Wols. Natural Histories.
Pompidou Center| N° d'inventaire | 22567 |
| Format | 24 x 31.5 |
| Détails | 157 p., paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2020 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782844268716 |
"You should know that Wols did all his work, always, since 1945, in a small hotel room. He never owned an easel, a palette, or brushes, sometimes a very damaged one - he didn't know the names of any colors... He painted preferably at night, by the light of a 25-watt bulb suspended from the ceiling. And in better times, he could get hold of a candle... Which delighted him because of all the lights, it was the candle he preferred. He painted his canvases either on the floor or on the bed. With his hands, the flat of his palm for the backgrounds — and little bits of rags... He worked excessively quickly, with a kind of frenzy... He always told me that he thought, while playing his banjo, of the canvas that he saw very, very clearly on his retina (with his eyes closed), the canvas... and that the material execution... was a game... He drew every day without stopping — with all his beloved books around him... Edgar Poe, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Lao-tseu and all the Chinese poets, Nietzsche. The Bible. Van Gogh, books on yogi, science, mechanics, geography, astrology, treatises on the history of religions, books on medicine, zoology, ethnography... and as he was interested in everything... Finally, you have material and I beg you, in memory of him, to speak of it in the most magnificent terms to show all the envious, jealous, and stupid who Wols was. Gréty Wols, letter to Camille Bryen, 1953
"You should know that Wols did all his work, always, since 1945, in a small hotel room. He never owned an easel, a palette, or brushes, sometimes a very damaged one - he didn't know the names of any colors... He painted preferably at night, by the light of a 25-watt bulb suspended from the ceiling. And in better times, he could get hold of a candle... Which delighted him because of all the lights, it was the candle he preferred. He painted his canvases either on the floor or on the bed. With his hands, the flat of his palm for the backgrounds — and little bits of rags... He worked excessively quickly, with a kind of frenzy... He always told me that he thought, while playing his banjo, of the canvas that he saw very, very clearly on his retina (with his eyes closed), the canvas... and that the material execution... was a game... He drew every day without stopping — with all his beloved books around him... Edgar Poe, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Lao-tseu and all the Chinese poets, Nietzsche. The Bible. Van Gogh, books on yogi, science, mechanics, geography, astrology, treatises on the history of religions, books on medicine, zoology, ethnography... and as he was interested in everything... Finally, you have material and I beg you, in memory of him, to speak of it in the most magnificent terms to show all the envious, jealous, and stupid who Wols was. Gréty Wols, letter to Camille Bryen, 1953