La Diagonale du Fou

par Jean-Michel Bouhours,
conservateur au musée national d'art moderne, commissaire de l'exposition Arman



"Je suis placé en fianchetto", répondait Arman à Marcel Duchamp en 1961, à New York. Il tentait par ce subterfuge d'attirer sur lui l'attention du "maître". En utilisant ce langage de joueur d'échecs – qui désigne la place du fou en contrôle de la diagonale –, l'artiste français, signataire du manifeste des nouveaux réalistes en octobre 1960, décrivait sa position sur la carte de la scène artistique française : regardant Paris depuis Nice, il se figurait sur cet axe majeur avec devant lui une perspective quasi infinie.

Arman affectionnait les boîtes, les cases, les territoires prospectifs du jeu d'échec et surtout du jeu de go. Déplaçons-nous, pour aborder Arman, sur les huit cases d'une hypothétique diagonale du fou.



A.1 : Le monde est grand, mais, à l'image du damier, il s'agit de le posséder. Claude Pascal, Yves Klein et Arman se le partagent en 1947, dans une salle de judo du Club de la police de Nice. Klein s'approprie l'espace, signe le bleu du ciel. Arman reçoit en dotation l'objet manufacturé, qui devait devenir progressivement le lieu commun de son oeuvre.

B.2 : Le quantitatif chez Arman met en jeu un principe de répétition d'où surgit la perception d'une différence, si infime soitelle. Arman avait le goût de la collection, amassant tout, depuis les plantes grasses sur le balcon de son appartement niçois jusqu'aux armures japonaises, sans oublier l'art nègre dont il devient un éminent spécialiste. Pour un objet affectionné, Arman était capable de tout : vendre,

JACQUES KERCHACHE

Biographie

Jacques Kerchache est né le 6 août 1942 à Rouen.

Marié à Anne Diagne, il était père de deux filles, Maya et Deborah.

Il a effectué de nombreux voyages d’études entre 1959 et 1980 en Afrique, en Asie, en Amérique et en Océanie à

l’occasion desquels il a dressé un inventaire critique des grandes collections de sculptures.

En 1960, il ouvre une galerie rue des Beaux-Arts à Paris puis une autre rue de Seine qui fermera en 1981. Il y expose

aussi bien des artistes contemporains (Malaval, Pol Bury, Sam Szafran…) que de “ l’art primitif ” :

Art primitif-Amérique du Nord (1965),

Fleuve Sépik - Nouvelle-Guinée (1967), Les Lobi See the continuation... ]

Orlan

Orlan est une artiste plasticienne française née le 30 mai 1947 à Saint-Étienne.

Biographie

Orlan est une artiste multimédia (peinture, sculpture, installations, performance, photographie, images numériques, biotechnologies). C'est une des artistes françaises de l'art corporel les plus connues du grand public en France et à l'étranger. Son œuvre se situe dans divers contextes provocateurs, légitimée par son engagement personnel.

Dès les années 1960, Orlan interroge le statut du corps et les pressions politiques, religieuses, sociales qui s'y impriment. Son travail dénonce la violence faite aux corps et en particulier aux corps des femmes, et s'engage ainsi dans un combat féministe. Elle fait de son corps l'instrument privilégié où se joue la relation entre soi et l'autre.

En 1978, elle crée le Symposium international de la performance, à Lyon, qu'elle anime jusqu'en 1982. Son manifeste de l'"art charnel" est suivi d'une série d'opérations chirurgicales - performances qu'elle réalise entre 1990 et 1993. Avec cette série, le corps de l'artiste devient un lieu de débat public. Ces opérations chirurgicales - performances ont été largement médiatisées et ont provoqué une vive polémique,

Primitive arts: political nomenclature or singular art?

