The proposal is submitted

This is to be my final blog. It was great fun. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much I have enjoyed learning.

What better way to end than with the cover image of what I regard as one of the most outstanding livre d'artiste of the 20th century - Matisse's Jazz

At last, my exhibition proposal is prepared and submitted to Tony Bond.

In summary it states

1. Title of Exhibition. "Matisse, Miro, Picasso and Chagall; Art and Literature; Their Grandest Grande Livres"

2. Objective - To show some of the finest art prints, produced within the literary context for which they were created, by four of the leading 20th century European Modern Masters.

3. To use innovative and contemporary display methods

4. Four of the best and most renowned livre d’artiste have been selected, comprising 165 images;

Henri Matisse. Jazz. 1947. Author Matisse, Published Teriade
Pablo Picasso. Vingt Poemes 1948, Author Gongora, Published Colonna
Jean Miro. A Toute Epreuve 1958. Author Paul Eluard, Published Cramer,
Marc Chagall. Daphnis and Chloe 1961, Author Longus, Published Teriade

5. A major and significant aspect of the exhibition is the extensive public educational programs that will accompany it. These include Education Programs for K-6, Yr 7- 12 and Tertiary students, a Forum, Print Work Shops, Lecture Series, Films, Celebrity Talks, Exhibition Talks, Kids program, Poetry and Literature Readings.

6. An all electronic downloadable catalogue aimed at the informed general public but which also serves as a reference to the education market, the art collector and researcher will be produced. (This will be based on the Research Paper I submitted for the MArtAdmin and the additional research I will do for a MPhil/PhD beginning 2011.)

7. A condensed version of the catalogue will be produced as a downloadable audio guide to the exhibition.

Viewing the works

This is an picture of Picasso - Vingt Poemes. It is popularly known as Gongora. The poemes illustrated by Picasso were written by Spain’s much loved 16th century poet Luis de Gongora y Argote, hence the name Gongora. The loose pages with the poems and images are contained within the covers which has the red word "Gongora" which can be clearly seen. This is protected with the open board covers. The whole book is then housed in the protective brown slipcase for further protection.

It has been very exciting. I travelled to the National Gallery Australia in Canberra to view three of the works I selected for the exhibition. They were Matisse – Jazz, Picasso – Vingt Poemes and Miro – A Toute Epreuve. I had to make a special request and the works were requisitioned from storage for my viewing at the research center. What a great feeling to look at these works first hand. I was not allowed to touch them. The pages were turned by one of the research assistants. However, they were much more vivid that I thought. Now the long process of negotiating the loan begins.

Matisse - Jazz

Matisse’s Jazz, one of the best know livre d’artiste of the mid 20th century and is, to paraphrase the artists, a book that meant to be looked at and not read. Jazz contains 20 vividly bright and exciting hand coloured pochoir images, retaining the brilliance and texture of the original papiers decoupes.

Here Matisse was illustrating elements of the circus and the landscape. Matisse introduced his large handwritten text as an afterthough when he did the lagoon images, an artistic ornament, a pause or a break in between the series of images. Here the three lagoon images are presented for you to enjoy.

Seven years after its inception, Jazz became an instant hit at is inaugural exhibition in December 1947.

Chagall - Daphnis and Chloe

Chagall’s Daphnis and Chloe is a unique artistic rendition of this charming and classic ancient Greek fable of two young lovers growing up, facing many trials and tribulations, and finally marrying. Chagall set a new standard in colour lithography, working closely with master printer Sorlier, to produce an exquisite, colourful and complex series of 42 illustrations. He used as many as 25 colours with as many lithographic stones to produce each print, taking some 1000 print impressions for each copy of the livre d'artiste. Although Chagall’s prints illustrate this charming fable it sits independently next to Longus text, separate from the flow of the story. The picture illustrates the story as the story explains the image.

