Marie Laurencin

Spanish Dancers

While visiting the Orangerie during our visit to Paris I was taken by a group of paintings by Marie Laurencin.  I’d never come across this female French artist before and so followed up the visit by doing a bit of research.

There doesn’t seem to be many of her paintings in galleries in Britain (although the Tate apparently have a couple) or in France, which would partly explain why I haven’t come across her work before. There seem to be more examples in the USA, and for some reason there is a museum dedicated to her work in Tokyo.

She was born in 1883 and lived until 1956. She used to hang around “le Bateau-Lavoir” in Montmartre and was associated with Picasso and his circle. She was the lover and muse of the poet Apollinaire, apparently inspiring some of his most famous poems. They appear together in a painting by Henri Rousseau

Although the Orangerie guidebook describes her as the “lady of cubism”, to me her work doesn’t really justify that label. She may have associated with cubists, but her paintings were quite different.  The five works displayed in the Orangerie are all paintings of women. Her style is distinctive and, in my view, very feminine. if I hadn’t already known, I would have guessed that they were painted by a woman.

Portrait de Mademoiselle Chanel

She seems to have mainly taken women as her subjects and used a limited range of soft, pastel colours.  The Orangerie guidebook quotes her as saying

“I didn’t like every colour, so why use those I don’t like? I simply left them aside. I only used blue, pink, green, white and black. With age I came to accept yellow and red“

I couldn’t find too much about her on the web, but there is a good article about her life and work here.

Musee Rodin

I think that most people are probably familiar with “The Thinker” and “The Kiss” by Rodin. Their images crop up all over the place and are almost artistic cliches. I’d seen one copy of “the Kiss” when it was on display at the Tate in Liverpool and despite the familiarity of the image, I was impressed with the scale and the workmanship. The figures and the composition were realistic and moving.

So while we were in Paris I wanted to take the opportunity to study more of his work by visiting the Musee Rodin. This is located in the Hotel Biron, in the Rue Varenne, on the Left Bank, close to les Invalides. Its an old manor house set in its own garden, which had been used as studios by a number of artists, including Matisse, and Rodin rented a number of rooms which he used as a workshop, to store sculptures and to receive visitors. It was threatened with demolition but Rodin intervened and persuaded the French Government to establish a museum dedicated to his work. He was successful, and it opened in 1919.

Hotel Biron

Today the house houses a permanent exhibition of work by Rodin together with some sculptures by Camille Claudel (his protege and mistress) and painting and sculptures from Rodin’s personal collection. Temporary exhibitions are displayed in the house and also in the former chapel which now serves as the entrance to the site and houses the ticket office and bookshop.

The gardens have been restored in the French syle and constitute a peaceful green oasis in the centre of Paris which display a number of statutes, including “the Thinker“, “the Burghers of Calais“, “Balzac“, “Ugolino and his children“, “Victor Hugo” and “the Gates of Hell“. There is also a display of marble statues inside a glass fronted gallery. You can buy a ticket that allows access to only the garden. If time is limited this is a good option as it is possible to see a considerable number of important works. Its also a pretty pleasnt place to sit and ponder on a nice day.

"Now what should I look at next?"

Inside the house works by Rodin and others are displayed rooms on the ground and first floors. The first few rooms show early pieces by Rodin in chronological order. These include “the man with the broken nose” and “the Age of Bronze“, Other rooms are thematic, based around major works, including “the Kiss” “the Burghers of Calais“, “the Gates of Hell” and “Balzac” showing how they developed. Rodin often worked on an idea for many years, reworking a piece and producing several versions and preliminary studies.

The Age of Bronze

No caption need for this one!

Rooms are also devoted to Camille Claudel, stutes of parts of the body, including “the Cathedral” and “the Walking Man“, and busts of friends and clients – including a number of wealthy English female clients.

The Walking Man

There was a lot to see, and one visit was not enough for other than a cursory study, but it did allow me to learn more about Rodin’s work. I was able to get up close to the well known statues I knew from afar and also discover other pieces that were less familiar or new to me.

I was impressed by Rodin’s ability to portray the human body in a realistic way. His sculptures were not “perfect”, idealised subjects but real people. He was able to sculpt faces with real character. This was particuarly true of “the man with the broken nose” and some of his “society” portraits – especially “Madame Fenaille“

He also was skilled at modelling hands – which many artists have difficulty with. This was particularly illustrated by the two hands forming “the Cathedral“

The Cathedral

Ukulele Orchestra of GB – Wuthering Heights

Brilliant!

From utube

Art on the Fly

Inside the Musee d'Orsay, Paris

I came across this article on the web today via the 3quarksdaily blog:

Abroad – At the Louvre, Many Snap but Few Focus, and Mona Lisa Smiles On – NYTimes.com.

The key point that the author makes is that tourists visiting art galleries tend to concentrate on looking at a few well known works which they haven’t time to study in any detail.

