The Life of a Painter by Gino Sévérini.
Hazan| N° d'inventaire | 15083 |
| Format | 15 x 23 |
| Détails | 176 p., 20 illustrations, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2011 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
Gino Severini retrospective at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, from April 27 to July 25, 2011. Gino Severini (1883-1966) began his career as a student of Giacomo Balla, one of the pioneers of Futurism. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he frequented the artistic avant-garde and, three years later, signed the Futurist Manifesto. His marriage to the daughter of the poet Paul Fort, in 1913, further anchored him in the artistic circles of the capital. Hence the great interest of his memoirs, the first part of which runs until 1917. Severini describes from the inside the lives of artists living at the beginning of the century in Montmartre, with the evenings at the Lapin Agile, then in Montparnasse, with the meetings at La Closerie des Lilas. In addition to his friendship with his compatriot Modigliani, he witnessed the last flames of Fauvism and the birth of Cubism through his closeness to Picasso, Braque and Gris. The figure of Matisse also appears, fleetingly. In fact, Severini mainly questions what were – and what should have been, according to him – the relations between the Italian Futurists and the French Cubists. This lively text reads like a story, especially since it also restores, with great truth and sometimes emotion, the very difficult material life of avant-garde artists at this time, not without portraying strong personalities such as Apollinaire, Marinetti or the dealer Léonce Rosenberg. The second part of the memoirs, shorter, leads up to 1924; Severini evokes the frescoes he painted in the castle of Montegufoni, in Tuscany, and his return to Catholicism (with the decisive meeting of Jacques Maritain), also providing brief testimonies on Dadaism, Surrealism, Constructivism and Suprematism. Deeply attached to a form of classicism, in search of plastic solutions based on the "craft and knowledge of geometry", he observes these movements from a little distance, without complacency.
Gino Severini retrospective at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, from April 27 to July 25, 2011. Gino Severini (1883-1966) began his career as a student of Giacomo Balla, one of the pioneers of Futurism. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he frequented the artistic avant-garde and, three years later, signed the Futurist Manifesto. His marriage to the daughter of the poet Paul Fort, in 1913, further anchored him in the artistic circles of the capital. Hence the great interest of his memoirs, the first part of which runs until 1917. Severini describes from the inside the lives of artists living at the beginning of the century in Montmartre, with the evenings at the Lapin Agile, then in Montparnasse, with the meetings at La Closerie des Lilas. In addition to his friendship with his compatriot Modigliani, he witnessed the last flames of Fauvism and the birth of Cubism through his closeness to Picasso, Braque and Gris. The figure of Matisse also appears, fleetingly. In fact, Severini mainly questions what were – and what should have been, according to him – the relations between the Italian Futurists and the French Cubists. This lively text reads like a story, especially since it also restores, with great truth and sometimes emotion, the very difficult material life of avant-garde artists at this time, not without portraying strong personalities such as Apollinaire, Marinetti or the dealer Léonce Rosenberg. The second part of the memoirs, shorter, leads up to 1924; Severini evokes the frescoes he painted in the castle of Montegufoni, in Tuscany, and his return to Catholicism (with the decisive meeting of Jacques Maritain), also providing brief testimonies on Dadaism, Surrealism, Constructivism and Suprematism. Deeply attached to a form of classicism, in search of plastic solutions based on the "craft and knowledge of geometry", he observes these movements from a little distance, without complacency.