A good example of the direct illustration is the image L’Arondelle illustrating Chloe being awakened from her sleep by a swallow that swept into her face and brushed it with its wing, Here Chagall depicts the glistening heat and glittering brightness in the Mediterranean landscape by the use of vivid colour. In another depiction, Le Printemps Chagall uses a luminescence blue to depict the animals emerging from the darkness. Although Chagall’s prints illustrate this charming fable it sits independently next to Longus text, separate from the flow of the story. The picture illustrates the story as the story explains the image.

Miro - A Toute Epreuve

A Toute Epreuve is probably one of Miro’s most beautiful and elegant Grande Livres and is the result of a remarkable collaboration between the artist Miro, the surrealist poet and Miro’s friend Paul Eluard together with publisher Gerald Cramer. Miro spent over 10 years between conception and final publication with the creation of 253 woodblocks requiring over 42,000 passes through the press to create a magnificent work of 52 folded sheets of interwoven image and text. The text in A Toute Épreuve is printed with font of varying sizes in different positions on the page with Miro’s images working with and around the print. This is clearly seen in the complex interaction of text and image in the most striking title page. The left hand image of the child like multicoloured bird under a yellow sun walking away from the textual information, Title page from A Toute Épreuve. This is contrasted with the cluttered right hand page with the poets face portrayed in a black circle and eyes with strange headgear rising above in red from the nose, and the arms and legs below each portrayed in different colours.

Picasso - Vingt Poemes

Picasso’s Vingt Poèmes illustrate twenty of the most romantic and melancholy sonnets written by Spain’s much loved 16th century poet Luis de Gongora y Argote. Working with the publisher Colonna and master printer Lacouriere, Picasso created images to decorate and illuminate the margins of his hand written poetry, reminiscent of medieval texts. The ink in the images and the text darken and lighten, gets thicker and thinner according to the mood of the poetry. The images merge with the hand written poetry where mistakes are scratched out but are left on the page and form a part of the image The twenty illustrated sonnets in Vingt Poèmes are each preceeded by twenty elegant images of women, the whole work being in black and white. There seems little doubt that Gongora of all his livre d’artiste was closest to Picasso’s heart, his only hand written book.

Femme aux Longs Cheveux is the profile of a beautiful woman with the tiny wedge of a face seemingly emerging from a cloud which is a luxurious hair. The poem that follows this image Soneto X itself is bordered on each side by two further beautiful young women, in an embellishment called remarqe The left profile image hints at royalty with her crown an appearance of majesty. The right hand young naked woman whose left side emerges from the text, which itself forms the outline of the left leg. Picasso combined a complicated form of sugar lift aquatint with traditional dry point etching for the women’s heads.

Cirque - An image from Legers famous Cirque.
As you will read below, with the greatness sadness and reluctance I decided not to include this work in the exhibition. So here is an image to enjoy



The Curators Struggle – What works to select.

I am beginning to appreciate what a curator must feel when trying to translate their vision to reality. The key question is what works should be selected to represent the curators objective. I was struggling to determine which of the livre d’artiste produced by Picasso, Miro, Chagall and Matisse were considered their best. There in lies a problem – can we really say that there is a single painting or sculpture that is the best produced by that artist. Probably not. Therefore, I had to go back to first principles and work out what it is I wanted. I wanted five excellent livres d’artiste created by these five artists, preferably in different print media and hopefully each would be different and have its own distinctive mark. I spoke at length and many times to Tony Bond. I learnt that curators should not compromise – at least not at the start. I also consulted widely and did an enormous amount of research. To cut a long story short I finally selected five works; Matisse – Jazz, Picasso – Vingt Poemes, Miro – A Toute Epreuve, Chagall – Daphnis and Chloe and Leger – Cirque. However, these represented an enormous number of pictures to display. For a number of long and complicated reasons I dropped Leger – Cirque. Perhaps the best explanation I can offer is that Leger – Cirque does not necessarily push the livre d’artiste as far as the others and although colourful it does not also necessarily offer a different and value add viewing experience when put next to the other four works. I will give a presentation of each of the four works selected in the next few blogs.