Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Marionnette festival at Charleville-Mézières... Feast for the eyes!

Oriental Puppets - Place Ducale - Charleville-Mézières.
Back in September we went to feast our eyes on the world capital in the art of puppetry – Charleville-Mézières. Only a short train ride away, Charleville is situated in the Ardennes département, in the Champagne-Ardenne region, approximately 2 hours north-east of Paris. 
 In fact the present-day town is composed of the two former communes, Charleville and, of course Mézières which were merged in 1966.
Entering the town we weren’t entirely sure which way to turn – there seemed to be activity in the form of stalls, stands and people everywhere, hardly surprising since around 150,000 visitors come to the festival which takes place in the latter half of September, over 10days (and two weekends).





And then, naturally, there are all the companies presenting – 132 in all – from countries all over the world. It’s not given the title of Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes for nothing ! 





Not only that, but the public, performers and puppets alike have to wait two years for the following festival since these only take place on a biennial basis (before it was once every three years). However, the year 2011 was particularly eagerly awaited since it commemorated the 50th anniversary of this great festival. 
 Nearing the town centre we came across the imposing figure of Charles de Gonzague who, in 1606, decided to make a new capital in the romano-germanic empire, one which would therefore be free from the taxation system of the French kingdom. Charles summoned the architect Clément Métezeau (brother of the renowned Louis, of Place des Vosges, Paris, fame…) to create a grand square to reflect the importance of the town.

Charles de Gonzague














The Place Ducale is indeed an impressive site, recalling its Parisian predecessor and as Charles looks down on us from his pedestal, his chest seems to swell with pride, a little like a majestic marionette himself! 





















During the frenetic activity of the festival period thePlace houses numerous puppets stands and platforms – going from the more traditional castelet, (reminiscent of Punch and Judy shows for the English and Guignol for the French) to more modern structures. 
A castelet







Although the Place thrums with spectators and spectacles these are not just limited to this part of town. 





















Indeed, the shows spread out throughout the whole town, tracing the grid pattern lay-out (hippodamier) that Charles had drawn up centuries before, though surely not with a puppet festival in mind.
Place Ducale











The colours associated with Charleville-Mézières with its blue slates, yellowish masonry and red bricks and represented in the carolomacérienne banner. 















The colourful backcloth of the twon meets competition in the vivid multi-colour displays that brighten up the town during this multi-cultural festival.
Today the most imposing figure of Charleville-Mézières, Charles de Gonzague notwithstanding, is to be found near the Place Ducale…


























The Grand Marionnettiste presides over the Place Winston Churchill, and has been looking down onto spectators from the large clock on the façade of the Institut de la Marionnette since 1991. In this manner we have the impression that the Great Puppeteer is guiding or orchestrating time itself; the twelve hours of each day and night and the twelve months of each year...
Horloge du Grand Marionnettiste
Throughout the day, on the hour, the 10 metre automation reveals scenes based on 12 tableaux which are taken from a medieval saga of the Ardennes, the Four Sons of Aymon
The Four Sons of Aymon









The Grand Marionnettiste draws our attention to the fact that Charleville-Mézières is not only the stage for the international festival....
















Indeed, the town is also home to a unique establishment of higher education, devoted to the art of puppetry - the Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette (L’ESNAM). 
Every three years 15 international students are taken on to study, train, create and explore all elements of the world of the marionnette for three years intensive study.

Whilst the first students of the school tended to concentrate on the plastic art aspect of their studies, today’s students are fully involved in every dimension in a training technique which is called the ‘cinq doigts de la main’; theatre, manipulation of puppets, voice, body and construction. 
Mario
The town also has the above-mentioned Institut de la Marionnette - principally a resource centre for the world of puppetry- but is also the heart of other vital associations and activities relative to this specific field. 
 The AVIAMA (Association des Villes Amies de la Marionnette) is an international network which unites all the towns and cities which promote and develop the world of puppetry. 

The association AVIAMA seeks to defend the art, and its performers; to set up partnerships between various establishments – schools, companies, museums and festivals – and finally to fully promote each of the member cities on an international dimension. And there are certainly many towns and cities!

















L’AVIAMA is in close contact with many others… Buenos Aires, Liège (Belgium), Montréal, Chengdu (China), Atlanta (USA), Jerusalem, Piacenza and Trévise in Italy, Yaroslav (Russia), Belgrade (Serbia) and Fribourg in Switzerland. 

