History of Art Literature Anthologies
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Florent Fels,
Propos d'Artistes
[The Propositions of the Artists]
Paris, Le Renaissance du livre, 1925, 215 pages
Paris, Le Renaissance du livre, 1925, 215 pages
Review by Francesco Mazzaferro. Part Two
[Original version: May 2017 - New Version: April 2019]
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| Fig. 14) Florent Fels, Maurice de Vlaminck, The Life and the Artist, 1928. On the cover page: Maurice de Vlaminck, Self-portrait with pipe, 1920 |
It is difficult,
and perhaps even contrary to the anarchic-individualist philosophy of Florent Fels, to draw a single set of conclusions from reading a collection that he conceived
(as already explained in the first part of this post) mainly to offer an image of
the diversity of motivations and arguments of contemporary artists. However, it
seems to me that an attempt is indispensable, unless we do not simply accept to
consider Propos d'Artistes [19] as a simple piece of journalism. In the
first part of this post, we saw Fels as the protagonist of an attempt of a
Franco-German dialogue. However, if we look at him in a purely French context,
as we will do in the second part, he was probably also part of an anti-Cubist faction,
which sought confirmation in the propositions expressed by fauvist (Derain, de
Vlaminck, Utrillo) and eclectic (Ensor) artists, as well as by those younger
painters who were looking for a naturalist production (Friesz, Kisling, Pascin,
Dunoyer de Segonzac). It was a trend which, paradoxically, found legitimacy
even in the latest texts by Picasso. Although he came from the Dadaist /
Surrealist universe and had an anarchic cultural setting, Fels was therefore a partisan of the return to classicism (and this is a parallel to his German correspondent Paul Westheim).
Of course, this
position was not so perceptible to transform Propos
des Artistes into a fully-fledged aesthetic manifesto. Fels' texts, however,
had the singularity (as already explained) to mix the voices of the artists
with that of the author, creating a fabric that - in terms of literary genre - was
halfway between interview and anthology, and thus allowed to express beliefs and
aesthetic inclinations. In the postscript, Fels explained that the collection was
combining artists he felt to be closer to him with others who did not represent
his ideas but were fashionable. For that reason, he - as the author of Propos
d’Artistes - did not want to pass judgments on the artists and their works,
but leave the floor to them. However, it seems to me that a more careful
reading of the seventeen chapters allows for weaving a plot, identifying some
relevant aspects in the artists’ statements, or using the French term in their
"propositions".
In fact, I feel
it is probable that Fels - in the course of the conversations that were the
basis of the collection - raised a few common topics for discussion with
several of his counterparts. So, for example, he collected statements of
painters on the theme of international art. For Chagall, "art is international, but the artist must be
national" [20]; for Ensor, who nevertheless noted how easy it had
become to travel around the world, "painting
will never be an international art. Men-painters, like other men, more than
other men, more than others, differ in gestures, attitudes, language, taste, education,
race, accent and construction" [21]. The same was said by de Vlaminck,
who made the strongest statements: "For
me, art cannot be, and art is not international. This is a utopia that poisons
painting and literature. Art is local and individualistic, like a rose plant on
its soil, an orange plant in a Mediterranean garden. You may well have
international currencies, locomotives, homelands; an international army may
occupy the moon; instead, there cannot be an international art. Likewise, there
cannot be an international cuisine or medicine. You can acclimatize an orange
plant in Norway, my children can go around the world; and yet the origin of
life, which assigns a place to the human being or its work, is local. Painters
dream too much of international merchants, they end up forgetting the main
thing, painting" [22]. Only on
Matisse, Fels wrote: "The artist
aspires to universal harmony and art is the only international language"
[23]. So, if Fels was part of a cultural dialogue with Germany (as extensively
documented in the first part of this post), the culture in which he lived was
often - I allow myself the term - still basically 'tribal': the world was
divided into different sensitivities and cultural distances were unbreakable.
Probably he opposed those artistic movements, which - in their intellectual radicalism
- instead aimed at creating new single references (such as abstract art,
cubism, constructivism and socialist realism) across the globe, suppressing national schools.
