Memories - Cocteau - Soulages - Calder - Giacometti NEW
Whaaa! What picture !
When all the arts collide and enrich each other.
Pablo Picasso and Léonide Massine in Pompeii in 1917, photographed by? Simply by Jean Cocteau.
Léonide Massine was, from 1915 to 1921, the main choreographer of Serge Diaghilev's famous "Ballets russes". After the departure of Vaslav Nijinsky, the great male star of the company, it was Massine who danced his roles.
The year of this photo, he choreographed the ballet "Parade" on a musical basis by Eric Satie, a poem by Jean Cocteau, sets, costumes and stage curtain by Pablo Picasso. Here, the same friends.
We must admit, and yet without nostalgia, that this artistic community was fantastic!
I love these encounters!
Pierre Soulages and Zao Wou-Ki.
My grandfather, Aimé Maeght, with Alexander Calder.
I had an exhibition of ten large stabiles at Maeght's in February 1959. Mrs. Maeght, who was very enthusiastic about these objects, was quite surprised and she said to me: "Did you have to rack your brains to find that?" Maeght must have agreed with Guiguite because he bought the whole exhibition from me, in bulk, and in cash, before the opening; it was the first time a merchant had treated me like that. Alexander Calder in his autobiography.
Alexander Calder photographed at the corner of rue Daguerre by Agnès Varda in 1955. He would often return to rue Daguerre to work in the ARTE Maeght engraving and litho workshops. What a photo, it says as much as a whole film!
Alberto Giacometti in his studio in the Alésia district, surrounded by his paintings, photo Denise Colomb, Paris, 1954.
Superb photo for a historic moment, Alberto Giacometti, a few moments before the inauguration of the Maeght Foundation in July 1964, checks one last time the arrangement of his sculptures in the central courtyard which will henceforth be named "Cour Giacometti".
"At the beginning of 2010, I submitted the idea of making a Giacometti exhibition which would highlight the relationship between Alberto and Aimé. From then on, I did everything possible to achieve success. I knew that it was necessary to find an exceptional angle, a title You have to set up a real strategy, quickly and well, know how to surround yourself with the best, invest to reach the heights, have originality and inventiveness while enhancing and reminding the genius of Aimé Maeght. The project is progressing and I go to London where Giacometti's sculpture "L'Homme qui marche" is to be sold. I anticipate a historic success.
I was not mistaken, absolute record: 104.32 million dollars. At the end of the sale, during the night, I send this email to several hundred of my friends and journalists:
"I would like to reassure the faithful and lovers of the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation: no, the Foundation has not sold one of the major pieces of its collection.
In 1959, this sculpture was refused in the development project of the Chase Bank in New York, so my grandfather entrusted the courtyard of the Foundation under construction to Alberto Giacometti so that The Walking Man finally finds the place that he deserves. Financial interests never dictated my grandfather's orientations, but when the market validates his choices, passions and convictions, I can only be moved.
After such a record, will visitors watch the Giacometti of Saint-Paul with such simplicity? But yes, the look is spontaneous, that's the magic of the Maeght Foundation."