So why is Charleville-Mézières the capital of this ever-growing empire of marionnettes? It all started by a chance meeting of two individuals which would act as a catalyst to a creative spirit still evolving today. Jacques Félix, an inhabitant of Charleville (not yet Charleville-Mézières) met Géo Condé (1891-1980) as a teenager in 1941, in the city of Nancy. Condé was already an established painter, sculptor, musician, writer, but above all a marionnettiste and he transmitted his love of puppetry to the young Jacques Félix. 







This theatrical art form was especially attractive during these difficult war years which otherwise offered little entertainment to children and young adults alike. Indeed, Jacques was a scout, but as this activity had been banned by the Nazis he sought other diversions.

Puppetry proved to be a perfect outlet for the frustrations of the period and was a source of enjoyment for young and old. More than than, the marionnettes enabled their puppeteers to voice opinions and ideas that would normally be silenced under enemy rule. In this manner these early marionnettes en chiffon– made of wool and scrap material – relate back to their ancestors – with Mourguet’s Guignol informing the public of the social issues of the day.

You can read up about Guignol and his creator on the following page:


Félix and Condé set up the the company Petits Comédiens de Chiffons in 1945 and devoted themselves to creating shows and travelling all over France. One of their shows was Les Quatre Fils d’Aymon, shown in 1954, the same theme that can be seen presented on the Great Clock on the Institut de la Marionnette. 
When Félix returned definitively to his native Charleville he brought back his passion for puppets and developed the idea of a festival that would take place in his home town. After its foundation he then worked on the Union Internationale de la Marionnette of which he was president from 1976-1991.





Marionnettes are no longer seen purely as children’s entertainment, or a childish, naïve art form; their art goes far beyond this aspect but incorporates these elements too. The world of the marionnette offers a huge diversity of creativity and theatricality and not least in the variety of the puppet itself. 














At Charleville-Mézières there are both street performances and ‘proper’ shows in the theatres, all presenting diverse puppets – stringed, glove, shadow, body. The puppets may be speaking, or communicating solely by mime and gesture, nevertheless they all bring their audiences together, audiences composed of many age groups and therefore many levels of interpretation and comprehension. So here we have an opportunity for global humanization through international marionnettes rather than widespread de-humanization through the ill-effects of globalization!
Mario
 Here's a link to see a marionette scene from the film Being John Malkovich. The film itself questions the whole notion of being - who's pulling our strings and the power of a great puppeteer - totally whacky and great to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU19Rqy1s9Y&feature=related 

The next rendez-vous is on the 20-29 September 2013 - Charleville-Mézières!
  To which a certain English puppet personage would certainly respond - Oh no it isn’t! -  
                                                                                                    Oh yes it is!!!!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Cathedral Christmas...

Reims Cathedral - The Virgin and Child.



The city celebrated the 800 years of its cathedral this year with classical concerts and numerous light-and-sound evening presentations which were beautiful, highlighting the whole of the cathedral in all its glory and drawing our attention to the elements that we tend to overlook. We often forget that the sculptures and stonework of cathedrals were originally far from the monochrome forms we somehow believe them to have been. Indeed, on the contrary, these were painted in vivid colours, mirroring the stained glass windows, and together these served to draw the atttention of the faithful to the might of God. I'm not sure how far back the paintwork on this Virgin and Child sculpture dates, but the effect is beautiful.
Reims Cathedral in natural daylight - Christmas Eve.

Yesterday I went to the Cathedral to see the stained glass windows as the bright winter's sun was shining directly on the façade. The result was breath-taking - as if a flash light had illuminated everything - bringing out all the colours of the rosace in jewel-like detail. In the evening I briefly went to listen to the service, but especially the children singing. Again, the effect was spectacular as the sound lifted to the vaulted ceiling far above. Of course I had to finish off the evening by (re)listening to the choir service from King's College, Cambridge.

Here's Once in Royal David's City, from Christmas 2010. It's just stunning....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMGMV-fujUY&feature=related

Finally, wandering around I noticed that Nature never wants to be outdone - here's a natural cathedral
rosace !
                                               Happy Christmas! 
                      May you find beauty all around you!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Aubrey Beardsley...Brighton's blighted beautiful flower.


