Chapter 23 I Anarchists on the hills of Montmartre (2) Self-proclaimed

self-proclaimed cubist painter One might think that I am against Cubism.Not at all: I prefer all eccentric and even mediocre ideas to the bland works of bourgeois fools. Artil Klavan In 1912, the Galerie La Boétie in Paris exhibited nearly 200 paintings known as Cubism. Two years ago, the painters participating in this exhibition often met in their studios and established the Gold School.The place where they often meet is Jacques Villon in Puteaux, a district on the west side of Paris, outside the Seine River.studio.In Hall No. 41 of the 1911 Exhibition of Independent Paintings, the first group exhibition of Cubism was organized. Marcel Duchamp, Kupka, Picabia, Lot, Segonzac, Alcipenco, Roger de Lafrenail and Le Fauconnier.

Neither Braque nor Picasso participated. Both of them exhibited their work only in the galleries of Carnville and Yude.Picasso and Braque showed their contempt for those who participated in the above-mentioned group exhibition by categorically refusing to mix with those who participated in the above-mentioned group exhibition.They think that those people are blindly pursuing fame and status.Braque called those people "self-proclaimed Cubists."Picasso's attitude was more direct. In 1911, he asserted without hesitation in the "Paris Gazette": "There is no Cubism at all." In the 1920s, Picasso published a talk about black African art.This conversation was distinctly provocative. He said: "What black African art? I don't know..." Picasso's attitude towards Cubism reflected his desire to be new and different on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was interested in dividing painting schools and exploring Disgusted by painting theory.

This is actually the result of people's unrestrained praise of him.Levedi denies the influence of Cézanne, Ingres and black African art on Picasso's work.During the war, he developed into a hand-to-hand fight with the supporters of "another small school of painting".For this reason, Max Jacobs proposed to divide the Cubists into two groups: Braque, Gris, Picasso and Levedi, and Mei Jingqi, Lot and their friends. Cocteau, who unconditionally supports Picasso, is even more absolute: When people talk about Cubism, I ask you not to look at Picasso.Just as a single play by Shakespeare cannot constitute the entirety of Shakespeare's works, neither can a single painting by Picasso constitute Cubism.

[From Jean Cocteau's 1932 essay "Indirect Criticism"] Robert Desnos was even more ruthless with painters who labeled themselves Cubists, but he was very subtle with Picasso: While many other painters had locked themselves in the tedious mode of Cubism, trying to finally find a way to use their indecipherability to hide their incompetence, Picasso never knew what a mode was.He only creates from his own feelings. [Excerpt from "About the Painter" by Robert Desnos, published in 1984] Braque and Picasso believed that what the Gold School painters did was simply add some geometric shapes to their works, and this mechanical addition was incongruous and inconsistent with their own painting techniques.They completely dismissed gossip that some people said that the French philosopher Bergson had an influence on Cubism (the philosopher himself later denied such rumors).Some people tried to prove that the cubists' research was based on various sciences, and even used the mathematician Prancet who worked in an insurance company to often communicate with the "laundry boat" as evidence.Braque and Picasso publicly laughed at them and said: If Planse is willing to draw some geometric figures to prove the relationship between the compass and the brush, it is only related to the painters of the Jin School, and has nothing to do with Braque and Picasso. The stories of the fourth and fifth dimensions do not involve them at all.They never, and never have, resorted to the rules of mathematics and geometry in their paintings.In a word, in their view, there is no theory of Cubism at all.Glaze, Mei Jingqi, Rainer and others cultivated completely unfamiliar land.

Picasso always left quickly after laying out a new path.When the reverse current came, he had already been away from others and disappeared without a trace. Brac was the same as him.After a long time, he confided to Jean Paulin: "I have long since slipped away. I definitely did not mold Braque in the likeness of others." When Cubism caused a sensation in society, the two founders of the emerging art had fled, leaving others to engage in pointless debates.Max Jacobs, in particular, was unlike any other, who, like the patron saint of the temple, dealt a head-on blow to curses, anger and gossip from all quarters.He developed four pieces of advice for people who are overwhelmed by dioramas:

1.Do not hold prejudices when looking at paintings; 2.Appreciating a painting should be like appreciating a stone sculpture, carefully considering its various aspects, carving out its uniqueness, the use of light, the layout of lines and colors...; 3.Pay close attention to the details of the key parts of the whole, stare at it for a long time, and the original model will emerge in front of you; 4.After a serious comparison, the suggestion of superb will come to your mind very strongly. [Excerpt from the 1992 conference paper "Max Jacob and Picasso" at the National Museum of Barcelona]

Max Jacobs was a self-proclaimed literary Cubist (as was Levedi, who was an ally in this matter).In a work so rich and complex, prose poems mixed with dialogue, wordplay, and wisecracks that it is difficult to classify, he inserts Cubism too: Cubism in the field of painting is the art of creating works without the object itself, the art of giving priority to geometric structure, the art of suggesting real life.The same is true of Cubism in the field of literature, that is, reality is only used as a means of literary creation, not the purpose of creation. [Excerpt from a letter from Max Jacob to his mother in 1927]

Celebrities and dignitaries in the society can't understand the paintings of "Estac", "Guitar" and other musical instruments, let alone the paintings of "Dice Cup".For them, Cubism was an attack on naturalism, and this attack came from a foreign country.Foreign countries here refer to Italy, Germany and Russia.Italy by sending futurist "submarines," Germany by sending "gunners" such as Willem Hudd and Daniel-Henri Carnville and Cubist dealers, and Russia by sending spies and ballet troupes. The purpose of undermining the national art of France.

