist’s work is to communicate with the spectator, it needs to breathe so we can look at it easily at all angles and not be disturbed by poor lighting and reflections…..
Manessier was the victim of a car accident in Loiret on 28 July 1993, and died four days later at the Source hospital in Orléans. Well that makes him 82 and from the video, he seemed to be a very nice man.
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