Before my life was completely taken over by work I went to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, to see  Beauté, Morale et Volupté dans l'Angleterre d'Oscar Wilde. This is, in fact, the French run of the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition The Cult of Beauty : the Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900, a title that I thought was more appropriate than the French one, I have to say! 
Burne-Jones - Lucretia - 1867


As to be expected, there were not just paintings and drawings but also furniture, ceramics, jewellery, clothing and accessories. Many of these felt so familiar to me; I grew up with images of them, grew out of them, only to rediscover and reappraise them at a later age, with due respect and a feeling of great fondness, if that's the correct term. 





Several works of Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), one the most influential artists of the latter part of the 19th century, can be seen in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Influenced by the last phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement Burne-Jones was also one of the leading figures of the Aesthetic Movement which would have an impact on the art of the 20th century.


I saw Burne-Jones' work and that of many others in Birmingham as a child, fascinated by all that glorious detail, the ethereal atmosphere and then the whole sensation of visiting the lofty museum itself.
Not just a painter, Burne-Jones also explored other art forms and crafts.

Burne-Jones - King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid -1884



He worked with William Morris (1834-1896) on a wide range of decorative arts and was a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Falkner and Company. This company was based on the precepts of the Arts and Crafts Movement which was initially led by Morris and largely inspired by the writings of critic John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
William Morris - Woodpecker Tapestry - 1885

 The movement harped back to the purer aesthetics and morality of an idealized Medieval era and deplored the contemporary reign of mechanization in art, society and urban life alike. Artists, working in guilds, sought to produce handmade crafts of beauty and utility, which elevated artist and public to a moral pitch, leaving behind the vulgar manufacture of art and artifacts en masse and the resulting social ills that had come to symbolize late Victorian England. 
 
In the final decade of the 19th century Burne-Jones was at the height of his success, not only appreciated in England, but on the Continent too. King Cophetua and the Beggar girl won a medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1889, acclaimed by artists such as Gustave Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes as an anti-dote to material vulgarity exemplified by the Eiffel Tower and the grey industrial streets of Burne-Jones’ native Birmingham. All his work was infused with the same ethereal quality, much of it departing from Rossetti’s initial influence, and that of the other Pre-Raphaelites in order to find its own aesthetic goals, a retreat, or parallel reality “I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be”… Unlike the artists who had inspired him in his formative years, Burne-Jones developed an approach that sought to incite a sensual response rather than one based on morality, purity or intellect. The notion of ‘art for art’s sake took precedence over any moral, social or narrative purpose.

 It was in Brighton that a singular young artist was to encounter, and absorb the rich, other-worldly aspect of Burne-Jones’ work – in the form of his stained-glass windows visible in the church that was avidly attended. This aesthetic encounter was to be further consolidated by a visit that the young man in question paid on Burne-Jones at his summer home in Fulham. It is said that during this visit the 18-year-old met Oscar Wilde, sparking an ill-fated association of names that was to lead to the unsuspecting downfall –social and professional ostracisation - of the young artist, Aubrey Beardsley. 


In the summer of 1891, Beardsley was still very much the precious, gifted individual he had been as a child, blighted by ill health but displaying a marked artistic talent and particular panache. Like the Brontë children before him, Beardsley and his sister Mabel had been fascinated by the theatre – performance and script. The children would prepare their own productions, drawing up and acting out their plays, with Aubrey designing the posters. Their mother encouraged this creativity, and actively heightened their interest in music and literature. Seriously ill, Aubrey was unable to attend school for two years yet against all odds perhaps he regained his strength and sufficient health to return to formal education again. However tuberculosis had been declared and would cast a shadow over his short life, leading its victim to live at a feverish pitch of creativity. 

Like Edvard Munch, Beardsley’s existence was watched over by “black angels, who haunted life from cradle to grave”. The very nature of Brighton itself appears to have been fertile ground for this precocious young man. The eclectic aspect of the town with its Regency excesses, the extravagant orientalism of King George IV’s Royal Pavilion and a certain tolerance that reigned may have influenced Aubrey’s aesthetics and world view. From the teenager who illustrated his favourite books, themselves considered to be singular or shocking in the extreme – namely Madame Bovary and Manon Lescaut –slowly emerged an ephemeral flower or “monstrous orchid” as Oscar Wilde would later say. 
Burne-Jones - The Last Sleep of Arthur - 1880's

Burne-Jones -David
Initially working in an architect’s office, followed by a clerical post, Beardsley was encouraged to leave such employment in order to devote himself to his art. Burne-Jones incited him to attend classes in the Westminster School of Art. Despite being dogged by what he termed “my vile constitution”, Beardsley quickly established himself as a competent illustrator, principally in the pen-and-ink medium. Whilst William Morris did not find the young man’s art aesthetically pleasing, he did recognize Beardsley’s talent during an encounter in 1892. 



