Lu pour vous dans BEAUX ARTS

Opening of the Olympic Games and Minds

With its transgender figures, its drag queens, and other death metal groups or Philippe Katerine in a blue nude, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games has caused a lot of ink to flow and sparked lively controversy. A height of irony for an event whose author, Thomas Jolly, likes to say: "I wanted to make a ceremony that repairs, that reconciles". No one will be surprised that Donald Trump, Marion Maréchal and Mattéo Salvini were offended by the diversion of the Holy Supper proposed in the same way as the decapitated crowned heads. Beaux Art goes beyond the controversies between detractors of a "scandalous apology for wokism" and defenders of a "bold promotion of French heritage". The magazine open to all forms of Beauty poses a word that cuts short all debates. Camp. Thomas Jolly's creation was a "camp" work. But what is camp? Based on a 1964 text by Susan Sonntag, Beaux Arts defines this aesthetic as a “gay dandyism flirting with kitsch and characterized by a totally assumed colorful and pop excess.” In 2024, it would have been anachronistic to summarize French heritage with Edith Piaf and the French cancan, right? So, French camp camp.

Illustration: Philippe Katerine in Dionysus bleu Thomas Jolly 2024

When Street art is displayed in politics

Everyone remembers the very Warholian silkscreen portrait of Barack Obama that street artist Shepard Fairey, better known as Obey, created in 2008. This iconic image went around the world to the point of eclipsing the official visuals of the future president of the United States. He did it again this year by immortalizing Kamala Harris in the same style from a photo by Lawrence Jackson. The slogan is no longer "Hope" but "Forward", which implies in particular that the election of a woman to the presidency would be a step towards the future and, by boomerang effect, that the election of the Republican champion would represent a step backwards. In 2024, Street art does not have to take to the streets to make its slogans heard to the whole world.         

Illustrations: Barack Obama and Kamala Harris by Obey 2008 and 2024

The public takes charge

How can we get the French to buy works of art? By asking them what they would like and letting them take the initiative to order the work of their dreams. This is the original initiative of the Nouveaux commanditaires, an idea by the artist François Hers produced in response to the desire expressed in the 1990s by the Fondation de France to move from a supply-driven policy to a demand-driven market approach. The idea was therefore to adopt a marketing approach to artistic creation. In 2020, the torch was taken up by around twenty mediators within the Société des Nouveaux commanditaires. How does it work? It all starts with the expression of a desire, a need, expressed by a group of citizens. This is what determines the form that the artistic project will take, from painting to architecture, music, theater or comics. This is also what decides the choice of the artist. Production amounts can range from €30,000 to €200,000, with the New Patrons taking charge of raising the funds necessary for each production. More than 500 works have already been produced on this idea in France and Europe. Reversing logic is often a source of innovation in artistic creation. To be adopted and adapted on ARTactif?

Illustration: Logo of the Société des Nouveaux Commanditaires

L'Art ouf

On the occasion of the exhibition Figures du Fou – Du Moyen Âge aux romantiques from October 16 to February 3 at the Louvre Museum in Paris

What was the best-seller in Europe in the 15th century? The Bible? Yes. Of course. And what title came in second place? La Nef des Fous by Sébastien Brant. This long satirical poem initially published in German under the title La Nef des fols du monde on the occasion of the Basel carnival was quickly translated into Latin, French and then Dutch, so much did this vitriolic criticism of a world drifting towards "Narragonia", translate the island of fools, speak to everyone. It is to the illustrators of this founding text that we owe the Epinal image of the character of the Fool. He is dressed in a striped costume that is as flashy as it is wacky. He is topped with a bonnet with donkey ears, a cock's crest or bells. And he is given as a paltry scepter a stick topped with his own shrunken head in the style of Jivaros, his hobby horse. It was obviously Hieronymus Bosch, who first systematically took up and developed the world of madness in painting after having taken up the theme of the Ship of Fools in 1500. He thus extended the tradition inaugurated in the 14th and 15th centuries by representations of the insane in many manuscripts and books decorated with illuminations. Far from being reduced to a cathartic figure during carnivals, the character of the fool becomes a sculpture and a figure in cathedral stained glass windows. He invades the official space on the courtyard side as well as on the garden side. Popularized by Brant, our good fool earns his letters of nobility with Erasmus who makes him a free man and a champion of tolerance in his Praise of Folly illustrated by Holbein the Younger. It is from this character that the function of the king's fool was born with Triboulet who first raged at the court of King René. Eclipsed for a time, the fool only returned to the forefront at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, notably with Goya and Géricault. And today? It is in comics and in cinema that the fool is king with the Joker who constitutes the modern form of this colorful character with the enigmatic and sardonic smile. A sort of anti-smiley.

Illustration: Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch

Centre Pompidou: we're closing!!!

Beaubourg is getting ready to close for five years! In France, this news overshadows other international news about the iconic Parisian museum. Starting with the suspension of its expansion project in New York. We are of course delighted, but on the contrary, to learn of the ten-year extension of a location in Malaga that was initially thought to be temporary. We welcome the planned appearance of other branches in Brussels and Seoul. The same goes for the signing of a partnership with the Brazilian state of Paranà. But still: Beaubourg is getting ready to close for five years!

Illustration: Incubated by Daniel Buren at the Pompidou Center in Malaga

Article written by Eric Sembach