Dominus Venustas

Words of wisdom from Cezanne

There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.

The laying of the first brush stroke indicates the start of a balancing process in the entire painting surface. Hence, the first brush stroke must be balanced by another stroke elsewhere in the canvas and the next should be balanced by another, and so on and so forth…

When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art.

For an Impressionist to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realize sensations.

The eye, the mind. Balance on the painting surface. Purity in nature. Realising sensations. Here was a man who has thought through every aspect of painting; the process, the result, the reason, the beauty of it all.

A Great Art Historian remembers Picasso

Tonight I saw what it was to be a Great Art Historian, not a good one, but a Great one. Sir John Richardson, in conversation with Gijs van Hensbergen, talked of his friend Pablo Picasso. He told anecdotes and spoke of his memories with such eloquence, he filled the room with magic… and laughter. He brought the great Painter to life. 

He recalled how when Picasso was involved in a series of paintings he was completely inaccessible. When he was working on his Las Meninas series (he always yearned to return to Spain) Sir John was sitting downstairs beneath the studio with Jacqueline. He heard such banging and clanging and cursing like he had never heard before. Picasso was in a bad mood, he was working. He always included something unexpected or humorous in his paintings - in this one the renowned moustache of Velazquez was painted in. It amused him. 

When he spoke of Picasso’s last portrait (above) he grew sad. And thinks it to be his most powerful self portrait. Honest and unforgiving. He died a few weeks later.

Picasso was passionate about the poor and passionate about poetry. He wanted his tombstone to read:

Picasso - Poet and sometimes Painter

I for one will be seeking out and reading Sir John Richardson’s four volumes (the fifth and final being currently written) on the wonderful and enigmatic Picasso. He was painted by Francis Bacon and he was painted by Lucian Freud. And tonight I saw very clearly why. An intelligent, eloquent and very sincere man who feels passionately for his subject - Art. 

Oh and I even got to speak with him… *stars in my eyes*

Sir John Richardson and Picasso / Picasso self portrait / Las Meninas series

A Great Living British Artist

Leon Kossoff. The British painter we all know, whose work is filled with energy and enthusiasm for his subject. Drawings expressing the moment, the movement of life. Always trying, striving and succeeding to find the essence of what is before him. His work is sincere. And his passion is London. In his own words: ‘London is in my bloodstream’.

My studio is like a field, a field in a house. Muddy hillocks of paint-sodden newspapers cover the floor burying scraped-off images. Derelict boards stand in all the corners, remnants of recent activity… My dialogue with these discarded images left on the floor… Drawing is a springing to life in the presence of the friend in the studio to in the sunlit summer streets of London… painting is the deepening of this process.

Note to Londoners: Exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art - London Landscapes. The show will tell you all you need to know about Leon.

The Flower Stall, Embankment Station, 1994 / Christ Church, Spitalfields / Arnold Circus, 2008-10 / Leon Kossoff, 1972

Fifteenth century Venice. Tensions between the East and West continued…

In September, 1479, Venetian painter Gentile Bellini, was sent to Constantinople to see and impress Sultan Mehmed II. It was the centre of the Ottoman Empire and he was an important cultural Ambassador.

The Venetian government did not send a politician. They did not send a Captain of a Fleet. They sent an Artist. Such was the esteemed position of artists in Venice at this time.

While there he drew and painted Turkish figures. Beautifully. 

Gentile Bellini, Turkish Figures / Self-Portrait

Picasso… had a sense of humour!

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things. - Picasso

…He conquered the New York Art World

A work of art can be any imaginable thing, and this is the beginning of modern painting. - GB, 1923

George Bellows’ artistic life was one of restless experimentation. From the dark and gritty underground of New York’s working class to the bright and eloquent leisurely days out of its upper class, his work was that of a social observer. Emotional force, exaggerated forms and themes of urban realism.

Manet was his artistic hero.

Try everything that can be done. Be deliberate. Be spontaneous. Be thoughtful and painstaking. Be abandoned and impulsive. Learn your own possibilities. - GB, 1920

Note to Londoners: George Bellows: Modern American Life at the Royal Academy is a wonderful show. A glimpse into the life and work of a great American artist. Look out for the beautifully composed boxer lithographs and the extraordinary light of the snow paintings.

Tony Eyton - Grand Old Man of Art

Now this is a painter, in the great British tradition, who has achieved much through the recent decades. His paintings are diverse in subject matter and consistent in their ability to capture the essence of the subject through colour and form.  From the Camberwell School of Arts painters camp, and turning 90 in two days, he is still painting with astounding vigour and enthusiasm. Quite an achievement. There are very few left of his kind. 

He paints models and still lifes in his studio. His garden outside his studio. He jumps on planes to the far reaches of the earth (Australia) to paint great wonders of the world - Ayers Rock or the glorious rich colours of India. He sits on the streets of London, in Spitalfields, an old and current haunt, drawing the people and places that surround him. In pastel, paint, watercolour or lead. He has travelled four continents. There is no stopping this painter. He is full of life, full of adventure and full of devotion to his art. It is inspiring.

“At art school, we were taught drawing, but nothing about drawing outside, though I’ve always drawn people in situations, and this was re-inforced when I went to Italy after art school and drew people in the streets there – it’s so much part of Renaissance painting, placing figures in spaces.” (Quote from Spitalfields Life)

Note to Londoners: If in or around Cork St his latest show at Browse and Darby is worth a look. More than worth it.

The Painter, the Sculptor and the Writer

Paula Modersohn-Becker and Clara Rilke-Westhoff had a strong friendship. A painter and a sculptor. In their early twenties they both left Germany to conquer the art world of Paris. They remained devoted friends through their lives and shared a creative bond in their passion of art. They had a mutual love for Cezanne’s work. They were modern women and modern artists. And married creative men. Paula to painter  Otto Modersohn and Clara to writer Rainer Rilke.

Letter to her mother, 26 November 1905, Paula:

Mornings I’m painting Clara Rilke in a white dress, her head and part of her hand and a red rose. She looks very beautiful and I hope I can capture something of her… I’m happy to be getting together with Clara frequently like this. In spite of everything she is still dearest to me. For two or three weeks she lived very close to Rodin [her mentor], and is still very much under the influence of his personality and his great, simple maxims…

Clara Rilke-Westhoff reminiscences:

Paula painted me while my little daughter sat on the floor and played… One winter afternoon we were both sitting by the stove in her little atelier. Paula threw one piece of peat on the other through a little squeaking door in the kiln, as one tear after another rolled down her cheek while she explained to me how very important it was for her to be out ‘in the world’ again, to go back to Paris again.

‘When I think of it, the world’ - she said.

So, Clara was married to the great poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke. He was also a great friend of Paula, whom he had always loved… unrequitedly. A year after Paula’s death he wrote the beautiful, eloquent and very moving Requiem for a Friend over two haunted nights.

Extract ‘Requiem for a Friend’:

…For this is wrong, if anything is wrong: not to enlarge the freedom of a love with all the inner freedom one can summon. We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.

Images: Painting of Clara by Paula / Painting of Rainer Maria Rilke by Paula / Paula and Clara