Morris’ admiration, soured by distaste, was fully put to the test when Beardsley carried out his first major commission on a theme that had been dear to the Pre-Raphaelites and their contemporaries –  Medieval times and Arthurian Romance. 
Commissioned by J.M Dent to illustrate Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur in 1892, Beardsley was to make his name at a young age and forge his reputation as a singular figure –ready to flout the norms and convention through style, subject matter and his own personality. Already fully aware of his own talent, the young man considered his publisher Dent to be a “lucky dog” to have an artist such as himself; Dent meanwhile fully recognized the genius of Beardsley yet did not hesitate to label him as “weird”.

Aubrey Beardsley - Le morte d'Arthur
 Beardsley himself acknowledged that Morris was displeased by his interpretation of the Morte d’Arthur since this had been executed in his own, unique manner, rather than churning out a “mere imitation of the same old stuff”. The provocative nature of Beardsley is made apparent in this work, all the more outrageous since this was, after all, his first commission. These early images bear sexual allusions, barely hidden in the detail of the illustration, coinciding with an almost immature fascination with varying forms of his own signature. In this way, the precocious Beardsley seemed to be leaving his own ironic mark, like a defiant teenager, on artistic territory which had previously been reserved for established older artists. Whilst his first human figures seem to mirror the physique that Burne-Jones perfected – namely the noble profile, distinctive jaw line, aquiline nose, expressive eyes, flowing locks and languid bodies, the works gradually come to parody this. His style developed over the considerable amount of time required to execute the series of illustration for Dent’s commission and the Beardsley characters seemed to become caricatures of Burne-Jones’. 
 
Indeed, with their over-prominent features, abundant, serpentine hair and exaggerated poses the Beardsley characters gave rise to art that was ambiguous in meaning, in every sense of the word. Increasingly testing other styles and techniques and influenced by Japanese art Beardsley’s work seemed to indulge in such stylistic experimentation often to the extent that the art seemed to detach itself from the narrative of the story. His work also demonstrated little desire to be a slavish reproduction of reality, as he indulged in glorious decorative designs, floral motifs and patterns that had as much importance in his drawings as any human form. 
Beardsley - Le Morte d'Arthur

Technically, his work was perfect in execution and the linear approach of stark black and white lent itself perfectly to the new mass production facilities of this industrial age. Publishers’ demand for illustrated book covers, book plates and decorative chapter headings likewise coincided with Beardsley’s creative years… However, much of his working technique remains unknown since he worked alone, and did not divulge the intricacies of his working manner. While some works experimented with minimal lines, creating a dramatic block effect, others bore complicated line work of great detail and precision –not all of which was performed with pen, since some relied on fine linear brushwork for execution.

Gradually Beardsley gave free rein to the themes that had fascinated him since childhood, creating a potent mix that drew admiration and disdain in equal measure. From the mischievous schoolboy gleefully hiding ‘naughty’ symbols he went on to blatantly emphasize the ritual, the bizarre, the grotesque and the sexual; in short, his aesthetic fetishes. Proclaiming to see life in this manner… " see everything in a grotesque way… all seem weird and strange to me"… he made a cult of his visions.







 Like the French novelist Proust, the image of the child transfixed by the rituals and trappings of the world of adults is powerful. The sick boy, peering out from what appears to be his parents’ vast, heavily veiled bed, seems entranced by the beauty and taboo of what he sees, thrilled to be occupying this ‘grown-up’ place which would normally be denied him. 
 Similarily, dressing tables with all their mysterious paraphernalia become places of worship, like altars with religious accoutrements destined for the cult of the Madonna/Mother. As the child grows up this fascination spills over into all female attire, but above all the elegant shoes and lacy, flounced clothing that adorn figures, frequently grotesque, portrayed in louche situations and poses that seem to mock these same elegant details. 