Likewise, Fels
asked many artists whether they usually visited museums. He probably raised the
question because he wanted to check their relationship with classical
traditions. The answers were sometimes ambiguous and sometimes dogmatic. Only
James Ensor gave him a review of paintings by Rubens, Jordaens, Bruegel and the
Flemings, proving to know by heart Brussels galleries [24]. Friesz narrated
instead that, in a day of leave from the front of the First World War, he had been
introduced to Cezanne in the Dutch Hall at the Louvre. The master advised him:
"Ah! Yes, the ancients. You must
always come and admire them, ask them questions, then ... when you leave ...
silence! You have to forget them" [25]. "I am visiting museums" said Moïse Kisling, "but I do not draw any inspiration from any
master, and no one puts me under his influence, but rather provides me a sort
of attitude, heroic will and ideal" [26]. Pascin confessed: "When I was a young man, I made a lot of
studying in the museums, but now I do not go anymore: I have not seen any of
the paintings which are exposed at the Louvre" [27]. De Vlaminck was
even more explicit: "I never go to a
museum. I flee its smell, monotony and severity" [28].
In the present
part of this post, I will reserve more space to Maurice de Vlaminck
(1876-1958) because of his great friendship with Fels (1891-1977), notwithstanding
their difference in age. The series "Propos d'Artistes" opened in "Les Nouvelles Littéraires" on May 26, 1923 [29] exactly with an article devoted to him. Always
to him it was dedicated the book "Propos d'Artistes" 1925. Finally, Fels published a monograph on him in 1928 [30].
At the end of this article, I am translating the whole text of Fels on de
Vlaminck, also to provide an example of the aesthetic criteria, the narrative
technique and the author's use of the language.
First of all,
however, here is a brief review of the 'propositions' of the other artists.
Claude Monet
The first
chapter of Propos des Artistes was
the exact reproduction of the article published in "Les
Nouvelles Littéraires" on February 2, 1924, in
which Fels talked about the meeting with the old painter in the village of Giverny,
north of Paris. "I am looking at
you, but I do not see you" [31]: so Monet (1840-1926) began the talk,
explaining that the eyes operation of ten years before had not fully restored
his visual abilities; he saw shadows, and sometimes light flashes. Monet
considered a "scandal" [32]
the (in his opinion excessive) prices at which his canvases were being sold,
and talked about all art traders - and even those market players who had been decisive
for the success of impressionism, such as Durand-Ruel [33] - like cynics who did
not really love his art at all. He told of his solitude after many painters and
friends of his generation had died, recalled his cooperation with Cézanne and
Renoir, and expressed joy for the visits of the young Bonnard and Vuillard and
their spirit of "battle and
discovery" [34]. Finally he told about the Cubists: "I'm sure they are worth more than what you
can think of them from reproductions in art magazines" [35].
Théodore Duret
The original
article of January 12, 1924 was the story of a New Year's Eve which Fels
celebrated along with the ninety-year-old art critic and merchant Théodore
Duret (1838-1927). Fels, who allegedly had family ties with him (he claimed to
be his natural niece [36]), considered him as the great defender of
Impressionism and the "champion of
the new aesthetic" [37] (not only of Impressionism: he also discovered
the importance of Japanese art and was the first French to appreciate Wagner
[38]). Duret recalled Manet's personal career, born as a wealthy man but dead as
a poor man, and yet always living with great dignity [39]. He added a few words
on the relationship between the painter and Zola [40]. As for modern painters, he
claimed not to know them (he told instead of his deep friendship with Courbet
[41]): his activity as art critic stopped in any case with the generation of
Renoir (1841-1919) [42].
Marc Chagall
Chagall
(1887-1985), the Russian artist, said Fels that he loved Russia but Paris more
than anything [43]. In response, Fels considered him to be a "truly French-inspired painter" [44]
for having "dared to colour on the
edge of the impossible" [45]. The painter recounted his hatred for any
intellectualism and official events, such as the Parisian Salons (he loved to
live secluded). He spoke enthusiastically of war as an occasion for aesthetic
renewal: "Another plastic work,
where we have immersed ourselves totally and which recreated the forms,
destroyed the lines and re-assembled a new aspect of the universe" [46]. He acknowledges that he had
collaborated with the Bolshevik government in the early years when - believing
in a "proletarian art" [47]
- he even admitted to the art academy plasterers "who knew the painter's job better than me" [48]. Along with
them he decorated "houses, trams,
railway wagons" [49]. But his final appraisal was bitter: "Proletarian art produced nothing. We simply
broke the heart to some human being" [50].
