Chapter 24 I The Anarchists on Montmartre (2) Apologists of the Avant-Garde

Apologist for the Avant-Garde Guillaume Apollinaire How good a learned man is!If I'm also knowledgeable, I can revise my drawings. george black Monday, October 1, 1912, the opening day of the Autumn Art Fair.The chairman of the fair, Frantz Jourdain (1847-1935), was born in Belgium, a French architect, an art critic, and a disseminator of new art. He founded the Autumn Art Fair in 1903.Monsieur greets the Minister of Public Education on the steps of the Grand Palais in Paris, where the exhibition is located.After the routine congratulatory ceremony, the distinguished ministers and his party entered the exhibition hall and corridor.

A few days ago, rich painters used horse-drawn carriages, and poor painters relied on trolleys. People transported their exhibited works from Montmartre or Montparnasse to the pavilion.They yelled at each other, sang and laughed, and hung the works approved by the exhibition committee at the designated positions in the exhibition hall. The censors examine each work.They were stunned before the works of Renoir, Degas, Bonnard, Vuillard and Monet.When Fontin-Latour and Maillol walked past the works of the old dissidents Matisse, Van Dongen, and Frieze, they each muttered and their eyebrows shook slightly; Before "Portrait of Shang", they were stunned.Then, he entered a darker hall.

The works in this exhibition hall are all obscene works.People took off their pince-nez and put away their monocle.Franz Jourdin and his assistants had no choice but to browse through some of these disgusting works.Mr. Chairman explained to the Minister of Public Education that there should still be some works of modern art in the Autumn Art Fair.One cannot escape it, especially since Albert Glaize and Jean Maison have just recently published a book called "Cubism" on the problems of modern art, and the newspapers and magazines are very much discussing it... … The people present have different views, some face the reality bravely, and some escape.Among them were the poet Mr. Paul Faure, the composer Mr. Claude Debussy and the reporter Guillaume Apollinaire. They debated while watching carefully.The critic Louis Vauxell took little part in their debates.For a long time, he has criticized Cubism at length in the "Gil Blas" newspaper, satirized and ridiculed Cubist artists, and described Picabia as a "golden Cubist", Loesche as a "Kubist", and Picasso as a "Cubist". Boo Kooby," and many others were savagely attacked by him.

Mr. Worksell, the judge in the field of art, walked arm in arm with his wife among the debating crowd.Just when he was about to say a few barbed words (because he knew some of the secrets), popping up from behind a geometric painting by Dinoyer de Segonzac or Roger de Lafrenail Two crappy painters surrounded him, scolded him, and made him worthless, even Malguchi, Mei Jingqi, Picabia, Lot, Le Fauconnier, Glaze, and Leche. , Duchamp and Veron are not as good.While scolding, these people laughed so hard that they couldn't straighten up. That evening, Guillaume Apollinaire reported the incident in the newspaper Le Hardline:

A little incident happened this morning.Some of the Cubists attacked one of our colleagues, Mr. Vauxell, and gave him a good beating.But fortunately, there was no hands-on, only a fierce verbal confrontation. [Excerpt from "The Hardline", October 1, 1912] On the third day, the same newspaper published the following letter from the attacked attacker to the newspaper president: Believe me, it is not in my nature to fight back when someone yells at me. I actually retorted to the two uneducated young men that the problem should have been solved on the spot.Cubism's moral code forbade them to fight, and they immediately admitted their mistake.

I would be most grateful if you would publish this letter in the newspaper, as I am deeply embarrassed and sorry that I have been placed in such an awkward position in front of your large readership. High respect! Louis Vauxell One more sentence to add: The two young men mentioned above should have waited until I was alone before "attacking me".Some issues are supposed to be resolved between men and unfortunately my wife was arm in arm with me when the incident happened. [Excerpt from "The Hardline", October 3, 1912] We see here that Cubism needed a lawyer to defend itself.

The most emotional of all was Guillaume Apollinaire.He saw it as a battle and an obligation to protect Cubism, which was under attack everywhere.This is a matter of supporting an avant-garde art.The poet Apollinaire is also a member of the avant-garde, and he must contribute to protecting the cause he believes in. He knew what symbolism meant.Impressionism liberated poetry from the oppressive discipline of rhyme.But he also wanted to be more modern, and he became a brave defender of free verse.He followed the example of Cubist painters, making poetry reflect daily life and new people and new things in life, which requires a very amazing cultural foundation and a special imagination.He adjusted his palette and colors according to his own creative needs: Guillaume Apollinaire's style gradually formed.

He compiled a collection of poems written between 1898 and 1912, entitled "Alcohol", which was published in the magazine "French Courier" in 1913.This is a beautiful bouquet of flowers composed of the flowers in his mind and the green leaves in the world: Among them are Apollinaire in prison, Apollinaire who has suffered countless love tortures, insomnia, anxiety and distress; there are also hangars in the airport , Pope leather X, brochures, small advertisements, typists, airplanes and sirens... Punctuation is added, pauses and interruptions as the rhythm of the poem requires.