The duality of the ornate and beautiful set against the blunt and ugly creates a tension in the work, like the black and white ink work itself and was perhaps a source of eroticism for the artist. For the writer Brigid Brophy Beardsley’s eroticism bears the essence believed by Freud to define the sexuality of children - a polymorphic perversity. The child is fascinated by the erotic, yet too young and passive, and here too ill to be anything but a voyeuristic figure. 

Beardsley’s life was ruled and regulated by extremes and contradictions on almost every level, much of which stemmed from the family dynamics and his consumptive state of health. Marrying below her social standing, Aubrey’s mother, Ellen, soon discovered her husband to be professionally and financially inadequate, playing a rather peripheral role in the children’s upbringing and education. Cultivated and spiritual, Ellen was in contrast with the uneducated, earthier Vincent and in this misalliance it was certainly Mrs Beardsley who had to wear the trousers. In Aubrey’s spirit her image was central; nurturer of artistic talent, religiously fervent “sermon taster”, saintly nurse, devoted comforter and yet jailor too, keeping him safely confined indoors. Not surprisingly, Beardsley enfant-adult was attracted yet repulsed by the mother figure; Madonna, mistress, matriarch.
Messalina
His study of Messalina seems to attest to this – a mother figure who defies femininity with her flat-footed gait, down-turned mouth and hefty, unyielding manner. Messalina is just as fearsome as the other deadly female who would herald Beardsley’s success and indirectly bring about his downfall; Salome.
The irony in Beardsley’s life was perhaps at its bitterest regarding the few years he actually had to live… Here, indeed was a young man supposed to be in the prime of his life yet obliged to live the confined existence of an old dying man; a dandified aesthete, surrounded by the ornate yet fully aware of the bare, cold mask of death ever-present just below the decorative surface of life. Here was an individual who, like many sufferers of tuberculosis, at that period at least, had a heightened sensuality and sexuality, and was drawn to the erotic yet perhaps himself unable to engage in any concrete form of sexual intercourse. Nevertheless the notion that the young man was asexual is surely refuted by a reference in one of his letters to imposed chastity “a habit…but one which has never become a taste”. Beardsley was thus the man whose sexual orientations were never fully known, yet whose ambiguous sexuality gave rise to much obsessive speculation leading to a final, merciless condemnation due to his brief professional tie to a well-known homosexual.
Beardsley - Iokanaan

Like Icarus’ golden ascent, Beardsley’s sudden rise to fame would lead to an equally precipitous demise, a trajectory mirrored by an exalted life that crashed to earth with his premature death. Yet in spite of a frequently solitary, sickly existence wherein he invariably spent large periods of time bed-bound in his room Beardsley did have friends and acquaintances to whom he wrote numerous letters, recounting his artistic endeavours with great panache and self-confidence. His sister Mabel remained the most important companion and confident in his life, yet even that relationship has been the source of many conjectures based on the theory that their love was incestuous. Beardsley may have been blighted with debilitating illness all his life, and been the object of much rejection he rarely appears to have lacked self-assurance, his certitude of own talent never faltered, nor did his natural instinct towards the controversial diminish. Even as a child he remarked to his mother that he would be worthy of a commemorative stained glass window in his honour “I may be a great man one day”…. Sadly he never lived to see the honour that would be bestowed on him.
Beardsley - Salome

 As much as Beardsley’s work could shock as it ran counter-current to the mainstream notions of art, he was, nevertheless very much a child of his times. Whilst his themes appeared to satirize the social norms of late Victorian society, especially with his blurring and blending of the gender status quo, even in this he was mirroring a social phenomenon around him. The accepted patriarchal order and sense of morality was frequently perceived as being under threat from a disquietening female force; emasculating, predatory and sexual. Just as the great British Empire was being sapped of its strength and authority from foreign competition and the economic depression of the 1880’s, male superiority was being weakened by an unleashed feminine force. In this mood of pessimism the term Fin de Siècle signified not only the twilight years of the century, but also the end of an established order in which Beardsley was not only an influential figure, but also himself greatly influenced. The Arts and Crafts Movement had pitted itself against the shoddy mass produced ‘industrial’ art of a sentimental character, and likewise the nascent Aesthetic Movement rejected the study of the natural, the blind reliance on past artistic styles and unquestioning devotion to dull, out-moded Victorian themes. The Aesthetics, like the Decadents on the Continent, reacted against the confines of social norms and philosophy – rejecting the rigid explanations of Positivism, the dominance of Mother Nature, the urge of the bestial senses and implacable advance of time. Instead, under the growing influence of Symbolism, these artists turned towards the “beautiful inertia” of the ornate mind. Interiorisation and aesthetic stimulation could be seen as an attempt to reject the organic linear existence with which Nature enslaved man. Art could free man from this crude dominance since artistic creation would give rise to higher life of contemplation. In this manner art could lead nature and thus man, away from lowly, bestial existence whose basis was brutish reproduction.

