The News of La Gazette Des Arts No. 28 of december 15th, 2015
After the hardship and the grief... We must live !
An obvious fact, a courage that we find through an art whose current figurative expression tries to question us upon the future of our civilizations in danger. That we find in that incessant dialogue between Fernand Léger and Paul Eluard, in Biot at the moment. To meditate in Les bons plans de la Dépêche. As we notice it, the artistic universe takes a new form with the strength of the dragon of the artist De Castenskjold. To be read Du côté des artistes. While Echos de Psyché bewitches us with the lightness of that genius called Mozart. Whereas Actualité du marché de l’art looks into the work of designer Eric Schmitt.
And to finish, our selection of books to offer as the end of this year approaches, in Le coin du bibliophile.
So enjoy your reading and Happy Holidays for all of you !
With our sincere and warm thoughts for those innocent victims who fell, in their youth, under the yoke of nameless
monsters... Friday november 13th.
Georges LEVY
Les bons plans de la Dépêche
A great lesson in humanity
Autour du poème Liberté, Paul Eluard et Fernand Léger en dialogue, presented in Biot, is the story of an interdisciplinary friendship between several arts.
The poetic and literary work of Paul Eluard combined with the genius of Fernand Léger who anticipates the movement, accentuating the features of a face that we could call; Ode sans appel à la liberté !
How can we not conceive, then, the time without this meeting that unites both men, in their quest for absolute and for truth.
Close to Dada then to Surrealism, connected to Braque, Picasso and to other artists whom they will follow throughout their life...
The epilogue of that friendship is written in 1953, one year after the premature death of the poet, when the publisher Pierre Seghers appeals to Fernand Léger to realize a limited edition of Liberté, Paul Eluard’s most famous poem.
Chantal GUIONNET-FUSCO
Du coté des artistes...
Meeting with De Castenskjold’s metallic chimeras
«The Beast» is a revelation for De Castenskjold !
A universe made of strength and power, showing a dragon nothing could stop. Clawing, the animal soars to its own destiny, mastering the space with its majestic stature...
The work of the artist illustrates his adaptability to all materials, which he fits, handles up to the final shape they will take freely. Whether that is papier-mâché inspiring to him the generous curves of goddesses close to Niki de Saint-Phalle, to plaster and resin for animals more playful at the new appearance of those metallic chimeras coming from the contemporary medieval time, the work of this designer who became a decorator before falling for the material is a permanent research toward perfection. A hymn to a nature full of imagery out of a fairy tale where the dimension and the monumental aspect give to these themes, an endless fervour, a kind of hold over the life that became uncontrollable.
Some luxurious monsters out of a fantastic world that cannot leave anyone indifferent.
Chantal GUIONNET-FUSCO
Echo de Psyché
Mysterious Mozart...
From the «world» considered as a «vibration» by Pythagoras... To the assertion of Plato for whom « The music must make law «... Mozart’s genius stood out as Light of a magnificent period !
The praises concerning this composer fully achieving, the concerto, the symphony and the sonata are uncountable ! Wasn’t Joseph Haydn describing him, to his father Léopold, as being « the greatest composer (...) having some taste and moreover the best science of composition.»
Mozart illustrates this moving century, mutant and revolutionary ! A fickle man, serious as well as light... The musician will waver between Chamber Music and comic opera, easily and ironically, with the constant concern of combining strength and grace, power and emotion.
Steeped with all influences, which he was assimilating quite easily... Mozart was, without a doubt, marked by his course as a Freemason - between obscurantism and clear-sightedness - in that period when, as Paul Valéry was describing it, the social and political role of the occult had become huge... Outcome of all the esoteric rivers swollen by centuries.
The composer enjoyed pleasure, dance and playing !
His universe - far beyond his philosophical legacy - was a reflection of himself - elusive, enigmatic like an unfinished symphony... Leaving a significant work, a large-scale aura which, almost 260 years after his birth, is and will always be intact.
Chantal GUIONNET-FUSCO
Actualité du marché de l’Art
Eric Schmitt : the inspiration at your fingertips
Between architecture and sculpture, the artist knew how to impose his will, the one of an original designer whose simple and uncluttered shapes, in exceptional materials, draws attention and compels admiration.
Very early, he was noticed by visionary galleries. In 1988, Christian Liaigre suggests to him to collaborate on the renovation of Hôtel Montalembert.
A book including a reasoned catalogue was just published at Norma editions. Thirty years of a career reviewed for this major traveller, oscillating between music, photography and furniture drawing.
Nature and its relief inspire him. He likes to be guided by observation, the eye rather than the cerebral. An intuitive side that takes him on the path of multiple discoveries, whose meaning he uses fully.
His collaboration with the french goldsmith’s trade brand Christofle will commit him even further.
The fluidity of the material, the flow of the light are essential things to him.
At the moment, he is visible at the gallery Dutko – Bonaparte site – as well as at the gallery Ibu in Paris. Not to be missed !
Chantal GUIONNET-FUSCO
Le coin du bibliophile
Eric Schmitt
Editions Norma
La grande soif de l’Etat. Michel Foucault avec les sciences sociales
Arnault Skornicki
Editions Prairies ordinaires
Patrice Chéreau. Un musée imaginaire
Eric Mezil
Editions Actes Sud. Collection Lambert en Avignon
L’invention du curateur
Jérôme Glicenstein
Editions PUF
Design contemporain : le guide
Elisabeth Couturier
Editions Flammarion
La peinture des femmes marocaines
Entretiens
Lahsen Bougdal
Editions L’Harmattan
