The
twentieth
century
kicked off to a
colourful start
with the
Fauvist
exhibition of
1905, an
appropriately
anarchic
beginning to a
century which,
in France above
all, was to see
radical changes
in attitudes
towards
painting.
The painters
who took part in
the exhibition
included, most
influentially, Henri
Matisse
(1869-1954), André
Derain
(1880-1954), Georges
Rouault
(1871-1958) and Albert
Marquet
(1875-1947), and
they were
quickly
nicknamed the
Fauves (Wild
Beasts) for
their use of
bright, wild
colours that
often bore no
relation
whatsoever to
the reality of
the object
depicted. Skies
were just as
likely to be
green as blue
since, for the
Fauves, colour
was a way of
composing, of
structuring a
picture, and not
necessarily a
reflection of
real life.
Fauvism was
just the
beginning: the
first decades of
the twentieth
century were
times of intense
excitement and
artistic
activity in
Paris, and
painters and
sculptors from
all over Europe
flocked to the
capital to take
part in the
liberation from
conventional art
that individuals
and groups were
gradually
instigating. Raoul
Dufy
(1877-1953) used
Fauvist colours
in combination
with theories of
abstraction to
paint an
effervescent
industrial age.
Pablo
Picasso
(1881-1973) was
one of the
first, arriving
in Paris in 1900
from Spain and
soon thereafter
starting work on
his first Blue
Period
paintings, which
describe the sad
and squalid life
of intinerant
actors in tones
of blue. Later,
while Matisse
was
experimenting
with colours and
their decorative
potential,
Picasso came
under the sway
of Cézanne and
his organization
of forms into
geometrical
shapes. He also
learned from
"primitive",
and especially
African,
sculpture, and
out of these
studies came a
painting that
heralded a
definite new
direction, not
only for
Picasso's own
style but for
the whole of
modern art - Les
Demoiselles
d'Avignon .
Executed in
1907, this
painting
combined Cézanne's
analysis of
forms with the
visual impact of
African masks.
It was from
this
semi-abstract
picture that
Picasso went on
to develop the
theory of Cubism
, inspiring
artists such as Georges
Braque
(1882-1963) and Juan
Gris
(1887-1927),
another
Spaniard, and
formulating a
whole new
movement. The
Cubists' aim was
to depict
objects not so
much as they saw
them but rather
as they knew
them to be: a
bottle and a
guitar were
shown from the
front, from the
side and from
the back as if
the eye could
take in all at
once every facet
and plane of the
object. Braque
and Picasso
first analysed
forms into these
facets
(analytical
Cubism), then
gradually
reduced them to
series of
colours and
shapes
(synthetic
Cubism), among
which a few
recognizable
symbols such as
letters,
fragments of
newspaper and
numbers
appeared. The
complexity of
different planes
overlapping one
another made the
deciphering of
Cubist paintings
sometimes
difficult, and
the very last
phase of Cubism
tended
increasingly
towards
abstraction.
Spin-offs of
Cubism were
many: such
movements as Orphism
, headed by Robert
Delaunay
(1885-1941) and Francis
Picabia
(1879-1953), who
experimented not
with objects but
with the colours
of the spectrum,
and Futurism
, which evolved
first in Italy,
then in Paris,
and explored
movement and the
bright new
technology of
the industrial
age. Fernand
Léger
(1881-1955), one
of the main
exponents of the
so-called School
of Paris, had
also become
acquainted with
modern machinery
during World
War I , and
he exploited his
fascination with
its smoothness
and power to
create geometric
and monumental
compositions of
technical
imagery that
were indebted to
both Cézanne
and Cubism.
The war,
meanwhile, had
affected many
artists: in
Switzerland, Dada
was born out of
the scorn
artists felt for
the petty
bourgeois and
nationalistic
values that had
led to the
bloodshed, a
nihilistic
movement that
sought to knock
down all
traditionally
accepted ideas.
It was best
exemplified in
the work of the
Frenchman Marcel
Duchamp
(1887-1968), who
selected
ready-made,
everyday objects
and elevated
them, without
modification, to
the rank of
works of art by
pulling them out
of their
ordinary
context, or
defaced such
sacred cows as
the Mona Lisa
by decorating
her with a
moustache and an
obscene caption.
Dada was also
a literary
movement, and
through one of
its main poets,
André Breton,
it led to the
inception of Surrealism
. It was the
unconscious and
its dark
unchartered
territories that
interested the
Surrealists:
they derived
much of their
imagery from
Freud and even
experimented in
words and images
with
free-association
techniques.
Strangely
enough, most of
the
"French"
Surrealists were
foreigners,
primarily the
German Max
Ernst
(1891-1976) and
the Spaniard Salvador
Dalí
(1904-89),
though Frenchman
Yves Tanguy
(1900-55) also
achieved
international
recognition.