 Many artists, Wilde and Beardsley amongst them, were influenced by the French novel, A Rebours, published in 1884 by J.K Huysmans with its themes of altered states brought on by synaesthesia, social and moral deviance, sexual ambiguity and the richesse nécessaire of artifice. The protagonist of the novel, Des Esseintes, seeks solace from life through an existence of heightened senses, but this ultimately leads to his downfall, with the treacherous figure of Salome as symbol and herald of his demise, just as she was for Beardsley himself. The initial title of the book was to be Seul (Alone), and indeed on reading the book another writer (Barbey d’Aurevilly) remarked in 1884 that after such a book one only had the choice between “the mouth of a gun or the feet of the crucifix”. Huysman’s novel, along with the paintings of Gustave Moreau were to have a dramatic effect on Beardsley and Wilde alike. The novel acted as a bible of decadence for Beardsley who decorated his home in Pimlico in orange and black in veneration of Des Esseintes house and demonstrated a preference for dandified clothing like his hero. Likewise Wilde’s anti-hero Dorian Grey is under the influence of an unspecified yellow French novel (A Rebours), and Wilde’s decision to write the play Salome in France in 1891 certainly springs from the same source. The writer asked the young artist to provide the illustrations. With a plot based on sex, deviance and corruption the resulting art could only be controversial, and this was certainly the case. However, it is interesting to note that even Wilde did not entirely approve and went on to remark that “I admire, I do not like Aubrey’s illustrations”. The working alliance was short-lived, and the personal relations soon strained with Beardsley later quipping that Wilde and his lover, Alfred Douglas (who attempted to translate Salome into English) were “truly unbearable people”. 

It is difficult to establish just how fraught these relations actually were, for while much is made of Beardsley’s caricatural drawings of Wilde, both artists often shared  common ground and vision. One could even get the impression that a certain jealousy and preciousness reigned, making of their angry rejection of each other mere acts of pique and schoolboy spats with Wilde even referring to Beardsley as a scribbling “precocious schoolboy”. Later the illustrator refused to let the writer contribute to the artistic magazines of which he was editor… Touché! 

The fact remains, however, that the Salome illustrations are still today generally considered to be the artist’s best works, and certainly the ones that propulsed him to fame. Salome, often presented by Beardsley in scenes that seem to have little reference to the original plot, herself represents with deadly accuracy the figure of the lethal femme fatale that terrified fin de siècle morality. Using her sexuality as a weapon to ensnare and disempower, Salome is not the enticing, demurring enchantress but rather a hard-eyed, cold-blooded force of masculine determination. Nevertheless, the horror of Salome’s aims and acts are offset by the beauty of Beardsley’s detail, all of which could only exasperate and confound late Victorian taste, even more so since the references were often anachronistic and provocative in themselves (books by Zola and Sade figure in a room, supposedly set in antiquity!). 

 Following the success of Salome Beardsley was known as a Decadent, paving the way for future artists of the Art Nouveau Movement with the languid lines of his work. He became the artistic editor of the fin de siècle magazines, The Yellow Book and The Savoy and thus his personal and professional life seemed assured. Yet ironic fate was to deal Beardsley a cruel blow for when Oscar Wilde was arrested for acts of gross indecency he was found to be carrying a yellow book. Although it wasn’t a Yellow Book magazine, merely a French book with yellow binding, from that moment the erroneous association was made, one from which Beardsley could not free himself. The Yellow Book was considered to be a symbol of sexual depravity and as editor, the strange persona of Beardsley could only be linked to such immorality. 



