SPIRIT ARE YOU HERE?
THE PAINTERS AND THE VOICES FROM BEYOND
In 1853, Victor Hugo, devastated by the death of his daughter Leopoldine, went into exile on the Channel Island of Jersey. There, he meets the poet Delphine de Girardin, who introduces him to a new experience: “turntables”; after a few sessions, the writer falls under the charm of the practice.
Coming from the United States in the middle of the 19th century, the “Spirite” trend quickly became a phenomenon of European society. Augustin Lesage, Victor Simon and Fleury-Joseph Crépin, from the North of France and from modest backgrounds, become – in spite of themselves- messengers from the afterlife, which nothing predestined for painting. Their painting is like a stack of symbols and patterns, bathed in a strange intensity and unspeakable emotion.
Augustin Lesage grabbed a brush in 1911 because a voice revealed his vocation to him:
“Someday you’ll be a painter”
Victor Simon created his first painting in 1933 following a similar revelation. As for Fleury-Joseph Crépin, he began to paint at the age of 64, commissioned by voices in 1939 :
“When you have painted 300 paintings that day, the war will end …”.
He completed his 300th painting on 7 May 1945, the day before the Armistice…
The Maillol Museum in Paris honors these three artists coming from a caulked universe and inspired by the Strange. The exhibition, featuring works by Victor Brauner, André Breton, Robert Desnos, Paul Eluard, and Kandinsky, highlights the survival of esoteric practices and their influence beyond painting.
MAILLOL MUSEUM |
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Date | : | Until November 1st, 2020 |
Address | : | 61 rue de Grenelle – 75 007 PARIS |