André Derain
Of Dérain
(1880-1954) as a man, Fels admired intelligence and wit, and he liked of him as
a painter the "technical and
psychological research of art" [51], based on a radical simplification
of the palette. But Dérain was also a person with whom it was always difficult
to build an empathic relationship, even after several years. Fels said it always
took a good half an hour to "unfreeze" [52] him and still he used to
address him as "Monsieur Fels" [53] despite their long acquaintance.
In short, he was a great bourgeois, accustomed to keeping distances. And, I
believe for this reason, the interview was all related to theoretical themes
and did not let anything out of the long relationship between the two.
"The transposition of figures and objects is a consequence of the original plastic creation. It allows the identification of styles, and it is the basis of every creative genius. Whether it be El Greco or Delacroix, Giotto or Fouquet, the form recreated by their senses is unintentionally found, but it determines the rhythm of the work" [54]. In this sense, art is an expression of eternal restlessness, which does not belong only to the moderns. Art history lives, in fact, simply of marginal increases to perfection. And yet, to confirm the person's difficulty, the last proposition expressed to Fels was rather unfriendly: "I am objecting to a single conversation being presented as the essence of my thinking. I want to have the right to be wrong" [55].
James Ensor
The long interview with James Ensor (1860-1949) started with a recollection of the early years at the Brussels academy and retraced the whole life. First, he told of his early antipathy for Rubens [56], then of his return of interest for the colour of the Flemings, "precursors of Chardin, Courbet and the realistic masters" [57], of his sympathy for Bruegel [58], but also the eclectic interest he had for Ingres (and for "his severe lines" [59]). Ensor was well aware of having anticipated expressionism with his "Christ's Entry Into Brussels" of 1889 [60]. He narrated all the experiments that, after that, further departed him more and more from the painting of his time. He explained that the technique in him "varies according to the subject" [61] and that he employed "all possible ways" [62] (including "cubist masses, impressionist flakes, futuristic splinters, dada knights, expressionist gestures, constructivist links" [63] and looking for “a thin deformation of the line, which is eaten up by colours" [64]), but that his eclecticism did not mean that there was no limit to what he considered acceptable. He was in fact a sworn enemy of Divisionism ("I detest the breakup of light, the punctuation that tends to kill both sentiment and personal and naive vision" [65]), and in general of any holistic system that cannot be combined with others: "all rules, all canons of art vomit death" [66]. He did not say well even of Cubism, in his view an undifferentiated and homogeneous pictorial structure: "Ardently, I condemn every uniform and perpetual decision. Cubism, a beautiful gimmick, beautiful fragments scattered in crystals, shaking the retina, composition of movements, a reactionary need [67]".
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| Fig. 15) Maurice de Vlaminck, the first volume of memoirs, entitled "Stories and poems of my age", 1927 |
Othon Friesz
Othon Friesz
(1879-1949), today one of the least-known painters among those included in Propos
d’Artistes, appeared instead in the anthology as one
of the animators of French painting innovation in the early 1900s. In 1904 he
contributed to creating the movement of the Fauves
("Savage beasts"), first a name attributed to them as a reproach, but
which "had to stay here with us. It
designed those who used the laws of complementary colours and contrasts,
breaking with Impressionism. The coloured composition, filtered through the
brain of the painter, obliged us to give colours their absolute value with the
appropriate volume to their effect. (...) I met with Derain, Matisse. (...) We
had very precise conversations on our works, giving birth to new concepts" [68]. He pursued the goal of the triumph of
pure colour, until (in parallel with Derain and de Vlaminck) he finally broke
with fauvism in 1908 ("creators of
fauvism, we were the first to immolate it" [69]) and began an
impetuous search across vanguard movements, leading him to Cubism and many
experiments. Then, it happened what we might call a manifestation of 'return to
order' (an expression that Friesz never used in the quoted pages). "Since a year" Fels declared, "the relaxation of all these researches, of
all this collection of materials allows me to work a bit with my heart. After
assimilating the theories, I now find the emotions of my fifteen years after a
trip to the countries of aesthetics. I have the right to make a portrait, a
nude, without feeling it is a sacrilege, in a natural and safe way" [70].
