France

Paris9

I am annoyed, because I updated this blog yesterday...about 90 minutes of frenzied typing, but I must have pressed the wrong button, and lost the whole thing!

Anyway I shall try and remember the gist of it.

Firstly, the Opening (Vernissage) of our show was on Tuesday night, and to my eyes it seemed to go down very well indeed. Quite a lot of people, including the Australian Ambassador, who met the six or so artists who came over and had them take her around the show. She said that it was great to have shows like this representing Australia, shows that are lively, and not the usual vapid stuff .

It turned out that she had overruled her conservative Embassay staff personally to insist that they give some money towards the show.

So, that was a good start, but also the leading French art critic of Art Brut was there, as was John Mazel of Raw Vision magazine, who came over from London. So was the Director of the Dubuffet Insitute, and the world's leading collector of Outsider Art, all the way from Switzerland for the show.

Phil Hammial is absolutely delighted, from his experience this is one of the best results he has seen, and he has been to France 13 times for shows and readings.Direct8 television interviewed Phil, and we were all interviewed by the Paris ABC radio stringer, although he was a bit inebriated and I am not sure they will use his interveiw!

Today I saw two of the posters on the French Metro, which is great! Our logo seen by millions of people every day (if they choose to look)!

So that was a terrrific opening, everybody staying till quite late, which is a good sign apparently...I forgot to mention that the Aussie critic Bruce Adams, who used to write for SMH and Australian was also there, and that I have been asked to write a piece for Raw Vision, so we should get some good publicity, perhaps even in Australia.

The rest of our time has been taken up in the usual way...museums, and getting to them and to restaurants from the musuems.

Gunther Deiz shouted us a meal last night in Montmartre. We could'nt get into the one he knew, so went to another on spec, and it turned out to be really good, as well as inexpensive, the sort of old fashioned joint where the patron pours Cognac by eye and ends up giving you half a balloon full!I know because I bought one for Gunther..the spiral staircase was so old it was one of those places you just know that Picasso and Max Jacob had trod the same stairs.Good tucker too, Gunther could hardly believe that the food bill was only 90 Euros for eight people, so because he was a little sloshed, gave the barman 50 Euros!

Prior to that we had been to the Musee Jacquarmart Andre, on the Boulevard Haussman. Andre was a banker, and a Napoleonic Protestant, so was one of the first to buy some space on the new Boulevard, which the meglomaniac Haussman had put in after demolishing

 numerous working class suburbs. The house he built, palace really, is full of terrific art, and he certainly had a lot better taste than many of his flashy contemporaries. He was a conservative sort though, and did not buy contemporary art, in fact, mainly Italian art, although he also had terrific German and French things from the middle ages to about 1740.We saw three Donatellos (he is still my hero, he can do as much in three milmetres as many artists do in three metres.) Speaking of metres, there are numerous Tiepolo ceilings, and a huge mural by him at the top of one of the best middle sized staircases I have ever seen (French 1845 can't remember the architect's name ).

NOt only those, but also two Botticelli's, two terrific Rembrandt's, Hals, Rosa, and superb decorative arts and marble sculptures, Chardin, Vigee LeBrun, Boucher, Fragonard,etc, etc, and all in sumptious luxury, as the house is as the widow left it in 1912.

We also had lunch in the restaurant, a terrific lunch of salads and Tiepolo surrounded by some upper crust frogs, who must realise this is terrific value...about 15 Euros for a salad such as I have not had before, Fois Gras, figs, Mesclun, thin smoked duck like proscuitto, preserved pears, green pepper corns, tiny tomatoes...sounds wierd, but it blended beautifully..I recommend this for a very good lunch in Paris.Then the patisserie trolley....

So, that was good, today we did the D'Orsay, which I rememberd surprisingly well from our last visit, but still saw a hell of a lot of new things, including five Sisley's they did not have out last time..(I think some new collections have been gifted...likewise a few new Cezanne's, who remains my other hero.) I always like the Symbolists and the decorative arts of that period too, and the Art Nouveau..I still think it is a bit hard on the feet, but there is no doubt that the quality of the D'Orsay contents is first rate...I must say though, that I would like more in depth analysis of the works, the wall texts or handouts  are virtually non-existent, and furthermore, there are a lot of gaps in the Symbolists, nothing to be seen on the Hermetic schools for instance.Still, saw some new Ensors, and a Bocklin...

Then we went to an Opening in the Latin Quarter of a leading European Outsider, whom I met. I would have liked to buy something, but was rather surprised to find the cheapest work was 1800 Euros and this was only about 6 inches high!He finds lovely shaped sticks in the forests where he lives, and puts carved heads on them. He used to use moulded bread, but has moved on! He just started making these figures when he was twelve and lonely, and has been able to live as an artist ever since, compleltly untrained. He was a most urbane chap now, spoke five languages without much accent at all...

We had lunch today at Cafe Constant, our one really good meal of the stay. It is only a bistro, but is recommended in all the good food guides, as well as Gourmet Traveller in Australia!It cost us 61 Euros, but was very good indeed, and well worth the quids. I knew the bloke at the next table too...had been to a Galleries Conference with him many years ago.I had the 26Euro formule, choosing Something delicious I cannot remember for entree, than Magret of Canard with Salad and three peppers, then a  Red Fruits Melba, which was propbably a lot closer to the dish that Escoffier created for Dame Nellie at the Savoy than the tinned peaches and rasberry syrup we are used to in Oz. Mine was marinated rasberries and strawberries, with a delicious home made iceream flavoured with I know not what and also a sort of vanilla flummery.It was quite a big lunch, but we waddled back to the D'Orsay for more foot punishing walking.

We have also spent a full day at Pere Lachaise since I last blogged, a very pleasant spot, like Montmartre cemetry, with hills and lots of trees. You can actully stop and have a picnic, as we did, without baking in the sun like one might at the bare Vaucluse and Maroubra cemetreies.Saw numerous famous tombs, indeed we sought out some, saw others en route. Jim Morrison of course, the most popular grave there, now with a permanent gendarme, as the hippes were alwyas partying there, and someone stole the bust of Jim.

Victor Noir, the anarchist poet and journalist killed during the Commune, is no 2 most popular, because of his legendary fertility powers, but also because of the great sculpture by Dalou and the fact that he was an extra cool anarchist. The third most popular is Edith Piaf. Interesting that it is always the artists and creative types who get remembered.I must say however, that France also remembers and honours its scientists and engineers, and many of the graves of famous peopel like Laplace, and Lavoissier are maintained by the state, as are the artist graves. Some however are not. Poor old Daumier, his grave could barely be read the inscription is so worn. Even today, the bourgeoisie have not forgotten his acid eyesight!

Oscar Wilde's Jacob Epstein grave is a surprise, not only because of its deco form, but because it is covered in lipstick kisses and inscriptions "Je T'aime Oscar", "you have changed my life" etc...odd .A few years ago, a crazy English woman broke the penis off the tomb...odder still.

Anyway, I am writing at midnight on our last evening in Paris, we go to London tomorrow afternoon, just time to go to Halle St Pierre in the morning and pick up some catalogues and posters, also take a quick trip to a metro station where I can photograph the poster on the walls.

See youse all later.