OUFF - WHAT A RELIEF !

I don’t mull over exhibitions but the Stephane Mandelbaum had had a real effect and images of his portraits and vulgar ladies kept on flitting through my mind. It was good to go with Marielle to the Custodia Foundation to look at 500 years of the Masters’ drawings.

We started in the lVe and went through to the XXle. As you can imagine the early centuries didn’t really attract me. In fact I didn’t take any photos at all. However, some of the sketching were incredibly detailed and precise. However, when we moved into the XXe I was back in my element. A couple of the artists were new to me. This time, I am just going to add a few comments on each one of the photos I took. As you will see, there are very few. Once again, just those that stopped me in my tracks.....

This was done by Vincent van Gogh in 1888. The title is "La Mousmé "or Portrait of a young girl The Mousmé is assocaited to a character in a Pierre Loti' novel, "Madame Chrysantheme" and represents a Japanese girl. You may remember that Van Gogh was passionate about "Japonism"

You probably recognized Picasso. A study for three women - watercolor - done in 1907-08. The beginning of the cubist period with Braque. It has a real music and seems to dance and twist. The women become really clear when you look closely at that movement.

This served at the poster at the entrance of the Custodia and was a favorite for me. A watercolor by Johan Adam Klein (new to me) and done in 1818. Here he has painted his friend and artist Johan Christophe Erhard. The two men shared a flat in Vienna for a couple of years.

Max Pechstein. An ink sketching of a mother and children done in 1913. He was part of the Die Brücke group which I enjoy so much.

Emil Hansen, but known as Nolde. Another of my favorite artists of that period. "Three heads of women" done sometime before 1930. Nolde was one of the first artists of that period to use very strong colors and paint strokes. His work is very powerful - for me.

Max Pechstein again. At the Seaside, a water color done in 1919. Pechstein was attracted by the exostism of Gaugin and traveled to Indonesia in 1914. The Palos Island. Is there a echo of aboriginal art? Wooden sculptures?

Of course, it's Kandinsky and once again a water color done in 1919. Quite simple, "Composition on a brown background".

And another Kandinsky painted in 1915. He really was one of the pioneers of abstract art.

I really adore this water color done by Paul Klee in 1923. "Portrait of a Little Doll". She is practically alive and dancing...

Another Paul Klee "The Paris Comet" in 1918. Done during the war when Klee was separated from his friends. We see the horrors of war creep into his paintings as they seem to float around in the sky without touching one another...

Paul Klee "Mask in the meadow" in 1923. SO different from his other paintings.

And finally, Picasso. "Study for the composition of a dead" done in 1908. Not the happiest of endings but a very striking one.

A TRAGIC DESTINY

My brother had sent me over an article on an artist whom I had never heard of. A Stéphane Mandelbaum. Michael said in his email « Is this worth seeing? Bizarrely, it sounds interesting ». The article was certainly bizarre and for those who want to take the time to read it, it’s worth it. 

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/04/22/the-unknowable-artist-stephane-mandelbaum/

There were more than 100 drawings relating to the real and imaginary life of this painter. He was born of a Jewish father and an Armenian mother and began to question his identity at an early age, around 17. He was able to do this through his work.
In his early work he depicted that shady world of prostitutes, pimps and gangsters that he frequented both in reality and in his dreams. Most of these I could not abide. I’m no prude but they were vulgar and pornographic in my eyes. Would I persevere? 

These I took when I traced my steps at the end of the exhibition...

l'Albertine Bar (Beautiful Deception) 1986

Papa Franco (Mamas zaïroises), 1985

His portraits of artists and writers which he admired or had influenced him were much more interesting but there again, not easy to enter into. They certainly didn’t make these people look very attractive and some of his auto-portraits turned Mandelbaum into a dislikable and even ugly person. 

Francis Badon - 1980

George Dyer, 1982 - Bacon's lover who took his life in 1971

Pier Paolo Pasonlini - 1980

Pasolin again

"Le Maître" (The Master) 1984

Salomon Mandelbaum 1981

Salomon Mandelbaum and auto portrait 1981

Auto portrait 1982

  And the real man?

With his father

With his his wife in 1986. When he visited Congo where his wife was born he started trafficking African art and took part in at least two burglaries...the second was the Modigliani

Probably to understand him better, it’s a good idea to start with the end of his life. No-one was too sure about the reality of his life, but everyone agreed on how he died. Violent is an understatement. Only 25 too but always an outsider. When he was murdered he thought of himself as a hardened criminal when in actual fact he was a controversial artist.
In 1986, he attempted to steal a painting by Modigliani from an old women who lived in a suburb of Brussels. He had been promised money from friends who had connections with the black market and as he was not selling his own work, he needed funds. Now did the old woman know it was a fake? When the friends found out, they murdered him in a way which I will not describe. Children found him too and that must have been quite traumatic.
So from a fantasy world where he lived in-between dreams and reality to a very tragic end.  - I’m glad I went, but I needed a glass of wine with my lunch when I came out!