With regard to travels, he quoted those in Italy to admire Giotto [71] and
Raphael [72] and the strong impression he got from art in Portugal [73].
Georg Grosz
Fels expressed
all his admiration for the only German painter in the anthology, Georg Grosz
(1893-1959), and his willingness to challenge Prussian military power at a time
when, right after the defeat in World War One, the communist insurgents of 1918
were still shot in Berlin's prisons [74]. He therefore celebrated him as the
German equivalent of Daumier [75], the artist supporting the French Commune in
1871. It has been said in the first part of this post that Fels wrote much
about Grosz. "Instinctively –
these are Fels’ words in the section of the chapter where he was expressing his
views – Grosz is as aggressive as the
Germans are: in their history, in their «moral
order», in their representation
of the categorical imperatives. But it's hard to keep the measure, to suppress
the outbreaking libido of a vigorous people" [76]. Here's how Grosz responded: "It has always been said that a true painter
should be an idiot. On the other hand, it is repeated that artists are the
nobility of each nation. Does the nobility of the nation have the right to
confine itself to the culture of feelings and to remain ignorant of everything
else? I think the artist's duty is rather to acquire more knowledge, even at
the risk to become more hating rather than loving" [77].
Moïse Kisling
Even in the case
of Moïse Kisling (1891-1953) we are facing a comparatively less well-known
artist than others (incidentally, he was among the youngest mentioned in Propos d'Artistes). Portraitist, he certainly
belonged to the circle of friends of Fels since the time of Action magazine. Cahiers individualistes de
philosophie et d'art in 1920. Concerning Kisling, Fels was convinced that he
already belonged to the history of modern painting, for his contribution to
fauvism. The painter answered: "What
I have acquired is a faculty of observation that has allowed me now to find the
most intimate reason for things. I do not make psychological portraits, but I
am trying, thanks to the atmosphere, the dress, the exterior appearance of the
body, the intense life of the face or hands to place my characters in their
current existence" [79]. He
added some comments both on the failure of Cubism and on the need for
a "return to the classic, which is
all just about my fright of making mistakes" [80].
Fels drew Fernand
Léger's statements (1881-1955) largely from the conference on "The Aesthetics of the Machine. The
Manifacturing - The Craftsman and the Artist", which he held at the
College of France in 1924. The text had been already published in the first
issue of the seminal art journal Bulletin de l'effort moderne [81] edited by Léonce
Rosenberg, and in the magazine Sélection [82].
André Lhote
Lhote
(1885-1962) is today commonly known as a cubist. The 'propositions' that Fels
expressed were instead those of an eclectic who did not want to be subjected to
any art stream. "I am painting for
the taste of dissolution. Art, in fact, is nothing else, in my opinion, than a
spiritual dissolution. No other activity allows me so delicious mistakes. The
day I will be convinced that art is something other than the arbitrary use of
nature in the whims of sensitivity, I will cease to paint. If I love theories and laws which I have
invented for my personal use, it is not to remain their prisoner, but rather
for the pleasure of being unfaithful to them. One day, I will write an Aesthetics
of Unfaithfulness" [88]. Lhote knew
that he was called the "head of
neoclassicism", even though he did not share this honour at all: he
desecrated the orientation of those who suddenly sought reference in Poussin,
David and Ingres [89], because classicalism "implies a bold attitude of the spirit and not a school application, or
the sterile use of procedures that have now passed" [90]. And yet he believed that the "elements of the pictorial technique that has
disappeared" [91] had to be recovered (and one would think of the essay
Ritorno al mestiere (Return to craft) by Giorgio de Chirico, published in the Italian
journal Valori Plastici in 1919 [92]).
