Are you having a hot summer wherever you’re reading this? Then take a Big Splash with me, courtesy of David Hockney. While in Paris, one of my art stops had to be the Pompidou Centre. It had just received pretty much all of the Hockney retrospective held at the Tate in London I had written about back here. Yet with an artist as multi-faceted as David Hockney, Pompidou Centre built on the Tate exhibition to cover even more of the incredible palette of Hockney’s styles, giving me the opportunity to cover a few other “colours” from Hockney’s rainbow.
Who is the “Father of all Painters”? Duchamp in 1913? He did turn Art on its head with his Bicycle Wheel (1913) and Fountain (1917), refusing to be led by any aesthetic diktat. But he did not paint much… Picasso in 1907? A few weeks back, the blog took you along his rejection of painting only the beautiful when he discovered African Art and created Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). But even before these two game changers of the art world, there was Cézanne, the man whom Picasso declared was “the Father of all Painters”. Let me paint you Cézanne in just a few words and numbers: – apples (vibrating, preferably on a sliding white cloth or drapery), – Madame Cézanne, showing zero emotions (yet there are almost 30 portraits of her) and…
I see a lot of Art but this was something else – for my eyes and my brain. Civilization Iteration by Chinese artist Xu Zhen questions the extent of novelty in the world at large and the art world specifically. His work shows classical statuary from East and West joined where each singular head would have looked proud and tall as cultural representative of their civilization. Such a “head on / head off” collision is a striking comment on the circular nature of human creativity. Yet, in a world gone global, can civilizations fusing into each other lead to a potential loss of cultural meaning?
Picasso, the artist who changed so much about Art then to bring us the art we know now, may owe it all to seeing a few dusty African masks at the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro shortly after he arrived in Paris in 1900. I say “may” because in typical Picasso fashion, after declaring this visit showed him the path to painting, he fully rejected any African Art influence later on in his career. Today, Picasso would find it hard disputing the impact of Primitive Art on his oeuvre if he could witness the astonishing work Quai Branly Museum put in documenting their Picasso Primitif exhibition, on show in Paris until July 23rd, 2017. In 1907, Picasso saw African masks as a tool “to help people avoid coming under the influence of spirits…to help them become independent”. Exactly what he was looking for to “exorcise” himself from the artists who came before him. Picasso was about to explore a way to render expressions rather than impressions (been there…) or even pictorial accuracy (done that!).
Fresh from the opening of the Dior Exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, let me take you on a fashion spin across Paris.
Frame what you see…Look up and beyond…Learn about yourself… Six months ago when I published my first post, I recognized these as axes underpinning my personal grid. I have always looked intently. I love to learn. Yet what triggered this blog was really the need to frame it all in my eyes, my mind and my life. Along came the hope that others would get it (get me!) and perhaps go see and look a bit more. Writing became a way to crystallize it all while facilitating the sharing element. It was no accident that I chose Robert Irwin’ s caged bougainvillea trees at the Getty Museum as opening picture to my first blog post then. Now at my 6-month mark of weekly publishing, I am thinking about another Robert Irwin’s masterpiece. This one I use like others use prayer beads.
Concrete Poetry? Surprising association of words, isn’t it? Indeed, let’s be playful today! Set a little wave of poetry in motion…
How come I am about to praise the virtues of exercise, writing as a guest of Rancho La Puerta? I was the kind of girl in high school who would look for any excuse NOT to attend Sports (PE) class, especially when the dreaded 12-min long Cooper Test was on the agenda… So what exactly happened to that girl? Why is she writing a blog about completing her first marathon, age 41, in 4 hours…and 35 seconds? And why is she also checking out Running Retreats at Rancho La Puerta, voted Best Destination Spa in the world for many years running?