Eugene Berg
Diplomat, former ambassador to Namibia, Botswana and Fiji. Author of 'Non-alignment and
New World Order '(PUF, 1980),' The International Politics since 1955 '(Economica, 1990) and' Chronology
internati''o''nale: 1945-1997 '(PUF, "Que sais-je?", 4th ed, 1997). Works since No. 19-20 to review work
made in the journal 'The Banquet'.

The inauguration of the Musée du Quai Branly, just as the opening
second France-Oceania summit, was a highlight of the cultural
quinquennium of Jacques Chirac. He will no doubt what would have been the Centre
Beaubourg Georges Pompidou, Musée d'Orsay for Valery Giscard
d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand National Library for. Expresses this
place that has done since its opening subject to real and sustained enthusiasm
People and challenges no less significant part of the community
scientific and museum? As written immediately Berenice
Geoffroy-Schneiter, this is "no accident that our west in search of
Spirituality landmarks and turns to these desperate travelers
the invisible. "

“Africa Remix” featured the work of over 100 African artists in a 2,200-sq.m exhibition space. With paintings by Chéri Samba, installations by Barthélémy Toguo, drawings by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré and photographs by Guy Tillim, “Africa Remix” revealed the varied facets of Africa’s contemporary arts scene.

The exhibition examined contemporary African art not only from an aesthetic angle but also from historical, political and ideological perspectives.

- Total pledges support for African art with the ”Africa Remix” exhibition in Paris -

So near, and yet so far: Africa is an enigma that continues to exert a strange fascination for many. “Africa Remix” was an invitation to reflect on what Africa really means – to explore and rediscover it by straying from the beaten path of commonplace ideas and platitudes. As Total has a strong presence in Africa, we are all too aware of the difficulties affecting the continent, but we’re also committed to bringing African culture the recognition it deserves.

Africa Remix

Under the artistic direction of Simon Njami (photo), an international team of curators (see dates and facts as well as the photo) has assembled this overview of the artistic production in Africa and the African diaspora. 88 artists show works from the last 10 years, among them several specially

African art

African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.

    * Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure has always been a the primary subject matter for most African art, and this emphasis even influenced certain European traditions. For example in the fifteenth century Portugal traded with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs, most notably in the addition of the human figure (the human figure typically did not appear in Portuguese saltcellars). The human figure may symbolize the living or the dead, may reference chiefs, dancers, or various trades such as drummers or hunters, or even may be an anthropomorphic representation of a god or have other votive function. Another common theme is the inter-morphosis of human and animal.

Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D.

    * Visual abstraction: African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation. This is because many African artworks generalize stylistic norms. Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted.

    * Emphasis on sculpture: African artists

Art contemporain africain


L’Art contemporain africain est très dynamique. Il s'inspire aussi bien des traditions du continent que, et c'est de plus en plus le cas, des réalités urbaines contemporaines d'une Afrique en mutation, qui se cherche encore une identité. Les techniques et les supports sont variés, allant de la simple peinture aux installations avec projection vidéo, en passant par des sculptures faites en matériaux de récupération...
En 1989, l'exposition « Les magiciens de la terre » (Centre Pompidou, 1989) présentait des œuvres d'art africain contemporain (d'artistes vivants) pour la première fois en Europe, mode de monstration mettant en valeur un certain primitiviste et exotique. En 2005, l’exposition « Africa Remix » qui a été présentée en Allemagne, en Angleterre, en France et au Japon peut être considérée comme la première à présenter un panorama important de l'art contemporain spécifiquement africain, montrant surtout la richesse de l'art africain sub-saharien. Mais l'Afrique elle-même s'est dotée de centres d'art contemporain, de festivals ou biennales sont régulièrement organisés sur le continent pour mettre en valeur le talent des artistes d'aujourd'hui.