Henri Matisse
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| Fig. 16) Maurice de Vlaminck, a volume of memoirs entitled "A dangerous turning" , 1929 |
Jules Pascin
With Julien
Pascin (1885-1930) Fels faced a real cosmopolitan: born in Bulgaria by a
Sephardic Jewish family (with origins in Spain and Italy), he took the American
citizenship but lived in Paris. Pascin told him about the different sensations
of the US and French audience, explained that Charlie Chaplin was much more loved
in Europe than in the United States [94] and spoke of contemporary art across
the Atlantic, not without some ingenuity: "Young American painters are not lacking in talent, but a few centuries
will have to go before one can talk about American painting worthy of that
wonderful country. One who had a great influence to get American artists out of
their provincialism and to make New Yorkers know the artistic possibilities of
their city is Marchel Duchamp" [95]. The last words on Duchamp were
devoted to the embarrassment for his decision to leave art and to devote himself
professionally to chess, around 1920.
Picasso
(1881-1973) was presented by Fels as "the
most dynamic of the painters, the one whose work is never immobile and always confronts
us with new problems, revealing more open possibilities in terms of form and
colour. He is also the most discussed
and the most copied" [96]. He reproduced of him (as already explained
in the first part of this post) much of the Declaration on Cubism, originally delivered
in Spanish to the Mexican art critic Marius de Zayas [97] and published in
English in 1923 [98]. Fels however forgot to mention de Zayas and his
interviews as the source of those words, which today are very famous, but
perhaps looked in those days like the text of an exclusive interview of Fels with him: "We know today that art is not truth. Art is
a lie that allows us to approach the truth, at least the truth that is
understandable to us. The artist must invent the way to convince the public of
the whole truth of his lies" [99]. It would seem pure
narcissism, but from it Picasso derived the rejection of any experimentation
and of abstract art ("the greatest
mistake in modern art. The search spirit has intoxicated those who did not
understand all the positive side of modern art and want to paint the invisible
and not the pictorial" [100]). It looked like a direct attack against Paul Klee and his famous motto that “Art does not
reproduce the visible but makes visible”, published in the “Creative Confession” of 1920. The words of Picasso that followed must have seemed astonishing to many readers: in reality, David, Ingres and
even Bouguereau were not naturalist; likewise, Cubism was not abstraction.
"Cubism was no different from
conventional painting schools. The same principles and the same elements were
common to all" [101].
Georges Rouault
Roualt (1871
-1958), considered today as the French fauvist closest to German expressionism,
told us "I never worked with the
Fauvists. My only influence is Rembrandt" [102]. For Fels, he was rather a cursed
painter, close to El Greco and Bosch for temperament, and an exceptionally
original spirit in France. Fels reproduced his Baptism of Christ, a theme that the painter would repeatedly develop
in the following years. In Propos de
Artistes, Rouault in particular recalled the years with his teacher, the
symbolist Gustave Moreau [103], whom he compared to Degas and Renoir [104]. The
memoirs were accompanied by poems by Rouault on classic themes ("Orpheus",
"Ingres’ Drawings", "Classic Composition",
"Miserere" [105]).
Dunoyer de
Segonzac (1884-1974) was a coetaneous of Fels, who was not only a personal friend
of him, but also shared his approach: "Neither
realist nor naturist, he is nature in itself. He gave a new appearance to
objects [106]. (...) Freedom and
order, lightness and strength, Dunoyer de Segonzac is a true French [107]".
The painter's statements were a real uprising against any avant-garde, and had
a taste of conservative, perhaps even reactionary radicalism. "And here is the era of Cubism [108] (...) Symbol of the anti-natural art that
we have undergone in the last fifteen years. Nobody dares to make a gesture -
it's too simple ... and too hard ... - A grimace has more effect: it's stronger
and more advanced [109] (...) I feel
that in France we want to resume being natural. Aestheticism is the death of art.
With the theories of the last few years we get closer to the mentality of
Rosicrucianism, Pre-Raphaelites, and so on, than to the time of purity, like
archaic Greece, the twelfth-century French, the nineteenth century of Corot, and
finally Cézanne and Rousseau" [110].
Utrillo (1883-1955)
was one of Fels’ great favourites. He published in Propos d’Artistes a version of the Church of Saint-Séverin of 1922, different from the previous one (and
though very similar) today exhibited at the National Gallery in Washington. The
image of 1922 also displayed the signboard of the painter's atelier (with the
words: Paintings of all types),
absent in that of 1913.
