Georges Braque.. Intellectual Artist…
“If… you…
Georges… Braque…
Were asked… to sum up…
The essence of Cubism… in just a few words…
What… would you say...?“
“On a surface that is drawn, constructed and painted, it gives a multiple vision of the world, offering all the facets of things simultaneously, drawing the eye back to the surface of the canvas, back from the horizon into which it had wandered, adrift in a space dictated by convention.“
Georges Braque… 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963…
Was one of the 20th century’s… major artists…
A painter… engraver…
Sculptor…
One of the leading figures… of the avant-garde in the early twentieth century…
Who with his fellow artist and friend… Pablo Picasso… founded the art style called… “Cubism“…
What Henri Matisse described as “little cubes”… thus Cubism was born…
“At that time, I was very close to Picasso. Although we were very different in temperament, we were driven by the same idea… We were both living in Montmartre, we would see each other every day, we would talk… Over those years, Picasso and I said things to each other that no one would ever be able to say again, that no one would ever be able to understand again… things that would be incomprehensible now and that gave us so much joy… and it will all end with us. It was like being climbers roped together on a mountain…“
Braque… and Picasso…
Soul… mates…
In… Art…
If only one could have eavesdropped… on what their dialogue consisted of…
It would have been… inspirational…
Since… forever…
I’ve had a fascination… with the two giants…
Picasso… and Braque…
“While Picasso celebrates animation… Braque celebrates contemplation“…
Braque… was the intellectual French artist par excellence… he had a close friendship with Man Ray… Cartier-Bresson… as well as the French composer Erik Satie… and an affinity with poets such as Pierre Reverdy… Francis Ponge and René Char… and important intellectual figures such as Carl Einstein… Jean Paulhan… not forgetting his important friendship and collaboration with André Malraux…
The recent ambitious “Georges Braque” retrospective of his “oeuvre“… at the majestic Grand Palais… set in chronological order… represents all major periods in his art…
From Fauvism… Cubism…
The “canephors”… of the nineteen twenties…
His later exploration of still life and landscapes… to his last experimental works… including the artist’s key works and “series“…
The complete cycle of the nine “Studios“… and the large “Birds“… notably the “L’Oiseau noir et l’oiseau blanc“, 1960… and “À tire d’aile“,1956-1961… which depict refined figures of birds propelled into magnetic spaces floating in harmony with the planets… his black birds representing disturbing… powerful symbols of night and death… of which Braque wrote…
“Sans trêve, nous courrons après notre destin.”
“Unceasingly, we will run after our destiny“….
Visiting… the exhibition…
At the… Grand Palais…
Was… an inspiration…
At times… melanchonic…
But also… enlightened…
A… luminous…
Dream…
Georges… Braque…
Brilliant… “distingué“…
A… visionary…
An…extraordinary…
Intellectual…
Artist…
a.