The next year, 1914, Apollinaire began to write his "Calligrammes (Pattern Poems"), which was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire, that is, a poem that can form a pattern after printing and typesetting. Clever monogramming patterns are not new, but what is it that the authors of these poems and diagrams are trying to highlight and emphasize by deliberately applying the vocabulary in Alcohol and using newspaper and magazine titles, Scrabble, illustrations, and musical scales : Is it three-dimensional pasting? The courage of painters in literature? The extreme views of the avant-garde? , the American novelist. The method of Apollinaire has changed in "42°North Latitude".

While defending the modern consciousness of others, Apollinaire is also protecting himself.He was as actively involved in this artistic revolution as many others, not just a pleasing columnist.He believes that people should stand on the side of the revolutionaries and on the side of the new language revolution, just like the people during the French Revolution in 1789.He is a poet whose weapon is his pen.Therefore, he must fight with the pen in his hand. Between 1910 and 1914 he worked at the newspaper Le Hardline, while Salmon worked at Le Parisien.Salmon, who used the pseudonym "La Palette," was soon transferred to the "Gil Blas" newspaper, and since then he has also launched an attack on Fort Vauxell.

In the eyes of friends, Guillaume Apollinaire is a very special poet, a very good friend, but a mediocre critic.Picasso never took his opinion seriously. He thought that Apollinaire "felt" more than he knew.In Braque's view, Apollinaire didn't understand anything, and he could confuse the Flemish painter Rubens with the Dutch painter Rembrandt.Vlaminck ridiculed "his incompetence and unrealistic passions".Others, such as Juan Gris, found that in the article of reporter Apollinaire, he plagiarized their answer to a question as his own point of view, and he felt very ridiculous. He was used in moments of adventure, because Guillaume loved everything new.As long as it is a new thing, no matter it is possible or not, he can rush into it, even if it is regarded as the most worthless accessory and the most inconspicuous foil.In the battle against Impressionism, Apollinaire served as the vanguard of the avant-garde.Apollinaire wrote the preface to the promotional materials for the Braque exhibition in 1908.After admiring "several gifted masters" with reservations, he blew the charge to Impressionism, saying that "ignorance and madness are the characteristics of Impressionism", and that the Impressionists had tried to "fanatically, Hastily and irrationally expressed their astonishment at the face of human nature".In fact, what he did was fanatical, hasty, and often irrational. As for Braque himself involved, after the official exposition refused him to participate in the exhibition, Carnville congratulated him and commented that "he expresses a kind of gentle beauty, and the use of pearl color in the painting allows us to understand the connotation of the work." Make a variety of understandings", there are endless languages ​​in the painting, without the attack of words and poems, without the picture that makes people aware of the rupture of the relationship, people can understand the painter's thoughts... In the foreword written for Braque's work rejected by the Autumn Art Fair, Apollinaire was deeply relieved that Picasso, Matisse, De Lang, Vlaminck and others had received due compensation.He regretted that Valadon, Odilon Redon, Braque... Marie Lorenson did not get the honor they deserved. If Mary Laurence had still been his muse, and he had been her troubadour, he would have gone about singing and praising her in every possible way. In 1908, he said in "The New Painter": "Miss Laurence is good at expressing the beauty of women in paintings." In the same year, in the "Hardliners" newspaper where he was a columnist for "Art Life", Apollinaire published an article saying: "I hate that I can't find the appropriate language for Miss Mary Laurenson in her paintings." define exactly the 100 per cent French elegance that is displayed in it." In 1909, writing about the Independent Exposition, he wrote: "Mary Laurence has added to art a new beauty of intensity and definiteness." In 1910, Mary Laurenson's paintings were once again rejected by the Autumn Art Fair. Apollinaire wrote in a review article: "It should be brought to our attention that some important painters, such as Mr. Andre Delang , Miss Mary Laurenson, Mr. Pey, etc. were not able to participate in the fair." In 1911, he wrote: "If the works of the Cubists were exhibited, if the works of Delaunay and Marie Laurence were not missing, the most exciting part of this year's exposition would be the Cubist room...  " The critic Apollinaire also expressed regret for the works of Picasso, Delang, Braque and Du Fei to participate in the exhibition.It never occurred to anyone but him to associate Marie Lorenson, who specialized in ceramics (whose work often reminds one of voluptuous chalk drawings), with the four of them.But he didn't forget to include his mistress in the list of celebrities... Apollinaire doesn't like some other painters, maybe because Picasso doesn't like those people, maybe because these artists don't participate in this emerging art that has caused much discussion.For example, Van Dongen preferred the pearl-colored geometric patterns with rounded edges to the straight-angled patterns of Cubism, so he was severely condemned by the "Hardliner" newspaper. In 1910, Apollinaire pointed out in a review article: "Mr. Van Dongen's paintings express exactly what is called bold by today's bourgeoisie with enteritis." A few months later, he added: "Mr. van Dongen's thoughts, words and deeds are even more banal..." In 1911, he criticized van Dongen for being an "old Fauvist figure" who exhibited only "small posters".After another two years, his paintings were considered by critics to be "the most worthless things in the world". Apollinaire satirized Flemish and said: "The things he drew with painstaking pains are just small posters like business cards." In 1907, when he commented on Matisse, he said viciously: "Mr. Henry Matisse is at best a A reformer, not an inventor." From these remarks, it is not difficult to see that he is a shadow of Picasso. When it comes to Picasso, everything becomes very simple.Apollinaire never criticized Picasso.When he doesn't like him, he doesn't comment on him.When he saw Picasso's "Girl of Avignon" in the "laundry boat", he, like Braque, De Lang and some other visitors, did not like this painting, and his sensitivity to emerging things suddenly failed. Paralyzed, gone.Facing paintings that no one could accept, he said nothing.From 1910 onwards, recovering the courage necessary to uphold his friend's reputation, he re-beat the drums and once again lifted Picasso to the throne he believed was rightfully his: the best painter. In a Southwest issue, he published an article titled "Poetry," covering the fall art fair.In this article, Apollinaire used "Cubism" for the first time, criticizing journalists who perceived the "metaphysics in plastic art" of painters from the exhibited works, such as Jean Mei Jingqi.Apollinaire himself believes that "those painters are just non-innovative imitations of the works of a genius painter who did not participate in the exhibition. The genius painter has outstanding features and has not disclosed his creation secrets to anyone. called Pablo Picasso".In the same article, he further articulated his opinion: "Those so-called Cubist works that participated in the autumn art fair are just cranes with phoenix feathers, fakes." The editorial department of the "Hardline" newspaper soon received letters of complaint from the victimized painters attacked by Apollinaire, and the number is increasing.The editorial department wrote back separately to correct, but in turn hurt the commentator Apollinaire.Apollinaire hit back at the complainers, citing evidence.In the end, the editorial department had to adjust the position of the column, and Apollinaire was placed as a writer of a less conspicuous column.So, Apollinaire resigned from the "Hardline" newspaper and went to "Paris". He is not Baudelaire, and Picasso is not his Delacroix.Sixty years after his elder brother Picasso created the painting "Salon", Apollinaire undoubtedly hoped to conduct an objective and passionate subjective review as required by the author Baudelaire, but he was unable to conduct in-depth criticism .One rarely sees his hand capable of writing as delicate an essay as Baudelaire's signed "Lady in the Desert", "Marc Auraire's Last Words" or "Eugène Delacroix". Apollinaire has his own opinions, but he often agrees with others.The opinions of the readers are often quite reasonable, but he never agrees with them.He often agrees with the opinions of relatives or friends, but these opinions are often unreasonable.He often changes his views according to the interests or likes and dislikes of his comrades.More seriously, he can change his views based on changes in the degree of friendship or confidantship with others.In short, there is no question that he is the king of socializing with his fellows.But it also created new problems for him. In 1911, when the Cubist painters reunited in Hall 41 of the Independent Painting Exhibition, Apollinaire was uplifted and emotional, defending "the painters who advertised themselves as Cubists".So he created a movement that never existed in the minds of its two founders, Braque and Picasso.At least one of them, he acknowledged, was decisive in the creation of the movement.He makes this point repeatedly in a series of articles.But both Braque and Picasso opposed his opinion.Not long after, Carnville solemnly declared Cubism to be an art genre, to which Braque, Gris, and Glaze certainly belonged, as well as certain works of Marie Lorenson.Do not forget until the beginning of the First World War, Delaunay, Fernand Leche, Mei Jingqi, Lot, Dinoyer de Segonzac, Alcipenco, Le Foucault Both Nière and Luc-Albert Moreau were praised by the poet Apollinaire. Apollinaire was dizzy and dizzy, and still didn't understand his position.He loves others too much and gives too much, but he can rarely distinguish between good and bad and right and wrong.He vacillated between Picasso and the Picasso-hating Delaunays, between Picasso and Picabia (he was the wealthiest of their gang and financed the publication of Meditations on Aesthetics).In order to please Picasso, Braque and Carnville, he tried to keep a certain distance from people whom he increasingly saw as forming a system.However, it is too late, good or bad has become a fact.Apollinaire did his best to protect young art that seemed to be a movement or a genre.According to Vlaminck and Francis Calco: Before long many people were wondering what Cubism would have looked like without Guillaume Apollinaire.