Visit to Centre Pompidou and the Marais

Wednesday November 30 was another sunny day with a high a of 7C.  We've really been enjoying the blue skies.  While cooler than our first five days in Paris, there has been almost no wind and it's been very pleasant weather to flâner (wander) in Paris.

We left the apartment just after noon and stopped for a farewell coffee at Strada Café.  We were one coffee short of having another free coffee, but the barista gave it to us anyway.  Another of the staff told us about a small Brassai exhibit worth checking out at the Centre Pompidou where we were heading.

Strada Café

Crossing the Seine

We made our way to the Centre Pompidou.  We first checked out the free exhibit in the photo gallery that the barista at Stada Café had mentioned.  It was entitled Brassaï Graffiti.  Brassaï, the pseudonym of Gyula Halász (1899-1984) was a Hungarian-French photographer who moved to Paris in 1924.  He took the name Brassaï, which means "from Brasov", the town where he was born.

Beginning in the 1930s, Brassaï spent more than a quarter of a century photographing the signs, drawings and scratchings on the walls of Paris. The series was only exhibited and published in the 1950s and 60s.  Some of the graffiti was political in nature, and others included images dealing with love, death and faces.  In the late 1960s, Brassaï began to produce tapestries based on the Graffiti series.

Poster for the exhibit

Untitled, from the Graffiti series 1945-55

Mockup for the Nocturne Tapestry  1968-72

Primitive Image from the Graffiti series

Unitled, from the series Graffiti [L'amour] 1945-55

Political symbols- the Cross  of Lorraine- Gaullist symbol of Free France and the hammer and sickle

1933 Image from the Graffiti Series

While more familiar with Brassaïs iconic photos of people and Paris life, the graffiti pictures provide another perspective on mid 20th century Paris.

We then went to see the Cy Twombly (1928-2011) retrospective which fortunately just opened.  The exhibit covers his sixty-year career and is chronologically organized.  Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. (Cy) was born in Lexington, Virginia.  His father pitched for the Chicago White Sox and both were nicknamed after Cy Young, the great pitcher (I could not forgo the baseball reference!).

Twombly started art lessons at 12.  He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1951-1952, where he studied with Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Ben Shahn.  His first solo exhibit was in 1951.  In 1952, he received a grant which enabled him to travel in Europe.  He did so with his friend Robert Rauschenberg.  In 1957, Twombly moved to Rome.  While he predominately lived in Italy, he often spent several months a year in the United States.

His art has often been described as literary and his canvasses often deal with myths and history.

Untitled, Lexington, 1951

Untitled, (Panorama), 1959

The exhibit focusses on his three major cycles of paintings.  They each tell a single story across many canvases.  The first is the Nine Discourses on Commodus done in 1963.  Twombly embarked on this series after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  He focused on a nine part cycle on the Roman emperor Commodus (161-192).  The series was rejected by critics at the time, but is now in the Guggenheim Bilbao collection.  It is a very powerful collection of paintings about an emperor who could not reign without assassinations.

Nine Discourses on Commodus, 1963

Assemblages

Summer Madness 1990

The second major cycle was Fifty Days at Iliam, 1978.  Twombly was inspired by his reading of Homer's Iliad.  He depicts the horrors of war.

Fifty Days at Iliam Part 1: Shield of Achilles, 1978

Fifty Days at Iliam: Shades of Achilles, Patroclus and Hector [PartVI], 1978

Fifty Days at Iliam: The Fire that Consumes All before It, 1978

The Vengeance of Achilles, 1962

There were lots of other individual pieces in the exhibit.

Petals of Fire, 1989

 The next four pictures are from: Quattro Stagioni: Primavera, Estate, Autunno, Inverno, 1993-95

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

The final cycle, Coronation of Sesostris, 2000, echoes the journey of the Egyptian sun god Ra mixed in with references to Sesostris I, legendary king of Ancient Egypt.

The final picture in the exhibit was Blooming, 2001-2008.

Blooming 2001-2008

Alain and I both thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit.  It was wonderful seeing all the pieces together, including the three major cycles.  Twombly was extremely well read and continued to create unique and innovative works throughout his life.  He brought both European and American sensibility
to his works.  It was a very inspiring exhibit.

We took some pictures of the city from the gallery, which was on the top floor of the Pompidou.  Sacré- Coeur Basilica in Montmartre is in the distance in the first photo and the roofs of Paris in the second.

Sacré-Coeur Basilica in the distance

The roofs of Paris

After the Pompidou and a quick baguette, we headed into the Marais.  Alain wanted to stop at his favourite eyeglasses store- Lafont, where he bought his last pair of frames a number of years ago.   It turned out we had wandered into a special event at the store where they were revealing the new collection.  There was champagne and we both bought new frames with clip-ons.  The brand Lafont started in 1923 and is still going strong.  Thomas Lafont, the Creative Director of the brand was at the store for the event.  The service was excellent- one of the staff even went to her house to get the last pair of small clip-ons for my frames.  She had just bought a pair for her mother and they had not yet been worn.

Alain and Thomas Lafont

Moi aussi

We wandered around the Marais for a bit longer, visiting a store where I have bought hand made purses in the past.  The owner was there and recommended a new Italian restaurant  (Biglove Caffé) nearby for a quick dinner.  We had a lovely glass of Nero d'Avalo from Sicily and pasta with large capers and tomatoes.  There were no reservations and the place was full by 7:30 p.m.

View from door of Biglove Caffé

Alain with his spaghetti with capers and tomatoes

We headed back to the apartment to finish packing. Wednesday was our last full day in Paris.  We return to Toronto today ( December 1).  It has been a wonderful trip- fewer tourists, good weather - warm (though cloudy) the first five days and while cooler the last four days, the sun and blue skies were wonderful.  We have really enjoyed the art exhibits-- hard to pick favourites this trip, but the Picasso-Giacometti and the Cy Twombly were my top two.  The Ballet was a highlight and Jazz at Duc des Lombards always a treat.  Lots of time for chat with storekeepers, attend private sales and walk and walk and walk.  Having dinners with a friend from Toronto and both of my cousins were also fun.  Good food, good wine, and even good coffee.  Being a Flâneur in Paris is the best occupation.  Until the next time..... hope you enjoyed our 2016 adventure.