Mournful
landscapes of
weird, often
terrifying
images evoked
the landscape of
nightmares in
often very
precise details
and with an
anguish that
went on to
influence
artists for
years to come.
Picasso, for
instance,
shocked by the
massacre at the
Spanish town of
Guernica in
1936, drew
greatly from
Surrealism to
produce the
disquieting
figures of his
painting of the
same name.
World War
II
interrupted
Paris's position
as the artistic
melting pot of
Europe. Artists
had rushed there
at the beginning
of the twentieth
century and
after World War
I, contributing
by their
individuality,
originality and
different
nationalities to
the richness and
constant renewal
of artistic
endeavour.
Although at the
outbreak of
World War II
many artists
emigrated to the
US, where the
economic climate
was more
favourable,
Paris remained
full of vibrant
new work.
Sculptors like
the Romanian Brancusi
(1876-1957) and
the Swiss Giacometti
(1886-1966)
lived most of
their lives in
Paris, for
example.
The last
coherent French
art movement of
the century,
largely of the
1950s and 1960s,
was Nouveau Réalisme
, which
concentrated on
the distortion
of the objects
and signs of
contemporary
culture, and
loosely
encompassed
artists and
sculptors such
as Dubuffet,
Arman, César,
Jean Tinguely
and Niki de
Saint-Phalle.
Jean
Dubuffet
(1901-85)
pioneered the
depreciation of
traditional
artistic
materials and
methods,
fashioning junk,
tar, sand and
glass into the
shape of human
beings. His work
(which provoked
much outrage)
influenced both
the French-born
American, Arman
(1928-) and César
(1921-), both of
whom made use of
scrap metals -
their output
ranging from
presentations of
household debris
to towers of
crushed cars.
Even more
controversially,
the Swiss Daniel
Spoerri
(1930-) used the
remnants -
including the
crockery - of
his dinners and
glued them onto
a canvas.
Nouveau Réaliste
sculpture is
best represented
by the works of
another Swiss, Jean
Tinguely
(1925-91) whose
work was
concerned mainly
with movement
and the machine,
satirizing
technological
civilization.
His most famous
work, done in
collaboration
with Niki de
Saint-Phalle
(1926-) is the
exuberant
fountain outside
the Pompidou
Centre,
featuring
fantastical
birds and beasts
shooting water
in all
directions.
Later artists
wanted to
reassert their
position as
individuals and,
though
influenced by
their cultural
context, were
not attached to
any clear
manifesto.
Perhaps the most
important
post-World War
II French artist
is Yves Klein
(1928-1962). He
redefined the
void and the
immaterial as
having a pure
energy. He also
patented his own
colour,
International
Klein Blue,
which he used on
his monochromes,
also signalling
painting simply
as pure colour.
Klein and
Duchamp laid the
foundations for
several currents
in contemporary
art.
Since Nouveau
Réalisme, young
French artists,
like their
counterparts
abroad have
shown a
proclivity to
mix styles as
well as media. A
number of
smaller but less
coherent
movements have
cropped up in
France, notably Support,
Surface and
the
graffiti-inspired
Figuration
Libre ,
while French
artists have
also been drawn
towards the
international
currents of
Italian-pioneered
Trans-Avant
Gard . The
geometrically
abstract
Support, Surface
emerged in Nice
in 1969, founded
by the likes of Claude
Villat
(1936-), and
represented in
sculpture by Jean-Pierre
Pincemin
(1944-). The
Nantes artist Jean-Charles
Blais
(1956-) is one
of the leaders
of Figuration
Libre (which
began in 1981),
and is known for
high-relief
abstracts which
combine
traditional
painting
techniques with
the montage
of found
objects. Louise
Bourgeois
(1911-) is a
major influence
on young
contemporary
artists, a
still-prolific
sculptress
producing oddly
erotic and
remarkable
combinations of
wrought iron,
old clothes and
other material.
A recent trend
has been towards
massive mise-en-scène
works, such as Christian
Boltanski 's
(1944-) large,
auto-referential
installations,
or the work of
the Bulgarian Christo
(1935-) and his
wife and
collaborator Jeanne-Claude
(1935-), who
cover buildings
using different
materials, and
wrapped Paris's
Pont-Neuf in
woven polyamide
fabric in 1985,
in order to
focus attention
on the structure
itself rather
than its
function. Jean-Marc
Bustamante
(1952-)
constructs in
situ
installations,
using building
materials in his
art, while Jean-Luc
Vilmout
(1952-) often
co-opts the
buildings
themselves,
resulting in a
blurring of the
aesthetic and
the functional.
Finally, in
painting, the
Lyonnais Marc
Desgrandchamps
(1960-) is a
name to look out
for, although he
may be hard to
spot given that
his work runs a
gamut of styles
from abstract to
photorealism.
