Soutine in Ceret

 

La Rue a Pierre Brune is a beautiful small, almost alley way of a street in south Ceret. Soutine must have been much taller than me to get a view of the roof tops from the street above, but that isn’t hard to believe.  I wish I could remember Soutine’s nickname in Ceret but I do remember it had something to do with him always wearing the same filthy overalls.  He was surviving on a very small salary, and he owned only one outfit, which was a pair of paint covered overalls that he wore the whole three years he was there. He wound up in Ceret with a small allowance from the patron and art collector Léopold Zborowski.  Zborowski’s wife had a dislike of Soutine and so he was sent off to Ceret to be out of her way in Paris.

Modigliani for families.

I love teaching people about Modigliani. His work is amusing and somehow deep at the same time. He holds a style that is easily recognizable and reproducible. I have many times done Modigliani self portrait classes with children and I now offer them through AirBnB and my own tour business. toursbyKatinka.com. Today is my first family class and I am excited to be teaching a mother and two kids about one of my favorite bohemians.

 

Monet Studio and Giverny

Monet’s studio

This was a wall from Monet’s studio, that he had in his home in Giverny.  (Later he built a very large one where he could paint his famous waterlilies).  The walls were lined with (copies) of his own paintings.  After I visited his home and garden I went to this quaint restaurant just outside of town.  The food was hardly worth eating but the location was beautiful

Mill Restaurant

Monet’s studio

Mill Restaurant

Monet Family Tomb

Monet is buried in Giverny in 1926. This family plot has several children, and other members of his family, including, oddly, his lover’s husband who deserted her and their children (who Monet wound up raising as his own).   The flowery grave is lovely but doesn’t compare to the beauty of his gardens which still thrive just down the way.

Lichtenstein does Van Gogh

I was in Amsterdam visiting the MOCO museum to see a Banksy Exhibit.  The Banksy exhibit was wonderful and I was on my way out, after briefly visiting the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit.  Imagine my delight when I walked by this perfect art installation.  A Lichtenstein version Van Gogh’s most famous bedroom, that I knew so well from Van Gogh’s paintings, that I could walk into and sit on the furniture!

Picasso’s Birds

Pablo Picasso loved birds.  His father painted them in his home studio when Picasso was a child.  His Dove lithograph was created as a symbol for peace after WW2. He named his daughter Paloma with means dove.  There is also many paintings in his Barcelona museum that feature seagulls.  Here are some of the dozens of parrots that I saw beside this statue of Picasso in Malaga; I couldn’t help but think of them as “Picasso’s birds”.

Jeanne Hebuterne at the Tate

This painting by Modigliani was painting of his partner, who was also an artist of her own right.  He painted it in 1918, about two years before his passing.  He painted her more than any other of his models, at least 30 times.

I was lucky enough to see this original in spring of this past year while visiting the Tate in London.

Couvent des Capucins de Céret

Late this October I made a pilgrimage to a place I only knew of from the paintings of Soutine. He was there just three brief years but created so much of his work that I loved in this small village.  Getting there wasn’t easy, for a budget traveler like myself, but I did it.  When I arrived the small but wonderful modern museum in the village happened to have all but one Soutine put away to make room for a guest artist, I was anything but disappointed with my visit. The tiny town was very much as it was when Soutine painted it, and they had signs throughout the main part of the village placed as close as possible to the places they felt Soutine had painted the same view. I sought out every one but had the most trouble finding the one for the Couvent des Capucins. I did however find the chapel, by the most amazing luck.  The manager of the AirBB I rented invited me to tea, and after we visited a friend of his who happened to be living in the cold tiny cold convent attached to the church.  She and I became instant sisters and rarely left each others side for the rest of my stay in Ceret, and on one of our walks we happened to come across the last missing sign I was looking for. It was of the same place, the Couvent des Capucins, that helped make Ceret feel so much like my home.  These photos are of the church from different sides and of course one of Ania and I.

Ania and I

Inspired by Cezanne

Although I had taught Cezanne to children for many years I didn’t love him until I saw his work in person in Paris.  Only then did I understand that he was the father of cubist modern art. (Sorry, Picasso) His expressive bold color, bold lines, and depiction of his subjects from multiple angles influences my work every bit as much as Van Gogh and Soutine.  I just usually paint a different subject matter than what he is most known for so his influence isn’t as obvious.  I found the most gorgeous and rather imperfect (more reason to love it) fruit at the Leucadia’s Farmer’s Market, spent an afternoon finding the perfect vintage bowl for it, then worked on a watercolor of it and threw it in the trash.  I did however take photos and it was from these photos I painted this still life while in Spain a few weeks ago.  It didn’t start as Cezanne inspired but how could “I” possibly paint a bowl of fruit without his influence coming through.

Picasso’s Birthplace

Picasso’s Birth home

Picasso’s birthplace museum

Picasso statue

About a week ago I visited the birth home of Picasso in the lovely town of Malaga, in Southern Spain.  I wasn’t able to take photos of the interior but it was a wonderful experience.  They had the sitting room arranged very much like it was when Picasso was born, going off of descriptions of people who had actually been there.  Also a studio of Picasso’s father, José Ruiz y Blasco, with many of his paintings set up in the front room.   The rest of the home was filled items from Picasso and his family members.  Down stairs was a small museum featuring dozens of beautiful sketches of Picasso’s, which were great to see in person.  Picasso’s flat was on the second floor. He was born there on October 25, 1881 and he lived there for four years.

