Raoul Dufy: The Picture Stares Back

 

It's time to take Raoul Dufy more seriously than we usually do. We take the measure of the ills of this world by comparing them to the pleasures and happiness that are the stuff of Dufy's art.  It was in the shadow of the oncoming Second World War that he created his largest and most joyous work La fee electricite for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, after all.

Dufy (1877-1953) was born into a large family in Normandy. He didn't begin to paint until he turned eighteen.  Inspired by Henri Matisse's Luxe, Calme et Volupte, Dufy was in the process of honing his own style when he painted this still life in 1919.

What the French call nature morte (dead nature) in English is called still life. Let's imagine what these  live  fruits are thinking. It's daunting to think that they  could judge us as we judge them, but they are alive so it's possible.  Are they nursing any grievances against their fate? Cherries are difficult to grow, easily damaged and so are highly prized. Of course they get their own special bowl  placed close to the viewer.  Bananas, at a dime a dozen, sulk in the background.  Other lesser fruits are jumbled together to the side but two strawberries are having none of this hierarchal arrangement.  They have pushed their way to the very edge of the canvas as though calling 'look at us'. 

Image; Raoul Dufy - Nature morte aux fruits , circs 1919, oil on canvas, Collection of Pierre Levy.

Gabriel Orozco: A Porcupine Eats A Tortilla

 

It sounds like the beginning of a shaggy dog story, A Porcupine Eats a Tortilla. This cutest member of the rodent family munches on a tortilla, secure in the knowledge that those sharp spines will protect from any other creatures who might be tempted to steal its food. Hanging over the image is a question: where did that tortilla come from?

"I've found that sometimes the studio is an isolated place, an artificial place like a bubble - a bubble in which the artist is by himself. It becomes too grand as a space. What happens when you don't have a studio that you have o be confronted with reality all the time.

"I try always to be intimate with the world...with everything I can, to feel love for it, or interest in it.

"For me photography is like a shoebox. You put things in a box when you want to keep them, to think about them. Photography is more than a window for me; photography is more like a space that tries to capture situations." - Gabriel Orozco

Gabriel Orozco  is a Mexican artist who refuses to be pinned down; he has lived and worked in many places and has made art in various media-  photography, painting, and sculpture.

Image: Gabriel Orozco - A Porcupine Eats a Tortilla , 2021, pigmented photo print, Marian Goodman Gallery, NYC.

Nils-Udo: Garden By A Stream

This stunning photograph by Nils-Udo highlights the fragility of nature's beauty through an image of bindweed flowers reflected in a  tranquil stream.

The Caring Gallery is the first charity art gallery in Paris. Now is playing host to its third exhibition, Close to the Eyes, Close to the Heart, dedicated to biodiversity and safe-guarding the environment.  Thee gllery will donate ten per cent of its receipts to the French branch of the Jane Goodall Institute. It is curated by Anne-Sophie Berard.

Its first exhibition, Let's Dream of Better Days, was a n invitation to emerge from our pandemic isolation to connect with others and with the natural world. After this initial success, the gallery presented Politically Intimate, focusing on women's lives.

Nils-Udo is an artist from Bavaria who has been creating environmental arts for decades. He uses photography to capture the ephemeral aspects of the natural world we are part of.

Image: (courtesy Connaissance des Arts) Nils-Udo - Lit de ruissseau, fleurs de liseron (Streambed with bindweed flowers), detail, Galerie Pierre-Alain Charllie, Paris.