Once fired, Beardsley found it difficult to secure work of any kind and was finally obliged to accept work from a publisher of a certain renown, Leonard Smithers. It was Smithers who conceived The Savoy magazine, described as a manifesto in revolt against Victorian materialism. However, as a pornographer Smithers also demonstrated against Victorian morality. The creative association between publisher and illustrator was not as black as often portrayed, and Beardsley wrote many fond letters to Smithers yet it did give rise to work that was widely considered to be licentious in the extreme – and often not without reason. Beardsley’s illustrations were, to a degree, influenced by Japanese erotic art –shunga - and somehow his depictions always maintain their ironic innocence. His is the work of a shocked and shocking teenager even at its most potent and never enters the realm of blunt pornography.
Beardsley

Smithers asked Beardsley to illustrate Lysistrata by Aristophane and these were among the many illustrations that the artist implored the publisher “by all that is Holy” to destroy when on his death bed; Smithers did not comply. It is due to this failure to respect Beardsley’s last wishes that we have copies of these works today – not only illustrations, but also writings and his unfinished novel, Under the Hill.

Like Des Esseintes before him, Beardsley embraced Catholicism at the end of his life, converting to the faith a year before his death. This step was unsurprising in itself since Beardsley had had a religious upbringing as a child and it has been remarked to have been a natural continuation of the artist’s reverence of the cult, ritual and image, all couched in contemplation and beauty.

Beardsley
What I find sad about Beardsley’s life is that he knew that his days were literally numbered perhaps even from the outset. In a letter from his last full year he expressed his fears “I fancy I can count my life by months now”. He tried to find a climate which would alleviate some of his symptoms, or at least preserve him from the worst of these, but to no avail. He despaired when three days’ work was lost due to damp conditions since for him those three days were invaluable and could not be recuperated at a later date. He died in Menton in the South of France in 1898 at the age of 26. Some of Beardsley’s illustrations can be seen in Paris at the end of the exhibition that I visited – Beauté, morale et volupté dans l'Angleterre d'Oscar Wilde at the Quai d’Orsay. In view of what I knew and discovered about his life I found them to be the most moving works of the exhibition.
Harry Clarke - The colloquy of Monos and Una - 1919
I did however come across a strange echo of his work and life in that of an Irish stained glass artist and illustrator; Harry Clarke. Born just a year after Beardsley’s death, Clarke’s work (1889-1931) seems to be a strange amalgam of that of Burne-Jones and Beardsley. As the son of a craftsman, he was influenced by the artistic currents of his time – namely Art Nouveau. He studied stained glass in Dublin, but later moved to London as a book illustrator, yet his true career was in the field of stained glass. He did not confine himself to purely religious themes but also dealt with literary and secular narratives. Needless to say, Clarke was frequently compared to Beardsley but in fact his work is less static that the latter’s work, and his subject matter is much darker and ominous at times. His preference for black and white line work is perhaps partly inspired by the stained glass process, with heavy lines used to delimit and highlight the different elements. Harry Clarke died at a young age of tuberculosis while trying to recuperate his strength in a foreign country, just like Aubrey Beardsley.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Newlyn School of Art and Mount's Bay... In Glorious Grey!

Summer morning over Mount's Bay from Penzance.
After an abnormally bright, but very pleasant Indian summer the weather has taken a turn towards more seasonal, autumnal temperatures and atmospheres - wet and grey being the predominant characteristics. Just as the skies are becoming heavy and the days are drawing in the work load is building up too so that the feeling of lightness and freedom is certainly fading away. However, looking at the photos from my trip back to Cornwall I'm trying to persuade myself that muted tones and a muted lifestyle can be enriching too - grey can be glorious too...
Newlyn Harbour
The distractions of vibrancy can perhaps sometimes draw you away from the essential, leading you to overlook the subtler aspects of the whole, hence the depth of black and white photos. Well, that was the theory anyway, as I look out onto non-stop rain showers on a Sunday afternoon!

Fishing nets; Newlyn.
Wandering around Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole and Marazion early in the morning has to be my favourite holiday activity, whatever the weather, whatever the season. The region certainly offers some very bracing conditions, but in terms of photographs, I actually prefer those taken when the skies are laden with rain, clouds and heavy mist.











