WE ARE THE PAINTERS
Artist(s): Paint for Hochwechsel, 2010
Artist(s): Présence Panchouette
Artist: Sylvie Fanchon
This is a real-time video installation in a contemporary art museum just outside Paris, France, showing two people working on a fairly large landscape painting of what they see before them. Some mind find the whole thing, which is a bit over 40 minutes long, to be "as dull as watching paint dry," but as an artist and painter myself, I enjoyed watching for a few minutes. My opinion is that they're good and know what they are doing.
I did work on a huge, huge painting with a somewhat famous artist in NYC years ago, over a period of time. The artist was out and I'd spend a day there working on it. Since I understood what the finished product was supposed to be, I could follow their method and move it much farther along. It was nearly pointillisme, and they ended up quitting doing those, even though they were all wonderful and sold very well, fetching high prices. (I do have one of that artist's early ones, a breakthrough in the style, pretty small and in gouache -- I bought it in 1980.) Some methods may produce wonderful results yet take months, even years to finish, so many not be doable. Many artists throughout history had helpers who'd handle the drapery and some details adeptly, for, say, large, elaborate commissioned works.
This may have been my fifth visit to this museum. It's called MACVAL and is the contemporary art museum for the Val-de-Marne département just beyond the Paris borders. Located in Vitry-sur-Seine, a rather weird-looking place these days, you can get to MACVAL easily via tramway, bus, or both from Paris. Both stop right here at this huge museum.
I went on a first Sunday of the month, so this visit was free, but the rest of the week (check opening days online -- I don't recall what they are) it's not at all expensive, and there is some kind of restaurant here. On Sundays, there is only a nice, standard lounge with vending machines for coffee and the usual funny stuff. Paris and its environs are generally "closed Sundays" and Vitry is no exception, but I would imagine you could quietly have a small picnic neatly in their nice garden. I saw a new table for that.
In and around Paris, Sunday lunches are very long, start early and can go for hours. It's for friends and family, and even just at home, it's time for a special meal with courses and probably wines and even lots of booze French style, and besides the normal cheeses and fruits dessert, it's pastry time! Then, you either crash out or "go for a turn in the garden," which in Paris means dressing up and going out "to look at something." We went out here after a nice Sunday lunch at home.
Most of the time and for this visit, all photos without flash and any clips are fully authorized without restriction. You never know what you're going to see at MACVAL, that is for sure.
Only this digital video recording, the comments and any annotations are copyright 2014 Lisa B. Falour, B.S., M.B.A.
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Any music used is there by authorization of YouTube.
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