A small article for Deutsche Kichengemeinde in Nord-England

After my day in Manchester and the talk about St Stephen Marc Chagall’s windows in Martin-Luther Kiche, I agreed to write a small article for their Gemeindebrief ( newsletter). It will be translated in German:

Manchester talk on 7th March  about Marc Chagall’s windows of St Stephen Church in Mainz in Germany was of great interest for me as a professional artist and architectural glass designer/maker. Marc Chagall had said ” For me a church window represents the transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world” (p243 Marc Chagall by Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Taschen,2003). The light was also in his heart as a painter and he worked with ease with the light and colour to create paintings with glass and on glass. He had been taught the glass painting technique in his 60 s and worked for over 35 years at various stained glass commissions until his death in 1985.

Photos of the artworks for those windows are rarely presented in books about his work ( the Taschen book written by his friend Jacob Baal-Teshuva do not present those windows ). It was an other motivation to view a slide show of this artwork in the Martin-Luther-Kirche in Manchester and a pleasant surprise to see that Pastor Strobel also had the books about those windows written in German by Klaus Mayer. The windows were taller than any other stained glass windows Marc Chagall had done.

It was very interesting to view how he aesthetically dealt with it. His artwork as a painter has all the potentials for technically making stained glass windows. Colours are plain, one next to the other like two panes of two coloured glass red and blue bonded by lead lines ( one character dressed with one colour, an other one next to it dressed  with an other  colour).The colour scheme of primary or secondary colours or the vibration for each colour can be achieved with glass and by the use of etching flashed red or blue or green glass gain variations in tones and hues. His use of gold yellow is rendered by the use of silver stain on clear parts of the glass. All outer lines of his characters’ bodies or faces needed no alterations for painting on glass with traditional brown glass paintings. Not only the colours, but also the lead lines were not like breaking into patches his design, as his artwork as a painter has its own rhythm of lines and structure of divisions of the space behind and within the body of all characters.

Those windows are the achievement of his understanding of the bond between his artwork and light, stained glass techniques and aesthetic openness of that craft, more than any other of his stained glass artwork. His use of lead-line has an amazing visual lightness and as viewers, it is entirely taken as lines of the art piece as one.

Kiss the Earth

I am moving in Studio 4, a very spacious room with high ceiling and tall windows. Took some photos this morning as I was waiting for some wood to be delivered. Some details of the surface of the water in the bucket under the tap drew my attention. I took some photos.

 A lady contacted me to place an order after seeing my photograph Kiss the Earth on sale as a postcard in Cath Tate shop.(note that Kiss the Earth is the photograph of my logo for this blog, and has been the most succesfull since I first exhibited it last year) An occasion for me to surch for more options of printing for my photographs as this client is interested in ordering in time two more of my photos for her sitting room and bathroom.

meeting a French illustrator

FABULOUS! I met Beatrice Alemagna who is now a friend of one of my friends and came to Shrewsbury to pay a visit. I love her work beyond measure. A memorable experience: first experience of meeting the artist in such a friendly atmosphere. We also loked at her latest publication in Japan or Italy. I can’t wait to buy the French versions of those books.

Last reference to Of human bondage,”to the complexity of the pattern”

“He (Philip) seemed for an instant to stand above the accidents of his existence, and he felt that they could not affect him again as they had done before. Whatever happened to him now would be more motive to add to the complexity of the pattern, and when the end approached he would rejoice in its completion. It would be a work of art, and it would be none the less beautiful because he alone knew of its existence, and with his death it would  at once cease to be. Philip was happy.” page 605

Philip in Paris

I am reading the novel of W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage.

Philip, the main character is now an art student in Paris. He is at the time of Zola, Manet, Degas, Monet, Sisley…

I must today be early at my studio, tonight I’ ll write more in this post  about Philip’s experience of Paris as an art student and think of my own experience of Paris as an Arts Plastiques student in the 80s.

Paris / Munich

A great exhibition not to miss in Paris and Munich: Traces du sacré.

Look at www.centrepompidou.fr or in German http://www.hausderkunst.de/hdk.de/index.php?StoryID=2162

Am reading the catalogue…and will try some translations of what I found the most meaningful to my artwork…

Before then,

Why do I take time to write about that exhibition? It was very inspiring to find out in February this year that such a project was on the go in the Pompidou Centre where I worked years before my move to Great-Britain in 1998.

The design of the windows for St Luke’s church, is like the sacred touch of my artwork in action, after 10 years of my life with many spiritual moves or steps.

That exhibition raises the following questions:

-         “What was the relationship of Western art to the spiritual in the 20^th Century” or “the continuing importance of the question of the sacred in the art of the present day”?

-         Is there any left over of a touch of sacred in 20^th Century art?

 

It also presents Art and the questions of Destiny, Existence, Cycle of Life (Birth and Death), or why evil? It “offers a historical survey that demonstrates how with or without God, with or without religion, a considerable part of 20^th Century art has continued to be informed by these questions”.

 

For me, Art is reading the book of Life. Art takes different means to make itself perceived or shared, and today I take the mean of writing in this post to share how this exhibition plays its game of inspiration in my mind.

It triggers some kindles of light from my memory of passions I had for artists whose works are exhibited there and whose work lead me to where I now stand.

In the introduction to that exhibition in the website of the Pompidou Centre, it is written that “in today’s post-industrial world the idea of self-transformation through art has lost its purchase”.

I would ask the writer of that introduction: how could the idea of self-transformation through art could lose its purchase if Art presents to the public such questions as: Destiny, Existence, Cycle of Life (Birth and Death), or why evil?

 

Maybe we struggle to transform oneself through Art because we live in a bath of information in a consumer society and Art may be taken as an other piece to consume fast. It is harder and harder for the touch of sacred in Art to be shared without being diluted or harder to emerge “in the excess of light of our consumer society.”

 

Share that exhibition! It is a time to emerge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

donation to Hamar Centre

Following all treatments I had for a bone marrow transplant in 2004 and all the wonderful support I had from the Hamar Centre, the panel I donated to the Hamar Centre has been installed at the entrance of their building. I paid a visit to have a feel of how it looked like and asked the lady who welcomes all visitors to pause before it. I was very pleased to have contributed to the pleasure of the eyes of all visitors and users. As I was told, It seems to give a source of inspiration well needed to many.

This work was originally made for an exhibition in a café at the beginning of my glass career. It had an adorning purpose from the very first venue it was in with the use of glass layers hot and cold glass techniques.