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| Fig. 17) The German translation of de Vlamincks memoirs, entitled "Danger in advance" (1930) |
Maurice de Vlaminck
The following pages [114] are the complete
translation into English of Fels’ chapter on Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) in
the volume of Propos d'Artistes of
1925 (pages 189-201). That chapter was an expanded version of the text already
published in Le Nouvelles Littéraires
on 26 May 1923. Following the conventions of the book, the text in normal
characters is what expressed the point of view of Fels, the one in italics is
attributable to de Vlaminck. The style was strongly inspired by literary
writing. In some cases the syntax was free. Some steps were strongly characterized
by metaphorical expressions. In the case of controversial passages, I indicated
the French text in the note. I would like to thank for any proposals for a
better translation, if the need be.
***
Art is opposed
to general ideas, it does not describe
if not what is individual. It does not desire if now what
is unique
Marcel Schwor
if not what is individual. It does not desire if now what
is unique
Marcel Schwor
Vlaminck was
born in Paris, in the district of Halles, Rue Pierre-Lescot, in the Decugis
house, where one could buy supplies as well as exotic and first fruits, on
April 4, 1876. His family is of Flemish origin.
The ladies of Les
Halles, the blue-gray cabbage, the mighty women, the midwives, a little white
glass at the inn's table, the smell of alcohol on the oranges, mixed with the
aroma that sprinkles from the fruits and legumes of the Ile-de-France, common
sense, energy in action [115].
His father was a
musician. [Maurice] played the violin like a gipsy, almost without having
studied it, and lived of it up to 35 years old, adding to his limited income
sources what he was amassing from a few cycling racing championships.
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| Fig. 18) Maurice de Vlaminck, a further volume of memoirs entitled "Open belly" (1937) |
He would never
have wanted to live out of his painting. «I would have been afraid they would tell me:
You're sturdy, you could have gone to work.» He has never ceased his
work as gipsy violinist and his cyclist races, since he realized that although
he had gained only a few hundred francs a month, that money did not enrich his
merchant but could feed his wife and daughter.
Even in
painting, Vlaminck does not always give everything. He still has a lot to say.
He expresses
himself through painting, but also loves to offer his contemporaries
annihilating anecdotes, comic poems, and common sense expressions. «How did you manage to write
so many things?» somebody asked Voltaire. - «It was enough not to live in Paris», he answered. If
Vlaminck can write and paint so much, it is because he has not been deterred
from doing so either by worldly spectacles nor Paris. It is the countryman whom
the chiromancers assign a role to change the course of things [118].
He is not an
original man, he is a temper.
Having painted
for pure joy, he continues to work in this way, for his and our joy, sensitive
to the tragedy and tenderness of the Parisian banlieue, to those landscapes
that resemble the pleasure of Sunday, conjugal dramas and crime news. He is
also a still-life painter, just like his ancestors, the Dutch.
His friend of
youth, André Derain, once said: «Vlaminck, the most painter of all of us».
Painter of
temperament, you will see what he thinks about the technique of the fourth
dimension [editor's note: this is four-dimensional geometry. Henri Poincaré's
essay on Science and Hypothèse, published in 1902, influenced all French
contemporary art from Matisse and the Cubists] and various aesthetic concepts.
... One must have a good understanding of the classic.
A classic is not the one who gathers and fits to what was once well done. The
classic recreates the world for himself, just as it gives life. He does not
deal with others, but cares of himself. The primitives created a world equal to
what they were themselves, as they saw it following their vision and not on the
basis of a model. The first man I loved was my father, but I did not think
about him to produce a canvas or make a son. There is no other model than life.
Do not make confusion between serving and being enslaved.
The arm may be too long, the leg too short: if that
expresses what is to be expressed, it is good that it is so. When you do a baby
in nature, without knowing how to do it, you do not take an example. The work
of art, simply art, is born when it possesses the medium, the gift: it is not
the product of his own character, defects and qualities. Race, ancestry,
pedigree are of primary importance for men as well as for animals. At the base
of art there is instinct. Such a man, such a painting. The classic is the man who
creates. Every time I make a canvas, it's as if I started all over again, all
my work and even painting. Monsieur Ingres does not help me in my job. If I'm
not able to create, I'm not an artist, but a copyst.
