A rare costume design for the creation of the world, "The Parrot" 1923 by Léger Fernand. The first performance of "The Creation of the World" took place on 25 October 1923 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris - Argument Blaise Cendrars, music Darius Milhaud, choreography Jan Börlin, sets and costumes Fernand Léger. Not bad, eh?
Paul Klee, "Landscape with yellow birds", 1923. The Maeght Foundation devoted a major retrospective to him in 1977.
Ahahah ! This bird is unheard of, isn't it? Pablo Picasso, "The Bird", 1928.
Green, more green, with André Beaudin, "Les oiseaux blancs" from 1933. . Few works by this "Ecole de Paris" artist have been exhibited. This painting is part of the Centre Pompidou's collection, but is rarely exhibited
A beautiful blue for a walk with Miró, "Oiseaux et insectes", 1938.
For my bird series, I dive into the myth of Leda and the swan. This rascal Zeus took the form of a white swan to seduce Leda, at night, according to Homer. Leda is the daughter of Thestios, king of Aetolia, and her husband is Tyndare, king of Sparta. From her love affair with the god, Leda conceived two children, Helen and Pollux, who were born in an egg, There are many works representing this myth. Salvador Dali, "Atomic Leda" Dali said: "It is the painting of our life. Everything is suspended in space without anything touching. Even the sea rises up at a distance from the earth." It is of course his wife, Gala, who lends her features to Leda. When he painted this canvas, Dali was in his period of corpuscular mysticism. Fascinated by the invention of the atomic bomb and by nuclear physics, he saw it as a new source of creation. Thus, matter would not be a single entity, but a multitude of particles linked together by a vacuum, which implies a form of weightlessness.
Joan Miró, "Personnages et oiseaux devant le soleil", 1946.
Joan Miró, "Femmes et oiseaux au lever du soleil", 1946.
Joan Miró , "Femmes et oiseau dans la nuit", 1947
Karel Appel, "Enfant et oiseaux", 1950.
A bird from Braque, it is eternal.
Bird series with this superb Victor Brauner. The most surrealist of poets or the most poetic of surrealists?
Fernand Léger, "Paysage aux deux oiseaux", frontispiece to "Un Poème dans chaque livre" 1955.
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Oh ! les charmants oiseaux joyeux !
Comme ils maraudent ! comme ils pillent !
Où va ce tas de petits gueux
Que tous les souffles éparpillent ?
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Ils s'en vont au clair firmament ;
Leur voix raille, leur bec lutine ;
Ils font rire éternellement
La grande nature enfantine.
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Comme ils sont près du Dieu vivant
Et de l'aurore fraîche et douce,
Ces gais bohémiens du vent
N'amassent rien qu'un peu de mousse.
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La grâce est tout leur mouvement,
La volupté toute leur vie ;
Pendant qu'ils volent vaguement
La feuillée immense est ravie.
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L'oiseau s'enfuit dans l'infini
Et s'y perd comme un son de lyre.
Avec sa queue il dit nenni
Comme Jeanne avec son sourire…
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Victor Hugo.
Miró, "Famille d'oiseleurs". Talent in lithography.
Georges Braque, "A tire d'aile", 1956-1961.
What a painting! What modernity, it is for me timeless, everything is confusing. The framing, with this rectangle at the bottom left. The material, with the paint that seems to drown sand, gravel. The subject, this bird that looks like a fighter plane taking aim. When I was very young, Monsieur Braque was like a grandfather to me, also because my grandfather, Aimé Maeght, seemed so young. Braque was his mentor, he exhibited at the Maeght Gallery from 1945 until his death in 1963.
Georges Braque, "Les Oiseaux Noirs", 1957.
Birds series, with this magnificent "Oiseau zéphyr" by Joan Miró.
Miró is genius served by an extraordinary sense of technique. Here, with this litho published by my grandfather Aimé Maeght, he knows so well how to use the transparency of lithographic inks to give relief and create matter. A sober use, few colours, few passages in the press, but what an explosive result.
Marc Chagall, "L'Oiseau Bleu", 1968.
Frankly, isn't it magical to paint like that at 90?
Picasso, "Bust of a Woman with a Bird". 1971
"Paix", 1972 by Alexander Calder, who was involved in the Vietnam War from the beginning.
One of the most beautiful birds for my series! Miró, "Head, bird", 1974. Not even afraid! Incredibly contemporary.
Lightness and happiness in the best that art has to offer!
"Birds surrounding the star of hope", 1978 by Joan Miró.
Whaaaa ! Joan Miró, "Femme oiseau étoile", 1978.
Perfect for my bird series. Robert Combas, "Bird among flowers". I can't help but think that if Combas were American everyone would be screaming genius.
A typical work of free figuration, Robert Combas, "A la recherche de l'oiseau de feu", 1987.
Ross Bleckner, "Cage", 1987. Fortunately, the bird is not a prisoner.
Considered one of the leading exponents of Chinese cynical realism, a movement characterised by an idealism shattered by the events of the 1980s, Yue Minjun paints himself with this large mouth and forced laughter. In this emblematic painting, the figure wraps his body around a penguin, a bird unable to fly. Is the bird laughing or suffering? Yue Minjun, "Penguin", 2000.
You could do with a little wing, Mr Hitchcock! Photo Halsman.
