Excerpt of the Museum’s Introduction to this exhibition:
“Deadline has chosen to examine a group of artists who died during the last twenty years and whose concluding works are marked by an awareness of imminent death, the urgency of the task in hand and an impulse to self-transcendence. Some of the works on show seem not only testamental, but boldly visionary as well, as if ahead of their time. In addition to often being regarded as signs of a death foretold, the works – paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures, videos, – seek to provide an overview of a life with an intensity that sometimes attains to a true plenitude and the fullest possible expression of a truth: like a final word or gesture capable of explaining everything.”
Artists : Absalon, Gilles Aillaud, James Lee Byars, Chen Zhen, Willem de Kooning, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Hans Hartung, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joan Mitchell, Hannah Villiger.
What I bring home from this exhibition: No bleak, gloomy thoughts but the feeling of energy. All these works are highly dynamic and full of life, even if they are made in the face of illness and death. They are like a quest for freedom, for liberty, for the sense of life AND death at the same time. ….They make me wonder, maybe death finally isn’t final!
There is no space here to show you pictures of all the works, but I would like to share three of them with you.
Let’s begin with a picture of the Hans Hartung,a French painter of German origin and one of the most important representatives of ART ABSTRAIT, and of lyrical abstract art. Hans Hartung is sitting in a weelchair in his studio, painting directly onto the canvas with a device he has invented, a vine-spraying machine.
Exhibition Deadline HHartung1
Painting by Hans Hartung
In the year of his death (1989) Hans Hartung painted more than 300 paintings. I saw the one shown here in the exhibition, it is huge (approx 3 x 4 m / 10 x 13 feet)!
The second painter I would like to show here is Jörg Immendorff, one of the most well-known “art-personalities” in Germany. His work has been categorized as neo-expressionist, surrealist, symbolist, it was highly political at a moment. He was a member of the German art movement “Neue Wilde” (new wilds). You can find many pictures of his paintings on the internet, via Google Image, and those show mostly very colorful, very crowded pictures.
This too is a very large painting, but it has only few colors and is vaguely reminiscent of Max Ernst paintings, and collages of old copperplate prints. Jörg Immendorff, suffering of an illness which paralyzed him little by little, couldn’t paint anymore when he created this painting with the help of his assistants, who executed the collages according to his instructions.
Joerg Immendorff
The next artist’s work I have chosen to show here stands in stark contrast to the above work, it’s one of the late works of Willem de Kooning. The exhibition guide text says something like: De Kooning’s declining health has by some critics been used to disregard his late paintings from a certain date onwards before 1989, but some critis also say that de Koonings late paintings capture the essential.
WDEKooning
INSPIRATIONS: The night before I went to see the exhibition, I finished a novel by Paul Auster “Man in the Dark”, a novel about a man reflecting on his past, on life and death. The novel inspired me this little watercolor illustration, which in a way, goes well with todays post…
Man in the Dark
Filed under: ILLUSTRATIONS, exhibition notebook | Tagged: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museums
Andrea,
Wonderful post. Thank you for bringing this exhibition to those of us who cannot visit it.
I hope that your watercolor does not imply some sort of impending doom however.
Thanks Patricia, I love sharing this kind of impressions, I thought today that this must be what art is: bring up feelings in us, those feelings we all have, showing that we are all so different but the same. Or so…:)
Oh and now, there’s nothing hovering over my head in terms of gloominess or doom, I knock on wood:).
Believe me or not Andrea but when i scrolled down this post i stopped by the watercolor and thougt: yay, this is what i like. Then i saw it was yours.
Great work, i love it.
XXXm
Martine, that is a wonderful compliment, at first I was a bit reluctant to put my little watercolor painting underneath the art of these artists, but then I really think it goes with the topic….of a quest for sense, something which is not necessarily clear and light, but dark and full of question marks?
Oh Andrea, this is a wonderful post! I love how you have shared this very important exhibit. I love your watercolor and it fits so beautifully in this post and is so appropriate. It is beautiful.
You know, I love the concept of this exhibition. Hans Hartung’s work is so exciting. 300 paintings the last year of his life. It is so inspiring to think how much life he shared that year.
Jorg immendorff worked in some amazing times. He must have been so inspired by every turn in politics and culture of the time.
Of course, the last years of de Kooning’s life were filled with everyone around him dealing with his Alzheimer’s disease, although I do wonder if he was completely connecting with his creative spirit because of his disease.
What strikes me is just how much each of these artist were connected with the core of themselves and maybe their art was preparing them for the next phase of their life. How it seems they were doing what they were put here to do…create without worry of what someone else would think, what would sell, how it would get done and what they were led to do. I am thinking there is a great deal to be learned from an exhibition such as this from those who went before us. Your painting sure shows you are learning well!
Thank you so much, Andrea! This is truly a beautiful post. I feel quite sure I will visit it many more times!
Kim, I think this is such a “connecting” theme, I mean everybody feels concerned by this. And to imagine that we are always able to create, even if our hands or feet cannot do it anymore, that is a great thought which gives courage. At least that’s what I felt when I left this exhibition. Well, not everybody has assistants who can execute things we describe to them, but it’s not really about the technical aspect, it’s more about the spirit. You sure have to not worry of what someone else would think, as you say! This exhibition helps asking the question: what is the purpose of what I am doing artistically. Where am I going with it and why do I need to create….
Exactly Andrea! You are right, this is so much about the spirit of the thing and even with the studio assistants, it is truly about what comes from the core of these artists. The assistants often only prepared the support, right? Can you imagine the feeling of fulfillment? Wow! I can imagine feeling very honored to be able to see this in person! It overwhelms me to contemplate it. I am quite sure I would have cried. Beautiful! My hat is off to the person who conceived this exhibition!
Oh dear. I see i have been missing your posts and not sure why as I thought i signed up. This is an amazing show you saw. I see how it would be inspiring. I too love Paul Auster but havent read that bk. I adore your painting in response to it. Do you know of the artist Chuck Close? He was paralyzed by some strange disease but still paints and he uses an assistant to help too. But he is still alive.
PS R. Crumb began cartooning in the 60’s, ended up doing cartoon pages in the New Yorker though at first he was sort of “underground.” He now lives in France actually and just did an illustrated version of Genesis.
Hi Suki, thanks for you comment and visit. I know that when coming from Blogger, it’s a little more work to go to a WP blog and leave a comment. Normally the subscription should work, if you made it via my email-suscribe button in the sidebar. Please let me know if it doesn’t, so that I can do something about it. Thanks for mentioning Chuck Close and R. Crumb, I absolutely will do some research about them, their work sounds so interesting and encouraging!
I missed this somehow. Interesting show. Just not my cup of tea tho. but interesting all the same. Good to see other views.
Cris, yes I imagine that many people visiting the show feel like you. But it’s like you say, it’s so good to see other views, and know how other artists deal with it all (I mean life:).
What a wonderful post, Andrea. Thanks for sharing with those of us who haven’t got the opportunity to visit Paris. I really love your watercolour too – don’t find it gloomy at all.
Hi Laura, thanks for visiting and for your comment. I love to share Paris with all of you, and therefore try to see it with very “new eyes”! It’s a big motivation to know that we are able to actually discuss what we see as artists with other artists. Many of us don’t have the occasion to practise this kind of exchange very often, at least not in real life. So now we have the possibility to get to know other artist’s thoughts and views about art by internet, I think that’s really cool.
giving you a shout out over at my blog 12/10 xo