... Modern people think too often as architects. A
phone call, you get cement from Portland, coal from the Ruhr, the fourth dimension
from Poland. But in this way we do not get that small house that looks like us
and it's a little bit different.
... There are too many men of letters who only aim at manipulating
prizes. That is why I resigned from the Prix des Peintres Committee [Editor's
note: Created in 1923 and not renewed. It was a prize that a group of painters
assigned to a writer]. It's amazing how I'm loved by the writers after this
famous award was inaugurated. My house is so invaded by literature that I find
no more peace to work. If I had voted, it would be for a man I can evaluate
because of his work. A despicable man cannot be a true artist. The works of Max
Jacob, made of unattainable metaphors, disgust me, and Paul Morand who has no
courage to use a grid, and Serge de Lenz, not even to use literature, day and
night, caring only of his shiny boots [119]. There are also many young writers who may like me. But certainly
not those with their culture being fed by chemical fertilizers, capable of
achieving a literary prize in just two months as a simple driving license.
I never go to a museum. I flee its smell, monotony and
severity. I find the same hatred of my grandfather when I cut school [120]. I strive to paint with
all my strength without worrying about style.
I should not please anybody, except myself.
A priori styles like cubism, futurism, and so on. etc.
leave me indifferent. I'm not a fashion designer, neither a doctor nor a science
man.
I hate science. I ignore math, the fourth dimension,
the golden section.
I detest the word «classic» in the sense that it employs the public.
Crazy people frighten me. The rational, mathematical,
cubist and scientific madness of August 4, 1914 [editor's note: the date of
World War I] has cruelly demonstrated us the failure of idealism. I do not
believe in strength. When you are strong, you are rich. When you are strong you
are good. If you are weak, it is only good for cowardice.
... What I would like to say, shouting, is that our
age is terribly devoid of common sense. And in the end, genius is a bit of common
sense. We are forgetting elementary life. All this began before the war. I
think this was the origin of the war. I always thought of the war as a Cubist
accident. When you are capable of enduring a Cubist work, you are ready to
admit war, the ultimate war, the legitimate war, etc. Even the communiqué was a
cubist. Poincaré: [Raymond Poincaré, 1860-1934, President of the Republic
during World War I]. Even his name is Cubist. «The more
you retire, the more you win», Lieutenant Colonel
Rousset said and Clemenceau stated, «Up to the
last man, up to the last horse. » Up to the last point,
up to the last line. The ultimate beauty, nothing. No more is seen. It's
admirable.
... crisis of responsibility. Men have lost the
capacity to say yes and say no, even when it comes to their existence. They
dare nothing more. The art of our era? Art made of theories, metaphysical
painting, where abstraction replaces sensitivity. Art lacking moral health,
reduces everything to speculation, borrows from mathematics, geometry,
twentieth century of culture, twentieth-century art that plunders the Negroes
of Ivory Coast and devours the New Hebrides cannibals. In art, theories have
the same utility as doctors' recipes: To believe in them, you must be sick.
... I do not go to the funeral, I do not dance on July
14 [Editor's note: National Holiday Day in France, Anniversary of the Bastille
Ghetto], I do not bet on horses and do not manifest on the road. I love
children.
 |
| Fig. 19) Maurice de Vlaminck, the last volume of memoirs entitled "Landscapes and figures", 1953 |
NOTES
[19] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, Paris, La Renaissance du livre, 1925, 215 pages.
[20] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 33
[21] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p 54
[22] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 195-196
[23] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 123
[24] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 49-51
[25] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 67-68
[26] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 93
[27] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 132
[28] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 199
[30] Fels, Florent,
Vlaminck, Paris, Marcel Seheur, 1928, 205 pagine.
