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Syncopation:
Smart Museum of Art
Syncopation: André Lhote, Louis Marcoussis, and the Cubist Print features twenty-eight works from the 1920s and 30s, showing a variety of applications of Cubist principle in fine printmaking in the period between the world wars. The highlight of this trim little exhibition is the suite of ten illustrations done in 1930 by Louis Marcoussis (French, born in Poland, 1883-1941) for the work 'Aurélia' by French Symbolist poet Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855). Marcoussis effectively employs the Cubist representation of fractured perspective to disorient the viewer, evoking disturbing dream-spaces of endless wandering. As in Le Jardin (The Garden) - Aurélia Suite (etching: 6-3/4 x 5-1/4 in.: 1930), these prints are suggestive of melancholy in their dark, echoing spatial relationships, with a touch of Surrealist play in the melding of one image into another, aptly evoking scenes from Nerval's memoir of his madness. The terminus of Nerval's shifting perceptions of dream and reality is described in the tenth print, The Death of Nerval (etching: 6-3/4 x 5-1/4 in.: 1930), which represents, not a quotation of the poet's work, but its symbolic and literal end. Overtaken at last by his visions and instability, Nerval hanged himself on January 26, 1855 in the rue de la Vieille-Lanterne. Marcoussis places the strong, simple lines of the hanged poet against the dark background of the dream world, with its steps leading nowhere and multiple overlapping planes. In this empathic image Nerval is a mute cipher against the shadowed complexity of his own haunting imagery. In dramatic contrast, Andre Lhote's (French, 1885-1962) six woodcuts from the series Grand Sweep (Grande Largue) (1925) radiate a confidently handled crudity, the effect of Lhote's bold graphic line and crisp woodcut technique. Lhote's exploration of the racy world of the sailor includes images of foreign ports, exotic nudes, mermaids and prostitutes. The Cubist element is most apparent in Ports of Call (Escales) (woodblock print: 9-1/4 x 14-1/4 in.: 1925), in which the horizontal graining or passage approximates tonal effects while at the same time melding one element of the sailors' varying scenes into the next. The deluxe edition of Grand Sweep on exhibition includes the artist's six preliminary sketches for each work, showing Lhote's working method of capturing the main mass and force of the composition with well-defined strokes of his pencil or pen, working in the details lightly or not at all. The single print by French painter and etcher Henri de Waroquier (1881-1970) depicts a collage of images of the 1937 Paris Exposition. Festival of Water and Light, Memory of the Exposition of 1937 (etching and drypoint, first state, edition 2 of 9: 14-3/8 x 20-5/8 in.: 1937) employs the Cubist principles of shifting perspective in drawing together the various images into a single impression, as well as in the radiant vanes of light that fracture the image while at the same time infusing it with energy. There is a touch of Futurism in de Waroquier's glorification of the modern buildings of the Italian and German pavilions. The dynamic representation of twisting flags, streamers of light from no apparent source, and bursts of fireworks imparts a blaze of vigor. But knowing the outcome of the then-impending events of World War II as de Waroquier did not, one can read an ominous feel into the the artist's exuberant fancy: the evokation of fireworks and light has almost an explosive shrapnel-burst quality, while the prominent German and Italian pavilions seem to foreshadow the dominance of Fascism during the war. An etching and a lithograph by Georges Braque round out the offerings. But the real opportunity is to see the works, rarely on display, by the three less well-known artists Lhote, Marcoussis and de Waroquier. This is a small, yet satisying exhibition. Syncopation: André Lhote, Louis Marcoussis, and the Cubist Print, featuring twenty-eight works from the Smart Museum's print collections, will be on exhibition through September 11, 2005. --Katherine R. Lieber Katherine Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net. Editorial Note: Gerard de Nerval's 'Aurélia' appears in several published editions of his work. Recommended (though not including the Marcoussis illustrations) is Gerard de Nerval: Selected Writings (tr. Richard Sieburth, Penguin Classics, 1999). |
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