A French Painter Visits Moscow
Bazaine, Jean
I went to Moscow, invited by the General Commissariat of Expositions, to talk to the Russians about painting. As my theme I had chosen "the artist and the world today." This would allow me to...
...Upon his arrival at the Exposition, Mr...
...3) a. Is the painter Filosov known in France...
...How dare you consider yourself a free artist if you paint only for a mass of snobs...
...I learned later that it was in its majority made up of students, painters, "engineers" and also some workers...
...19) Most Honored Monsieur Bazaine: "Yesterday, during the conference, a question was sent up to you but did not reach you, thanks to the kindness of your guardians...
...5) Do you find it "legitimate" to express the great tasks of art not only in an abstract fashion, but in some concrete form of the visible world...
...I told them how sensitive and beautiful the light of Moscow seemed to me...
...Then, each time that I raised questions of freedom of the artist and his art, or affirmations of the rights and dignity of man, of the unconscious need for the artist to be in a state of "permanent revolution" etc., the applause became longer and longer...
...b. What do you think of Pougny...
...Many of my previous night's listeners had come back, including my "provocateurs," and the crowd filled even the corridors...
...4) Since everything in painting is a problem of development, how does one go beyond non-figurative painting in France...
...My lecture had been divided into paragraphs which my translator read after me...
...A serious, attentive public whose strained expressions were rather intimidating...
...There were even one or two "provocateurs"—I give some excerpts from one of their longer texts —who were booed...
...Many young artists asked me, after these meetings, for my address...
...Possibilities of diverse opinions...
...I began amidst a heavy silence...
...Are there any painters who have done the opposite...
...My lecture had been • Reprinted in slightly condensed formfrom Esprit, January, 1962, with permission...
...10) Your attitude toward presentday Soviet painting...
...Froment-Meurice, who organized the cultural section and received Mr...
...Most of the time the identical process took place: two people, unacquainted with each other, would get into a discussion in front of a painting...
...one of them told me in his awkward French, "that he could now live ten years longer...
...Khrushchev, offered me precise details on this...
...At the beginning of the session my interpreter took care to inform the audience that we were talking about painting and those not interested could leave...
...Only a few people left the hall...
...b) that it is charlatanism...
...Is this the right way for a young painter...
...This would allow me to touch upon delicate subjects such as freedom of art and thus human freedom, and, indirectly, the question of socialist-realist painting...
...At the end of about two hours the entire hall rushed up to the stage to demand that the text be translated (later, it was dittoed...
...b. Does not the rapprochement between the "abstract" painting and whatever in nature has inspired it contradict the very essence of abstract art...
...At the reception that followed, he lifted his glass to culture, then more particularly to painting, adding (and this seems to me a trait of modesty): "To what I understand...
...And finally if painting is for you only a source of income, of francs you receive from wealthy people who know nothing about it, then how can you speak of freedom of the painter...
...At the end, many pertinent questions were asked from all sides, either orally or on slips of paper...
...9) If abstract art is progressive does that mean that, with time, the painting of each people will arrive at this way of expressing reality...
...c. What is the role of the Russian school from 1900 to 1920 in the development of world painting and in particular of French art...
...They showed me their awkwardly done canvases, full of contradictory and badly assimilated influences but often having some—I do not know how to describe it—some light by which an artist is recognized...
...During the entire visit, recordings of Bach and Mozart were played to prevent the neighbors hearing that we spoke in French...
...The first indications of a detente took place the moment I declared that a painter was a man who, in general, had no desire to go to the Moon...
...You have publicly declared that you would give away with joy your works to those who would truly appreciate them...
...Or else is painting for you only a source of income...
...by contrast, they scarcely spoke to we of Picasso...
...That suits me to a Tl" Despite this the hall was filled to overflowing...
...16) By what means does abstract art, which essentially expresses an interior "I," serve people whose "I" is entirely different, and to whom it becomes comprehensible only after two hours of explanation...
...Painting, a forbidden fruit and thus charged with all the promise of life and eternity, has become at the same time the symbol of man's freedom and dignity...