[31] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 14
[32] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 15
[33] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 16
[34] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 18
[35] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 18
[36] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 22
[37] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 23
[38] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 24
[39] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 25
[40] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 26
[41] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 27
[42] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 28
[43] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 33
[44] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 32
[45] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 32
[46] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 33
[47] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 34
[48] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 33
[49] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 34
[50] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 34
[51] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 37
[52] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 161
[53] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 161
[54] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 41-42
[55] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 43
[56] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 49
[57] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 50
[58] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 50
[59] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 51
[60] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 52
[61] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 56
[62] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 56
[63] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 56-57
[64] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 56
[65] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 59
[66] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 59
[67] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 59
[68] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 5-66
[69] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 69
[70] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 70-71
[71] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 68
[72] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 68
[73] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 68
[74] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 75
[75] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 76
[76] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 77
[77] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 78
[78] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 78-79
[79] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 91
[80] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 92
[81] Léger,
Fernand - L'esthétique de la machine :
l'objet fabriqué. L'artisan et l'artiste, in: Bulletin de l'effort moderne,
January 1924, No. 1, pages 5-7.
[82] Léger,
Fernand - L'esthétique de la machine:
l'objet fabriqué, l'artisan et l'artiste, in "Sélection", Year 3,
No. 4, February 1924, pages 374-382.
[83] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 103
[84] Westheim,
Paul - Künstlerbekenntnisse: Briefe,
Tagebücher, Betrachtungen heutiger Künstler, Berlin, Propyläen, 1923,
359 pagine.
[85] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 98
[86] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 99
[87] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistess, (quoted), pp. 101-102
[88] Fels, Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 111-112
[88] Fels, Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 111-112
[89] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 117
[90] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 118
[91] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 116
[92] De
Chirico, Giorgio - Il ritorno al mestiere, in “Valori Plastici”, Roma, anno I,
n.11-12, novembre-dicembre 1919, pagine 15-19.
[93] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 126-127
[94] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 135
[95] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 136
[96] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 140-141
[97]
Picasso, Pablo – Propos d'artistes, 1923
[98] De
Zayas, Marius – Picasso speaks, in: The Arts, New York, May 1923, paged 315-326
[99] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 141
[100] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 141-142
[101] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 143
[102] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 157
[103] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 150 and following
[104] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 151
[105] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 154-155
[106] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 163
[107] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 164
[108] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 165
[109] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 166
[110] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 167
[111] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), p. 179
[112] Fels, Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 180-181
[112] Fels, Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 180-181
[113] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 181-182
[114] Fels,
Florent - Propos d'artistes, (quoted), pp. 189-201
[115] Les dames de la Halle, le gris bleu des
choux, les forts, les commères, le coup de blanc au zinc, l’odeur d’éther des
oranges, mêlée à l’arôme expirant des fruits et légumes de l’Ile-de-France, le
bon sens, l’ardeur au travail.
[116] Élevé au Vésinet, où les rivières sont de
ciment, les grilles d’or (Vlaminck les passait au minium pour embêter le bourgeois), où la végétation des jardins
est de boules solaires, la faune aquatique, de poissons rouges, le nougat
servant à fabriquer de maisons ornées de fausses fenêtres, de poivrières, de
cuisines à mâchicoulis, de remises à outils garnies de créneaux, de bancs
verts, de chaises de fer, sur lesquelles on ne peut s’asseoir, le tout de chez
Allez frères, et payables en bons Dufayel.
[117] Le jour où le marchand Vollard vint lui
acheter « son atelier », lorsque la voiture de déménagement chargée
de ses toiles et d’une table qu’il avait sculptée – donnée par-dessus le marché
– eut disparu ; il se reprocha d’avoir trompé « ce brave homme »
en lui cédant ses ouvres pour une somme modique.
[118] C’est l’homme de la campagne auquel les
chiromanciennes attribuent un rôle lorsqu’il fait faire tourner la chance.
[119] Si j’avais voté, c’eût été pour un homme
que je pusse estimer à travers son œuvre. Un homme méprisable ne peut être un
véritable artiste. Les œuvres de Max Jacob fabriquées à coup de métaphores
invérifiables me dégoûtent, et Paul Morand qui n’a pas le courage de se servir
d’une pince-monseigneur, Serge de Lenz de la littérature, de jour comme de nuit,
a le cœur en bottines vernies.
[120] J’y retrouve les colères de mon grand-père
quand je faisais l’école buissonnière.
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