 Quelques artistes

Afrique du Sud

[ See the continuation... ]

Jacques Kerchache, portraits croisés

Wassily Kandinsky

Birth name     Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky
Born     4 December 1866
Moscow
Died     13 December 1944 (aged 77)
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Nationality     Russian

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский, Vasilij Vasil'evič Kandinskij; 4 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter, and art theorist. He is regarded as the founder of abstract art and is, moreover, the chief theoretician of this type of painting.Template:Fact quoted from "Kandinsky" by Burkhard Riemschneider  1994 Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH

Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow and chose to study law and economics. Quite successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—he started painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.

See the continuation... ]

Vassily Kandinsky (Vassili Vassilievitch Kandinski, en russe : Василий Васильевич Кандинский) est un peintre russe et un théoricien de l’art né à Moscou le 4 décembre 1866 et mort à Neuilly-sur-Seine le 13 décembre 1944.

Considéré comme l’un des artistes les plus importants du XXe siècle aux côtés notamment de Picasso et de Matisse, il est le fondateur de l'art abstrait : il est généralement considéré comme étant l’auteur de la première œuvre non figurative de l’histoire de l’art moderne, une aquarelle de 1910 qui sera dite "abstraite". Certains historiens ou critiques d'art ont soupçonné Kandinsky d'avoir antidaté cette aquarelle pour s'assurer la paternité de l'abstraction sous prétexte qu'elle ressemble à une esquisse de sa Composition VII de 1913[réf. souhaitée].

Kandinsky est né à Moscou mais il passe son enfance à Odessa. Il s'inscrit à l’Université de Moscou et choisit le droit et l’économie. Il décide de commencer des études de peinture (dessin d’après modèle, croquis et anatomie) à l’âge de 30 ans.

En 1896 il s’installe à Munich où il étudie à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts. Il retourne à Moscou en 1918 après la révolution russe. En conflit avec les théories officielles de l’art, il retourne en Allemagne en 1921. Il y enseigne au Bauhaus à partir de 1922

Jacques Chirac

22nd President of the French Republic
5th President of the Fifth Republic
Co-Prince of Andorra
In office
17 May 1995 – 16 May 2007
Prime Minister     Alain Juppé
Lionel Jospin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by     François Mitterrand
Succeeded by     Nicolas Sarkozy
Mayor of Paris
In office
20 March 1977 – 16 May 1995
Preceded by     Office Created
Succeeded by     Jean Tiberi
159th Prime Minister of France
10th Prime Minister of Fifth Republic
[ See the continuation... ]

Henri Matisse

Photo of Henri Matisse by Carl Van Vechten, 1933.
Birth name     Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse
Born     31 December 1869 (1869-12-31)
Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Died     3 November 1954 (1954-11-04) (aged 84)
Nice, France
Nationality     French
Field     painting, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, collage
Training     Académie Julian, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Gustave Moreau
Movement     Fauvism, Modernism
Works     Woman with a Hat (Madame Matisse), 1905

in museums:

    * Museum of Modern Art

Patrons     Gertrude Stein, Etta Cone, Claribel Cone, Michael and Sarah Stein, Albert C.

André Breton

André Breton (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the principal founder of Surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Biography

Born to a family of modest means in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy, he studied medicine and psychiatry. During World War I he worked in a neurological ward in Nantes, where he met the spiritual son of Alfred Jarry, Jacques Vaché, whose anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition influenced Breton considerably. Vaché committed suicide at age 24 and his war-time letters to Breton and others were published in a volume entitled Lettres de guerre (1919), for which Breton wrote four introductory essays.

From Dada to Surrealism

In 1919 Breton founded the review Littérature with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He also connected with Dadaist Tristan Tzara. In 1924 he was instrumental to the founding of the Bureau of Surrealist Research.

In The Magnetic Fields (Les Champs Magnétiques), a collaboration with Soupault, he put the principle of automatic writing into practice. He published the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, and was editor of La

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901 – January 11, 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker.


Biography

Early life

Alberto Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, now part of the Swiss municipality of Stampa, near the Italian border. His father, Giovanni Giacometti, was a painter. Alberto attended the School of Fine Arts in Geneva. In 1922 he moved to Paris to study under the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, an associate of Auguste Rodin. It was there that Giacometti experimented with cubism and surrealism and came to be regarded as one of the leading surrealist sculptors. Among his associates were Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Balthus.

