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Just a day or so ago I was chatting with Aussie author Debbie Robson about the joys of research and the type of research that I do for this blog…

An Armenian Sketchbook, a travel memoir of sorts by the great Russian writer Vasily Grossman, is an example of a book that demands a bit of research before I write anything about it here.  Before my research, I knew next to nothing about Armenia, not even its exact location.  All I knew before reading the book had to do with the Armenian Genocide: i.e. from my reading of Louis de Bernières Birds without Wings I learned that early in the 20th century the Ottomans in Turkey had killed more than a million Armenians.  I also knew that the Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk was recently prosecuted by authorities when he publicly acknowledged that this genocide had taken place because it is a criminal offence to do that in Turkey.

Georgia O’Keefe (c. 1920)

Georgia O’Keefe’s annoyance at the high-handed attitude of Alfred Stieglitz in exhibiting ten of her charcoal abstract works in his gallery alongside other artists’ paintings, without her permission, in May 1916 soon cooled off and maybe Stieglitz decided to make amends by offering Georgia a solo exhibition at his gallery. She agreed and in April 1917 she had her first solo show. It was the final exhibition at Stieglitz’s 291 gallery as shortly afterwards it closed.

Evening Star by Georgia O’Keefe (1917)

Georgia had initially been completing works in black and white insisting that colour would detract from the work itself. However for this solo exhibition she submitted oil paintings and watercolours which she had been working on whilst living in Texas. As far as the use of colour was concerned she admitted:

“…I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t…

Exhibition dates: 8th February – 11th May 2014

What a magnificent exhibition. We all know Brancusi and Man Ray but it is the work of Medardo Rosso that surprises and delights here, an artist I admit I knew nothing about before this posting. What a revelation, both his sculptures and photographs. I must try and do a whole posting just on his photographs!

The two self-portraits of the artists in the studio are telling… Rosso, pensive, brooding, with a stack of chopped wood surrounding him, face wreathed in shadow, head titled slightly down and hands stuffed in pockets; Brancusi, seated on a plinth, legs crossed, swarthy arms folded replete with large hands, staring directly at the camera and surrounded by his work. Rosso in malleable darkness, Brancusi in towering light. The photographs reflect their respective personalities and inform the art which represents them.

Marcus

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Many thankx to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen for allowing me to…

Please note that the words below are the same only in writing but not in pronunciation . Still interesting and fun to know it, though. 🙂

Le coup d’œil craintif à tous azimuts
Se heurte à des murs gris,
Et « soleil » n’est encore qu’un mot vide.
Détrempés et nus, les arbres ont froid,
Les femmes vont, paquetées de manteaux,
Et la pluie sans fin crépite et crépite.

Lorsque j’étais encore enfant, jadis,
Le ciel sans relâche était clair et bleu
Et tout nuage frangé d’or.
Maintenant que j’avance en âge,
Toute brillance est accomplie,
La pluie crépite, le monde a changé.

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Cette traduction originale, due à Lionel-Édouard Martin, relève du droit de la propriété intellectuelle.  Il est permis de la diffuser, à la condition expresse que le nom du traducteur soit clairement indiqué.

Der scheue Blick an allen Enden
Stößt sich an grauen Wänden,
Und « Sonne » ist nur noch ein leeres Wort.
Die Bäume stehn und frieren naß und nackt,
Die Frauen gehn in Mäntel eingepackt,
Und Regen rauscht unendlich fort und fort.

Einst als ich…