From January 25th 2002 to June 9th 2002
Everyday from10h00 to 18h00
The Pierre Gianadda Foundation will be presenting the first
exhibition devoted to the painter Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968)
organised in Switzerland.
A collection of around 100 works will retrace the path
of an artist who often courted controversy thanks to his
distinct individualism, his opinions and his chosen subject
matter. 1914 marked the two main periods of his long career.
The first, which began in The Netherlands around 1895 and
continued in Paris, particularly in Montmartre and Montparnasse,
remains that of the outstanding Fauvism years: works with an incredible
freedom of colour, with which Van Dongen has an almost carnal relationship.
Some of the paintings featured are being exhibited for the first
time (Jeune Fille à la bottine, pre 1914). The second period is that
of commissioned portraits, of travel (Café Florian, Venise, 1921) and
of the myth of the eternal woman.
1877-1899 : Delfshaven, Rotterdam
Born on 26th January 1877, in Delfshaven, a suburb of Rotterdam in
mid polder, Kees Van Dongen studied at l'Académie des Arts et des
Sciences de Rotterdam for four years. Three paintings evoke his youth
and his beginnings as a painter in The Netherlands, including the
impressive Autoportrait of 1895, kept in the Musée national
d'art moderne in Paris.
1899-1914: Montmartre - Montparnasse
In 1899, he moved to Paris where he joined his partner, Augusta
Preitinger, or Guus. Her sensitive nature subsequently brought
him closer to radical milieus. He met the writer Félix Fénéon with
whom he formed a deep and lasting friendship. For a while, he
abandoned painting to devote himself to the illustration of
political and social publications. His favourite subject was the
environment of prostitutes and courtesans, a central theme that he
was to develop further (Les entraîneuses, circa 1905; Nini la
parisienne, between 1906 and 1910; Les péripatéticiennes,
circa 1920).
As a resident of Montmartre (La parisienne de Montmartre,
1903 or 1911), he was well acquainted with the mythical areas
of the district (Le Moulin de la Galette, 1904; Le violoncelliste
du Moulin de la Galette, 1904; Le Moulin Rouge, 1900-1905 etc.).
He often visited Médrano and happily painted the circus artists
(L'écuyère, 1906; Le vieux clown, between 1906 and 1911etc.).
In 1906, he rented a studio in Bateau-Lavoir where Fernande Olivier,
Picasso's partner, inspired him to paint magnificent portraits
(Fernande Olivier, 1907). Van Dongen forayed into neo-impressionism
during a stay in Fleury-en-Bière in the summer of 1905
(La Vigne, 1905; La maison à Fleury, 1905). In Paris, he worked on
the series of steam-powered merry-go-rounds (Le manège aux cochons,
1904), which combined his illustrative talent with his intuitive
flair for colour. At the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, he presented
Le boniment, an innovative canvas that vividly translated his love
of colour and movement. The same year, he took part in the Salon
d'Automne during which the critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term
the " Fauvists ".
Van Dongen was equally at ease depicting his happy family life,
with Guus and their daughter, Dolly (Mère et enfant, 1906). Sales to
the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, then exhibitions with Ambroise Vollard and
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler followed. Sought after by the "Brucke" artists,
he joined the group in Germany and acquired a certain notoriety there.
From 1910, he regularly travelled to Spain, Morocco, and Egypt, all in
the beautiful Mediterranean (El Manton, Andalucia, 1910-1911; Marchande
d'herbes, 1912; Fatimah Ismael de Louxor, 1913 etc.). When he presented
Tableau (also called Le châle espagnol, La femme aux pigeons or Le
mendiant d'amour) at the Salon d'Automne in 1913, scandal was instant
and the piece, deemed obscene, was seized by the police. When war broke
out, his wife Guus and their daughter Dolly left for Rotterdam, where
they stayed for four years.
1914-1968: portrait of an era
Having stayed in Paris, Kees met Léa Jacob, more often called Jasmy
(Portrait de Jasmy Alvin née Léa Jacob 1925), the pair set out to
conquer all of Paris. Praise and social events followed (Autoportrait
en Neptune, 1922). Van Dongen began to paint some of the Parisian high
bourgeoisie (Marie-Thérèse Raulet, circa 1920; Anne Diriart,
circa 1924;
Yves Mirande, 1924; La Commodore Drouilly,
1926; Madame T., 1929; Louis
Barthou, 1931; Paul Pétridès, circa 1957 etc.).
But his participation in a trip to Berlin in 1941 was fiercely criticised. His exhibition the following year at the Charpentier gallery was boycotted by several of his friends, artists, critics and collectors.
After the war, Van Dongen split his time between Paris,
Deauville and Monaco where he bought a villa in 1949, which he named
" Le Bateau-Lavoir ". That year, the Charpentier Gallery organised a
new exhibition of his work, which was an outstanding success and was
shown again by the Musée Boymans in Rotterdam, his town of birth.
A respected artist whose work the Musée national d'Art moderne de
Paris and, once again, the Musée Boymans both exhibited in 1967,
Van Dongen's death on 23rd May 1968 went almost unnoticed during
the uprisings of that summer. Since then, the Musée d'art moderne
de la Ville de Paris organised a major exhibition on the rediscovery
of Van Dongen's work in 1990.
Exhibition organiser:
Daniel Marchesseau, the conservateur général du Patrimoine
and director of the Musée de la vie romantique in Paris
The exhibition catalogue
includes colour reproductions of all the exhibited works.
Under the direction of Daniel Marchesseau, and edited by Dany
Sautot Gilles Leroy and Pascaline Noack with contributions
from Christian Briend, Philippe Dagen and Françoise Marquet.
On sale for CHF 45.-- (about 31euro).
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