In 1912, a member of the Socialist Party rose up against foreign Cubist artworks being exhibited in the National Museum of France.People are talking everywhere about "Kubism" - German art.When the First World War broke out, people's anger against the invasion of foreign art was at an all-time high. The medical community has also joined the torrent.After thinking for a long time, Dr. Artault of Switzerland compared it to a pathological phenomenon when explaining Cubism: In fact, as long as the eyes are slightly opened to observe a Cubist painting, it is enough to find the dislocation, deformation, blurred and visible appearance of the object and the monochrome dancing iridescence in its zigzag lines and darker and darker twilight. Flickering blind spots in front of the eyes are the most common symptom of eye pain.

[Excerpt from Le Parisien, May 15, 1914] From the medical point of view, Braque, Picasso, and their allies suffered from eye pain.In this way, they subtly expressed the determination of the medical profession and the public to eradicate the cubist epidemic. Even Leon-Paul Falger, who loves Jarry very much, does not understand Cubist paintings very much. He believes that those painters suffer from an "intellectual crisis".He preached Restoration of Impressionism everywhere, throwing all Cubist artists into the trash heap of art: You are painters of public places - taverns or vegetarian canteens - you are not fully educated, you are "too young to want to educate".You never go to the countryside, or you go there with only city heads, academic or revolutionary childish ideas that stink worse than gasoline, with nothing in your heads but pipes, mustard jars, damp The towels, the smell of sweat... and the banquet hall and literary salon...

[Excerpt from Le Nuevoie de France, January 1914] The Spanish matador's throwing spear also comes from what is considered to be a more open country. Artil Klavan, who insisted on maintaining his original image, was also angry. He believes: Mei Jingqi: She was a loser who stubbornly insisted on Cubism.His paintings have a German touch, and seeing his work turns me off. Marguchi: He was dishonest, but people felt something in front of his paintings as they did in front of other Cubist paintings.But what is it? Glaze: Not any talent. De Segonzac: Nothing but a few mean tricks. All of them are exactly the same. Montmartre also joined the debate.Dougelles, who was a reporter for the Paris newspaper at the time, could not tolerate the cubists trampling on the theme, form and color of paintings so unscrupulously.He watched helplessly as his best friends Glaze, Marguchy, Delaunay, the destroyer of the Eiffel Tower (Fig. On a road of denying tradition, denying Impressionism and conservative painters, watching them replace brushes with squares and squares.He believed that for the Cubists, the most important thing was to express themselves. Dougelles, backed by his friend André Valno, decided to intervene.He didn't have to write articles like everyone else had done, and he didn't have to announce the earth-shattering disfriendship.The best way to do that is to taunt them.Let them be the laughing stock of the people, play a joke on them, let the press expose it. He started a movement: extremism.Dorjeles chose a Futurist painter named Joachim-Raphael Boronari, a native of Genoa, Italy.The artist the press will really be talking about before long is different.It has a gray complexion, long hair, walks on four legs, can't speak, only barks.It was Papa Fred's donkey, nicknamed Ali Paul. One morning, Dougelles went to the suburbs of Montmartre to find a legal clerk.He explains to the other party his plan and the work that needs to be done by the other party.Paul-Henri Brionne, the expert in couple-stalking and adultery, couldn't believe his ears, but he accepted Dougelles' proposal with a smile. The writers Dougelles and Brionne returned to Montmartre, where André Valno was waiting for them.Dougelles and André Varno took the donkey out of the "Smart Rabbit", tied a paintbrush to its tail, dipped in sky blue paint, and glued a brand new piece on a small stool. canvas, and tie the stool under the donkey's buttocks.People teased it, fed it carrots, and the donkey wagged its tail happily.In this way, the world's first animal artist's painting was successfully completed. The clerk records all this. Since for the artist monochrome is not enough to show the level of the work, in order to make this kind of painting better, two friends (Dougelles and André Varno) moved the canvas, changed the drawing board, dipped the brush Paints of other colors. After blue, red, cobalt, cadmium, indigo were used.Seeing that the donkey was a little tired, Bert put some tobacco in its mouth to chew, and at the same time gave the clerk a few cigarettes.Fred sang "Cherry Season," and his donkey's four legs began to dance to beat time for his master.When the singing fell, a wonderful painting "Adriatic Sunset" appeared in front of people. The clerk recorded all this truthfully. Ten days later, the Independent Painting Exhibition opened, and "Adriatic Sunset" not only participated, but was placed in a prominent position.The bosom friends of Douglas, who knew all this in advance, gathered in front of this masterpiece and commented excitedly.No one knew the Italian futurist painter, but everyone believed that "he" would undoubtedly climb to the pinnacle of modern painting art in the future.Don't forget his name: Joachim-Raphael Boronari - Master of Extremism. People not only remember its name, but also admire and be fascinated by it. People comment on its works and think that: the sky part is a bit of beastism, the shape is a bit vague and not clear, and the painter's personality is too much influenced , which is a bit confusing if not symbolic: what do these red bars in the center of the painting represent?a nose?moon?Pirlo (character in ancient Italian drama) sent by God? ... "Morning News", "Lantern" ... the entire media has commented on it.What's more, when Dougelles came to the editorial office of the "Morning Post" with all the evidence about the scam in his hand, everyone was stunned, dumbfounded, and then hesitated and wavered.But after a few hours, they all believed that this was indeed the truth.On the second day, the large boldface "Leader of the School of Painting—A Donkey" occupied the entire front page of the "Morning News", defining Cubism in people's minds at that time. The clerk came forward to testify to this.