Stalking Picasso

 

These are photos of the places the young Picasso lived and went to school in Barcelona.  I found it odd that not only are the places unmarked but as you can see the from the first photo one of the buildings is it completely disrepair.

Picasso lived in Barcelona with his parents in the apartment building behind the trees in the two photos in the middle as a youth.  His father taught art school directly across the street, which is where Picasso attended and took art classes as a teen. The grey door is the front door of the school which still stands.  The school building is unmarked and I don’t know what it is being used for currently, but the apartments are still being used and I had to wonder how many people live there and don’t know (or may not even care) that Picasso wandered those same halls.

The net covered building is where Picasso had is first apartment on his own away from his family. The building looked like it was being held up by a series of nets placed over time, and not like it was in the midst of being repaired.  It made me sad that it didn’t seem like anyone was trying to preserve this place as a historical site.  I like to think some artist owns it and is just waiting to sell enough work until she can restore it enough to create inspired works in it.

Wandering the haunts of my favorite artists while in Europe is one of my favorite things to do in life, and it was definitely one of my highlights in Barcelona.  We all walk the same ground and breathe the same air as genius, if we realize it or not.  We have genius around us and within us, there may not be a clear sign saying “here is where genius resides”, we may not even notice it, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t all around even in the most unexpected and unassuming places.

Picasso Mural in Barcelona

Catalonia Dance, Picasso Mural

Picasso Mural Barcelona

Picasso Mural Barcelona

Catalonia Dance, Picasso Mural

In 1962 this mural was created in Barcelona and it’s the only public work of art done by Picasso in the city.  Picasso was asked to created it, but he refused to make it as long as the dictator Franco remained in power.  Finally he compromised by designing it, but wouldn’t actually come back to Spain to create it.  Included in the design, is several references to Catalan traditions, which were illegal under Franco, so it is a rather political work.

Joan Miro’

Miro, was a son of Barcelona but that doesn’t make him any less a painter of Paris.  He made his first trip to Paris at the age of 26 and there after lived and painted every winter there until he fled Spain for Paris permanently during the Spanish civil war in the 1930s.

On my trip to Paris I got to know Miro’ a bit better, through is artwork.  I had never realized how political it was before.  His burned paintings, which he did later in his career, were to protest the establishment, the political state, and even the art world. He considered it painting with fire. He wrote  ‘The artist does not live in bliss. He is sensitive to the world, to the pulsation of his time, to the events which compel him to act. This is bound to happen. This is not an intellectual attitude but a profound feeling, something like a cry of joy which delivers you from anguish.’

My son and I were talking about art the other day and he was saying really anything could be art.  I disagreed.  I insist it must either have esthetics, an expression, or a message.  To be good art it must have at least two of the above. Perhaps great art has all three?

Certainly Miro has all three.

 

Why talk about street art here??

Why am I talking about street art on a blog about being inspired by the Paris Bohemians.  Two reasons… first is that I think that the bohemians, spurred by the invention of the camera, were the catalystic fathers (and occasional mothers) of all modern and contemporary art, and second it’s my blog, so basically I can flex the rules that made myself as I see fit.

I am staying in the El Ravel barrio of Barcelona.  I think it might just be the street art capital of the universe.  How can I not share the experience of being surrounded by so much inspired work? Every building is covered with art, usually only on the first floor, the rest being only used as a canvas occasionally by the very industrious.  Much of it is generic tagging, but a good portion of it is brilliant artwork; everything from lowbrow art,  to pop art, to classical portraiture.  I really love the way that there seems to be respect for the most talented of the street artist.  Tagging is layered on top of tagging, but if you see a piece of well done art in just about any style, even excellently rendered tagging, it is rare that anyone has disfigured it by tagging over it, instead it is left unspoiled with respect, that is not given even the most ancient buildings, save for Gaudi’s works, and a few others of national importance.

Perhaps many of these artist never give a second thought to the Paris Bohemians, but I can see the influence in the colors, the lines, the boldness, and the expression, and maybe most importantly the spirit of art as a rebellion.

Els 4 Gats

Yesterday on a walking tour of Picasso’s Barcelona we visited the 4 Gats.  Four cats means that everything has basically gone to hell, because no one can control four cats.  I love that as the name for a cafe specifically built with he intention as a hang out for artist.  The owner, Pere Romeu, opened it in 1897, imitating the Noir Chat in Paris.  It was an immediate hit in Barcelona with artist and musicians and was known as the bohemian central of Bacelona, visited by anyone visiting town.  Dali and Picasso both frequented the cafe.

Picasso had his first solo art show on the back wall of this place, and the current owners continue the tradition by using the back wall to host local artists works.  See the photo of of me?  That wall behind me is said wall. I was naughty and right after that photo I rubbed the same wall Picasso had his first art exhibit on for good luck!

Romeu was such a supporter of the arts that he never collected tabs on artists who could not pay, and had to eventually close doors in spite of the places popularity.

Since I am such a foodie this wouldn’t be complete without at least a little review of the food we had.  We had the creamy rice with seafood, cuttle fish, clams, and lobster.  The seafood was over cooked and the dish tasted a bit of the same after a few bites, but it had still a decent flavor and it certainly wasn’t the worst food we had in Barcelona.  I would have been happy if it was awful probably but it truth the food was fair, and the deserts delicious.  A steak went by that looked fabulous.  There was a piano player and the dining room felt rich in history.  Definitely worth a nights out when in Barcelona.