Having just returned from a break in Paris where we visited 5 galleries, I can relate to the point he is making. In fact, I would have to own up to be largely “guilty”. We didn’t visit the Louvre but went to

• Gare d’Orsay
• Pompidou Centre
• Musee Marmottan
• Rodin Museum
• l’Orangerie

All of them, particularly the Gare d’Orsay and the Pompidou contain an enormous number of works. In theory, this makes it easy to make a study of art history and the various styles. In practice its overwhelming. To study all of them in any detail would be impossible. You could spend a whole day in each gallery and still only have time to look at a fraction of the paintings and sculptures in any detail. Given the overwhelming number of works this meant that we tended to walk through, picking out the works that were of interest and concentrating on them.  This was particularly true of the Gare d’Orsay and Pompidou Centre where an enormous number of works are on display. The smaller galleries were more manageable, but “small” is a relative term. In any provincial city the Marmottan, Orangerie and Rodin Museums would be major galleries.

We could have decided to concentrate on just one museum and study the collection properly, but that would have taken more than one day, particularly with the two larger galleries. Perhaps the purist would do that, but that really wasn’t viable for us and that wasn’t what we were trying to achieve. Certainly, one of my objectives was to see some of the major works, but I also wanted to discover artists and work that I hadn’t seen before – and during our visits I achieved this. I hadn’t seen much by Rodin before, and a visit to the Museum at the Hotel Biron allowed me to gain an appreciation f his work – even if I didn’t have the time to study everything in detail. The visit to the Pompidou Centre allowed me to explore the work of many different artists – many of them I hadn’t heard of before. Even in the Orangerie, I discovered works I liked by two artists who were new to me.So the depth of my knowledge of art may not have been inceased too much during our trip, but my breadth of knowledge certainly has.

Perhaps a professional art critic would frown upon my approach, but it has allowed me to learn more about art. I can now go away and learn more about the artists I discovered and, perhaps one day I’ll have the opportunity to revisit their works that I saw during my brief visit.

Healthcare Napkins All

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Graceland

I guess you can’t go to Memphis without visiting Graceland, so I joined the throngs on Saturday 25 July.  The hotel suggested that I book a tour as their complimentary shuttle didn’t go out that far (Graceland is quite a way from the city centre – out near the airport). This was a good move as although I could have picked up the free shuttle bus that travels between Graceland and the Rock and Soul Museum via Sun Studios, I didn’t have to queue up for a ticket when we arrived.

I still had to queue up to take the shuttle bus over from the reception area to the mansion itself though. It was only a short ride and to walk over would have taken no more than 10 minutes, but I guess that the buses were really there to control the numbers going through the house at any one time.

Graceland was much smaller than I expected – and the portico on the front made it look much grander than it actualyw was. It was large – but nowhere near as big as I’d imagined and I expect most superstars today have far bigger houses.

Graceland

We were herded into the house, so there wasn’t much time to get a decent picture. It was quite crowded moving through the first few rooms. However, as people began moving at their own pace I found it got less crushed as we progressed through the house and other buildings on the site.

The first couple of rooms on the ground floor at the front of the house were quite stylish and not at all “tacky”, but looked as they weren’t really “lived in” compared to the other rooms we were allowed to see. They were, perhaps “best” rooms kept for when there were visitors – a little like the old fashioned front parlours that traditionally used to be reserved for “best” in working class houses in Britain.

The other rooms on the ground floor and basement (the upstairs remains private and inaccessible to visitors) were more like what I was expecting – very seventies. These seemed, to me, to be the places were Elvis and his family would have spent their time.

Lounge in basement - with Elvis' three T.V.s

Basement pool room - with fabric covered walls and ceiling

The “Jungle” room on the ground floor looked the most “lived in” of all the rooms I saw and it is, apparently, Elvis’s favourite room in the house. It was very seventies, and kind of tacky, but I quite liked it! Reminded me of the sort of living rooms we had when I was in my teens (only on a grander scale).

The Jungle Room

Jungle room - showing the waterfall and Lisa's favourite chair

After looking round the house the tour takes you through various out-buildings, some of which have been converted into display rooms for Elvis memorabilia including gold records, awards and some of his costumes.

Squash court – now converted into an exhibition space – and there were plenty more on display in other rooms

The final stop before taking the shuttle back across the road was the memorial garden where Elvis and his close family are buried. I expected this to be tacky but I actually found it quite moving.

My ticket also allowed entry into a few more attractions, including the car museum and Elvis’s aeroplanes.

He had a very large collection of cars and bikes. including Rolls Royces, Mercedes, Cadillacs and Harley Davidsons. They even showed his lawnmower and other vehicles used around the site. The most interesting one was probably his pink Cadillac.

Pink Cadillac

Elvis had two planes. A larger one, the Lisa Marie, named after his daughter, which you were able to walk through

and a smaller,executive type, jet

There were other exhibitions on the site too, so there was certainly plenty to see. There were also, of course, quite a few “retail opportunities”. I was there about 3 and a half hours and could have stayed perhaps an hour longer, but I had to leave at the arranged time to collect my lift back to the hotel.

Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art

On my final day in Memphis I had a little time to kill before a visit I’d booked for the Gibson guitar factory tour, so I went to have a look round the (rather limited) number of shops on South Main Street. I had a look in a small art gallery when it started absolutely bucketing it down outside. The owner suggested that if I didn’t want to get wet I could have a look round the Belz Museum that was in the same building. I decided to go allong with her suggestion. It was a good decision !

The Belz museum is privately owned and displays a collection of pieces from china and other eastern countries as well as a collection of Judaica (historical and literal pieces relating to Judaism). I was mainly interested in the asiatic art on display. There were some very large pieces of work in jade, statues and sculptures made from other materials and some paintings. Some of the most impressive pieces were carvings into elephant and mammoth tusks. The latter unearthed in places such as Siberia and could be differentiated from modern ivory by the brown colour of the outer part of the tusk caused by weathering. These were incredibly intricate.  The following image (taken from the Museum website – I hope they don’t mind) doesn’t really do them justice – the figures and other objects were tiny.

There were plenty of things to look at – but I only had limited time for my visit as I had a plane to catch that afternoon and I could have spent longer there.

Photographs were not permitted and there are relatively few pictures on their website, so a visit is the only way to fully appreciate the nature and quality of the collection.

All in all an excellent little museum – something of a hidden gem and certainly well worth a visit when in Memphis.

Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art
119 South Main Street
Memphis, Tennessee
Phone: 901-523-ARTS
Fax: 901-523-8603

Flying Fish

Eating out healthily in Memphis wasn’t easy. There were plenty of places serving good food, but in the main it was either fried or served up in a sweet sauce – not so great for a diabetic watching their diet!

One place I particularly liked was the Flying Fish on Second Street, just opposite the Peabody Hotel. It was quite informal – a large chippie really, but much better than most you’ll find in Britain.

The Flying Fish

It seemed to be very popular – it was always busy.

Inside the Flying Fish

They had an enormous menu and every time I went in there were people standing in the queue who were having trouble deciding what to eat.

Menu at the Flying Fish

Most of the food on offer was fried, but there were some more healthy options. Chips (or “fries”) came as the standard accompaniment, but there was the option to substitute other vegetables, and I chose to have red beans and rice. There were both alcoholic and soft drinks available. I drank ice tea which was on tap and you could refill as many times as you wanted. The food came with dips – tomatoe salsa and mayonnaise – and there were bowls of crackers and various relishes on all the tables.

I ate there three times. First time I had a “combo basket” of shrimp and catfish

During my second visit (Sunday lunchtime) I had an oyster “po’ boy”

I had my last meal there on my final evening in Memphis – this time I had two course, half a dozen oysters followed by a big plate of “boiled shrimp”

Overall the food was excellent and extremely good value.

Jake Lear

This guy was playing at the bottom end of Beale Street during my recent visit to Memphis.

Jake Lear on Beale Street

His style was quite different than Richard Johnston, but he was also very good.

He played quite a furious style of blues/R n B – much more “rock and roll”. His singing, and appearance, reminded me of a young Bob Dylan.

You can download some examples of his music from his website.

All the way to Memphis

I left my six stringed razor at home and flew out via Amsterdam. It was a long flight and I was tierd when I arried. But I needed to acclimatise to the time zone so rather than going off to bed I went out to have a wander and explore.

Memphis isn’t a very “high rise” city. There are only a relatively small number of tall buildings, which are  hardly “sky scrapers”. Looking out of my hotel bedroom window I could see most of them.

Memphis skyline

Probably the main thing that struck me about the city cetre was how dead it was. Beale Street, the historic entertainment district, was incredibly lively, especially at night, but other than that there isn’t much activity. There are very few shops – everything seems to be located on out of town shopping malls. There wasn’t even a book shop to browse in! There were only a few cultural attractions in the centre too – the Orpheum theatre, the National Civil Rights Museum and the Belz museum of oriental and Judaic art – other than the music related attractions around Beale Street. Unless there are other galleries and theatres elsewhere in the city, cultural life in Memphis must be pretty limited.

Traffic, too, was relatively light, especially when compared to similar sized cities in Britain. During my visit, the wide roads were hardly busy, even during the daytime. This was probably a reflection of the lack of activity in the city centre.

Beale Street

Beale street was a hub of activity. I got there about 7:30 on a Thursday evening and it was already pretty lively and it became more so as the the sun set and night drew in. There were throngs of people wandering around between the bars and restaurants and it was even possible to buy drinks to consume on the street. Most of the bars seemed to have a live act and there were street performers too – acrobats at the top end of the street and musicians at the bottom end. There was quite a strong police presence, obviously needed to keep things in order, but I felt that the atmosphere was fairly relaxed and didn’t seem threatening.