...Two hours before the meeting, I was forewarned that I would probably speak to an empty hall since the invitations had been systematically withdrawn from those invited...
...c) that no talent is required to paint an abstract picture...
...The smiles and fits of anger— why not?—were directed almost exclusively at works of expressionist inspiration, those more directly provocative...
...Do your young painters find ways of showing their work and what does your youth bring to art...
...6) Criteria for judging a painting...
...If not, how can it be refuted...
...11) Do you know any abstract Soviet painters and can you see them in Paris...
...They have written begging me to send them art reviews...
...in your opinion superior in quality to abstract paint ings...
...Some, in tears, embraced me, offering me touching little gifts...
...17) There are only well-known painters at the Exposition...
...Etc., etc...
...15) Don't you believe that painting will have more and more a scientific foundation and that the totality of certain deterministic laws will have an ever-greater importance...
...12) You went from figurative to non-figurative...
...Nonetheless, I repeat my question...
...Is this because in democratic France one cannot present his works to those one respects...
...Is all this true...
...If I tell these facts here it is precisely because I felt to what an extent this overwhelming welcome on the part of the Soviet public secretly echoed deeper and more poignant words than those I was able to utter...
...What are the criteria thanks to which one may distinguish between a scribble and a masterpiece of abstract art...
...I had to wait more than half an hour in order to begin, those in charge demanding, with good humor but not without vigor, that a larger hall be offered to us...
...14) What do you think of the Picasso at the Exposition...
...In this con nection, the example of monkeys', childrens' scribblings, etc., are evoked...
...I rediscovered intact the old Russia which the look of the streets had almost made me forget...
...At length and seriously, he toured the halls, in spite of what may have been said, stopping more readily before "figurative" canvases and stifling a smile with his hand only before the Picasso...
...Is this art concerned about the public to whom it addresses itself...
...One of these young artists I was able to meet at his home (not without many detours and difficulties to avoid this becoming known...
...The attitude of the Russian public toward the recent exposition of French painting has been talked about a good deal—often falsifying the truth...
...This alone, I feel, suffices to explain this fervor...
...The note was folded in four and hidden in the pocket of one of the guardians watching over the security of French culture...
...sent on and translated into Russian three weeks before my arrival...
...I was able to save a few and offer some examples here...
...I regret that I do not feel I have the right to publish these moving letters...
...The evening ended up in a healthy brawl which three policemen quickly put an end to, this last episode being told to me later since I myself, ill-prepared for the enthusiasm of public meetings, had disappeared at the height of the melee . . The next day I repeated my lecture to the Circle of Friends of the Fine Arts, in an old private mansion formally decorated with admirable panels by Bonnard...
...Mme...
...I can affirm that there was hardly a place in the entire Exposition where the crowd was denser and, especially, more passionate...
...Can a painter consider himself free if he lowers himself to serve the wealth of the filthy rich...
...This permitted a correspondent of a French rightist newspaper to tell me smilingly, "So, you're planning to create a diplomatic incident...
...2) You say now that before adopting the form of art which occupies you at this time you had painted according to nature...
...8) Are not figurative works (Bon nard, Despiau, etc...
...He had gotten together a few friends in the nine square meters he proudly called his home...
...Here follows the lecture of Jean Bazaine, stressing the themes mentioned a b ove.—EDITOR) QUESTIONS ASKED AFTER THE LECTURE: 1) Is the gap between painter and spectator growing...
...Immediately, thirty other visitors gathered around them and launched into a vehement and interminable discussion...
...Khrushchev asked to see the paintings...
...18) It is often affirmed that abstract painting is: a) reactionary, insofar as it is the official art of the ruling capitalists in their struggle against the working class, progress, etc...
...1) Did you get advanced instruction other than pictorial...
...So, Monsieur Bazaine, can you reply...
...7) a. Why the decline of Surrealism...
...They did not obtain one, but the session lasted three hours...
...Braque, Miro, Klee, Kandinsky seem to me to be the painters they are best acquainted with...
Vol. 9 • July 1962 • No. 3
