Entre modernismo e tradição

Artista moderna e ao mesmo tempo ligada à tradição, Marie Laurencin foi celebrada na primeira metade do século XX por mobilizar imagens idealizadas do feminino. Buscamos discutir, neste artigo, os significados relacionados à sua obra quando inserida em dois contextos: o brasileiro das décadas de 1940-1950 e o francês do pós-guerra. O que se nota em ambos os casos é que o sucesso da artista se dá de maneira ambivalente, entre as vanguardas históricas e o caráter essencialista atribuído às mulheres brancas que retratou. No percurso, discutimos aspectos de sua obra que foram ofuscados pela prerrogativa de uma arte “feminina”, sobretudo os ideais de raça e gênero, articulados em torno de disputas políticas e acentuado nacionalismo.

Marie Laurencin no Brasil: imprensa, marchands e a circulação global da arte moderna entre centros urbanos

Este artigo busca refletir acerca da valorização da pintura de Marie Laurencin no Brasil nas décadas de 1940 e 1950, com base na análise do papel da imprensa e dos marchands nos circuitos urbanos internacionais, por meio dos quais transitaram suas obras durante a primeira metade do século XX. Com o desenvolvimento do mercado de arte moderna, aliado a um mundo cada vez mais globalizado, os caminhos das obras modernistas rompem com as fronteiras nacionais. Laurencin, artista ligada socialmente ao grupo cubista, desfruta de um lugar privilegiado nesse cenário e tem sua arte importada como parte da empreitada vanguardista em direção ao mercado global. No Brasil, a circulação de sua obra é discriminada por uma presença frequente de menções ao seu trabalho na imprensa. Espera-se, ao traçar uma breve reflexão acerca da circulação de suas obras na França, na Alemanha e nos Estados Unidos, compreender, de maneira clara, o processo identificado no país e integrá-lo às redes de produção e difusão globais da arte moderna. Conclui-se que a valorização da artista passou pela atuação da imprensa, dos críticos e marchands e que, da mesma forma, seu esquecimento passa por um processo de exclusão e silenciamento na historiografia da arte do século XX.

Japanese voices in Zenit: Daigaku Horiguchi

This paper analyses the essay entitled "The Word as a Principle" by Yvan Goll (1891-1950), published in Zenit (Issue 9, November 1921), which shows the non European tendency of Avant-garde poetics. In his text, Goll emphasises the need to create a new form of poetry quoting the verses of the Japanese poet Daigaku Horiguchi (1892-1981), one of the most important Japanese poets and translators of the last century. As the son of a distinguished diplomat, a rare bilingual poet among the Japanese at the time, he published poems in French and Japanese. After reviewing research on Zenit conducted in Japan so far, the first part of this paper determines the original text of the mentioned poem. In December 1921, Horiguchi published in Paris his first collection of Tankas in French. The foreword to it was written by the famous French poet Paul Fort (1872-1960). Goll, however, did not take it from there, but from the manuscript of his anthology Les Cinq Continents, which was published in Paris in 1922. The chosen song by Horiguchi is not traditional, but shows a new poetic spirit. Although it was written in five lines, which is reminiscent of the tanka form (5; 7; 5; 7; 7), the poet introduced a new topic: how the Japanese feel in a foreign country. In order to clarify the nature of Goll's connection with Horiguchi, a detailed description of Horiguchi's life is given, focusing on his stay abroad from 1911 to 1925. It can be seen from his biography that the meeting with the French painter Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) in Madrid in 1915 marked Horiguchi's poetic turn: his interest shifted from the poetics of symbolism to the Avant-garde, as the painter introduced him to Guillaume Apollinaire's (1880-1918) poetry. After staying in foreign countries (Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil and Romania), when he returned to Japan in 1925, Horiguchi published the Crowd under the Moon anthology, which contains translations of French songs from Parnassians to Avant-garde poets, including Yvan Goll. Although no traces of their connection can be established, it is clear that they both felt poetically related and close, with mutual respect. Finally, Goll's understanding of Japanese poetry in the context of Avant-garde poetics is considered in comparison with Miloš Crnjanski's essay entitled "For Free Verse" (1922), which also mentions Japanese poetry. While Goll emphasises the simplicity and conciseness of Japanese poetry, Crnjanski points to the improvisation as its significant feature. While Goll is searching for new poetry that is in line with living fast in the high-tech society, Crnjanski sees the everlasting connection of man with nature, which Japanese poetry is all about.

Okada, Kenzô [岡田謙三] (1902–1982)

Kenzô Okada was an American painter of Japanese birth, and one of the earliest artists from Asia to earn an international reputation as an abstract expressionist. Okada began his artistic training at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, but withdrew in 1924 in order to travel to France. In Paris, he met fellow expatriate Fujita Tsuguharu and also became acquainted with Alberto Giacometti and Marie Laurencin. A comparison of Laurencin’s portraits with work from Okada’s initial phase suggests her example was important in the development of his early figural style. Okada returned to Japan in 1927 due to financial hardship, at which point he became associated with the Nikakai, where he exhibited for the next thirty years. In 1950, Okada moved from Japan to New York, where he befriended Mark Rothko, Bradley Walker Tomlin, and Clyfford Still. The work of these New York School painters encouraged Okada to forego representational styles in favor of abstraction. During this latter phase, he rendered his paintings in subdued, flat colors with a decorative lyricism often associated with the aesthetics of traditional Japanese paintings; in a 1968 interview, Okada later came to define abstraction as "West and East meeting each other." Okada became an American citizen in 1960 but made frequent visits to Tokyo, where he died in 1982.

Hiding in Plain Sight

This chapter explores the careers of some of the statistically implausible proportion of women in the interwar arts who were lesbians. One focus is patronage: the partnership of Dody Todd and Madge Garland at the helm of British Vogue, who not only made camp fashionable but made the magazine a vehicle for informed opinion by paying serious money for articles; and rich lesbians’ patronage of other women. Another focus is on the development of a lesbian approach to art, architecture, and design, Eileen Gray’s buildings and why they enraged Le Corbusier, lesbian interiors, and the art of Marie Laurencin and Elsie de Wolfe, who in their different ways produced work so ‘feminine’ as to exclude the male completely.

Commentary: When Art Speaks: One Student’s Inquiry Process

In this interview, Alex Hillcoat, a cycle three elementary school student, shares her experience in developing a special project related to the life of artist Marie Laurencin. Her project included several creative art forms:poetry,painting,writing,crossword puzzle making and even developing a museum floor plan with the works of the artist. Alex reflects on how perseverance in her research served her well and how these skills will be useful for her in the future. Finally, she has practical advice for students engaging in similar projects as well as for their teachers.