Between Brush and Pen

The Musée de la Poste, is worth a visit in itself with the fascinating way in which the story of the postal service is inextricably linked to the social and political events in France, but also to discover the long awaited exhibition featuring the relationship between  Chaissac and Dubuffet, two French artists who influenced each other but whose lives took very different paths. Classically trained Dubuffet enjoyed success, recognition and length of years.  Self-taught Chaissac struggled, questioned, briefly glimpsed the limelight and died at the age of 54.

They exchanged more than 400 letters from the time they first came into contact in 1946, and developed a mutual respect and inspiration from a distance. The text has been intelligently woven  chronologically in parallel with  the art, showing the main highlights as their work and correspondence evolved over the years.  Controversy as to which artist influenced the other still remains. Dubuffet has been accused of appropriating the art brut of Chassiac who in turn has been suspected of being too close to the art establishment to remain a truly natural artist.

Chassiac painted on anything that didn’t move (stones, bones, pots, closet doors, construction paper) and wrote with wit,  “I paint for that instant that will make abstract art specialists come to a boil”. It was said of him that nobody else who would go like he did, without dismounting, to the very extreme of things.

Dubuffet seemed preoccupied with the source of creativity.  He coined the term art brut, raw or natural art,  to define the work of self-taught artists that were free from the constraints of traditional schools. He wrote “Art doesn’t sleep in the beds that we make for it, it escapes as soon as we mention its name. It loves to go incognito, its best moments are when it forgets its own name.”

A visitor aptly defined the event as rejouissant. It is indeed a joy to be privy to a creative dialogue between  two artists that normally eludes us because it only takes place as a monologue inside the artist’s head. As it turned out,  for all their epistolary compatibility, they didn’t get along at all when they eventually spent some time together. I wonder what they would think of sharing the same exhibition space today.

 

Tip: While the works of art transcend language, the correspondence is, as you would expect,  in French. There is, however, a timeline as you enter that gives a good idea of the differing paths of the artists, presented in both French and English.

 

Entre Plume et Pinceau

Through September 28

Musée de la Poste

34 boulevard de Vaugirard, Paris 15th

Métro: Montparnasse

€5

+33 (0)1 42 79 24 24

www.laposte.fr/adressemusee/visites-et-expositions/les-expositions-temporaires

 

Originally published in the August-September 2013 issue of France Today.