During more clement days the particular brightness that bathes and intensifies everything in its path can give rise to breathtaking effects.
Misty, mystical view of St Michael's Mount by my brother (thanks Joe!)
While 'Fish, Tin and Copper' were the basis of the industries that brought prosperity to South West Cornwall and the words proclaimed during toasts at the end of the 18th century, it was to be the atmospheric conditions and luminosity that was to lead to the region's artistic renown at the end of the 19th century.
Cliff tops near Land's End.
The Penwith Peninsula with its dramatic scenery of rugged moorland, granite cliffs overhanging spectacular beaches and seascapes presented natural views that many British artists were otherwise obliged to seek abroad. Indeed many of the artists who were to settle in the Newlyn area in increasing numbers had studied in France and Holland.

Just as Parisian artists had left the grime and grisaille of Paris in order to paint in the pure air and luminosity of Barbizon these British post-Impressionist painters 'en plein air' found that this region of Cornwall offered similar subject matter yet required considerably less travel, especially since the Great Western railway had linked Penzance to London in the latter part of the 19th century. The artist Stanhope Forbes  was to remark that "Newlyn is a sort of English Concarneau" and the initial artist group was to reach a high point in the years before the First World War.
Never  A Morning Wore to Evening. Walter Langley 1894
However, it was not merely the landscape that attracted the artists who made up the colony later called the Newlyn School. The artists all shared a desire to study and portray the lives of these fishing and farming communities which had changed little in spite of  the Industrial Revolution. Far from depicting glorified scenes of rural and sea-faring bliss the artists preferred to show the local colour in its true tones and moods. Indeed, these artists were 'tonists' rather than 'colourists' and their vision of life was realist rather than picturesque. While this may have led to works that focus on the dark hardships of such a life, other images were of a lighter note, in both in subject and palette.
A Fish Sale. Stanhope Forbes 1884
Walter Langley was one of the first visiting artists to finally settle in Newlyn and was later known as the 'Pioneer of the Newlyn Art Colony'. His artistic life was dominated by the themes of his childhood, from a family of eleven children living in the inner-city slums of Birmingham. Although illiterate, Langley's mother recognized the talent of her son and did her utmost to ensure that he could afford the studies at Birmingham School of Design. Having studied at the South Kensington Schools of Art he then returned to Birmingham to work as a lithographer, but turned to a career in painting in the hope of gaining commercial success. In an endeavour to obtain new painting opportunities Langley went briefly to Newlyn in1880. He was one of a small group to become Associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and returned to the Cornish Peninsula in 1881 with a major commission from the Birmingham patron Edwin Chamberlain, and received other significant commissions thereafter.
Study for A Fish Sale. Stanhope Forbes 1884


Langley never forgot his humble beginnings, indeed far from it. He said of his work that it "reflects the
concern for the persistent hardship faced by the poor" and not surprisingly his political leanings were markedly Left wing. He felt empathy and sympathy for the communities around him and had a particular sensitivity for the womenfolk who, like his own mother, suffered so much hardship. Dramatic works such as 'Never a Morning wore to Evening but some Heart did Break'
show the tragedy often visited on such communities....
By 1883 there were several more artists in the Newlyn colony but it was with the arrival of Stanhope Forbes 'Father of the Newlyn School' in 1884 that the group truly took form and gained recognition. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, Forbes' first Newlyn painting met significant success and this incited other artists to settle in Cornwall.
For Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Frank Bramley 1891
Frank Bramley arrived at the same period as Forbes and his work likewise received great acclaim.
Other artists established themselves but chose to settle in St Ives, Lelant, Falmouth rather than in Newlyn itself. Little by little the early artistic colony declined somewhat and in 1899 Stanhope Forbes and his wife, Elizabeth, founded an art establishment, the Newlyn School of Painting. It was around this time that Norman Garstin produced his famous work 'The Rain it Raineth'.
The Rain in Raineth. Norman Garstin 1889.

The school of painting drew in another generation of artists to Newlyn, Dod and Ernest Procter being among them, but also Laura  and Harold Knight and Frank Gascoigne Heath. Thus the Newlyn artistic community adapted itself to a new century and new artistic endeavours, whilst retaining an essential luminosity and mood.
http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/artists/harold-knight.html
 Here's some music by Brenda Wootton, a Cornish folksinger who had a certain success here in France...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCihuVJWRj8&feature=related
 And here's another for anyone here in France with Breton links....
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwk0MXnA-Vg&feature=related
Mousehole.