Between 1936 and 1940, Giacometti concentrated his sculpting on the human head, focusing on the model's gaze, followed by a unique artistic phase in which his statues became stretched out; their limbs elongated. Obsessed with creating his sculptures exactly as he envisioned through his unique view of reality, he often carved until they were as thin as nails and reduced to the size of a pack of cigarettes, much to his consternation. A friend of his once said that if Giacometti decided to sculpt you, "he would make your head look like the blade of a knife." After his marriage his tiny sculptures became larger, but the larger they grew, the thinner they became. Giacometti said that the final result

Constantin Brâncuşi

Constantin Brâncuşi; Photograph taken by Edward Steichen in 1922.
Born     February 19, 1876(1876-02-19)
Hobiţa, Romania
Died     March 16, 1957 (aged 81)
Paris, France
Nationality     Romanian
Field     sculpture
Training     École des Beaux-Arts
Movement     Modernism
Works     Bird in Space, The Endless Column
Patrons     John Quinn
Awards     Romanian Academy

Constantin Brâncuşi (Romanian pronunciation: [konstanˈtin brɨnˈkuʃʲ]; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was an internationally renowned Romanian sculptor whose sculptures, which blend simplicity and sophistication, led the way for modernist sculptors.

Early

Max Ernst

Born     April 2, 1891(1891-04-02)
Brühl, Germany
Died     April 1, 1976 (aged 84)
Paris, France
Nationality     German

Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Early life

Ernst was born in Brühl, Germany, near Cologne. In 1909, he enrolled in the University at Bonn to study philosophy but soon abandoned the courses. He began painting that year, but never received any formal artistic training. During World War I he served in the German army, which was a momentous interruption in his career as an artist. He stated in his autobiography, "Max Ernst died the 1st of August, 1914."

[edit] Dada and Surrealism
Max Ernst, Ubu Imperator, (1923), Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

After the war, filled with new

Les collections d'art africain dans les musées du monde

L'Amérique

Bermudes

Hamilton
 Bermuda National Gallery
 City Hall, Church Street
 lu-sa 10-16
 Arts d'Afrique occidentale: Bamana, Bwa, Bete, Guro, Yaoure, Senufo, Ashanti, Yoruba, Ibo, Bamileke...
 
Brésil

Bahia
 Museu Afro-Brasileiro. Universidade Federal da Bahia
 Terreiro de Jesus
 ma-sa 9-17
 Arts et objets cultuels d'Afrique Noire: Yoruba...

Sao Paulo
 Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia. Universidade de Sao Paulo
 Cidade Universitaria. Av. Prof Almeida Prado
 ma-ve 9-17; sa 10-14
 Ethnographie de l'Afrique noire. Exposition permanente "Culturas e Sociedades"
 
Canada

Calgary
 Glenbow Museum
 130 9th Avenue S.E.
 ma-di 9-17
 Arts d'Afrique occidentale: Baga, Senufo, Ashanti, Yoruba, Ibo, Yaunde, Bamileke... (non exposés en permanence)
 
Kingston (Ontario)
 Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Queens University
 Queens University Campus
 ma-ve 10-17; sa-di 13-17
 Arts d'Afrique occidentale: Bidyogo, Dogon, Bamana, Bankoni, Mossi, Dan, Senufo, Baule, Yaure, Anyi, Ashanti, Fanti...
 Arts du Nigeria: Yoruba, Ibo, Urhobo, Koro, Mama, Kaka...
 Arts du Gabon et du Congo: Fang, Kota, Bembe, Kongo, Yombe, Pende, Luba, Hemba, Lega, Songye, Tshokwe... (Coll. Lang)
 
Montréal
 Musée des beaux-arts
 1379-1380 rue