28 July 2017
In the few
days I’ve visited three museums. Transatlantic groans of recognition may be
heard from my children, who recall being dragged on these excursions.
Subscribers to the Swiss Museum Pass, like myself, can see them for free; a
bargain to be sure.
Museums
reveal the values, past and present, of the segment of society that funds them.
The three: Latenium, the museum of the archeology of the Neuchatel region,
which includes the famous site of La Tene; the art museum of the suburb of Pully
and the Musee de l’Art Brut, Jean DeBuffet’s magnificent collection of outsider
art in Lausanne.
All three
are beautifully presented. The Latenium was purpose built along the lakeshore
and in a park which displays reconstructed pre-historic dwellings. I find
myself fascinated by the interplay between the Celtic inhabitants of the region
and the conquering Romans. Once the Roman Empire retreated, that creolized
culture seems the source for some of the artistry of the Middle Ages.
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| Diorama of Celts Working for Romans |
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| Celtic Metalwork |
The Pully
Museum is housed in a renovated townhouse on a cobbled street between the town
center and the lake where I swim. Once rural, Pully is a wealthy enclave of
Lausanne. My fellow visitors resembled me and my swim companions: well
preserved ladies of a certain age. The Museum has a permanent collection of
paintings of the Lac Leman waterscape.
The special
exhibition is what drew me to the Museum.
In 1990, the National Gallery in Washington, DC exhibited Matisse in
Morocco, the color rich paintings and sketches which resulted from his visit
there in 1912 and 1913. Matisse was one of many who found, as Michael Kimmelman
wrote at the time, “Europe was orderly and predictable. Morocco meant
extravagance.” I treasure the catalogue
of that exhibit for Matisse’s palette and shapes, but it wasn’t until we stayed
in a house on St. Barts that was a virtual display case for French Orientalism,
that everyday orientalism made itself clear.
The Pully
Museum was exhibiting a survey of the paintings of Edouard Morerod. A native
son, born in 1879, Morerod travelled Europe and North Africa before WWI,
pre-dating Matisse in Morocco. People of color are his chosen subjects for his
paintings: Algerians, gypsies and
flamenco dancers. He gives them a monumentality through their costumes,
voluminous white, or stringent color, which contrasts with subtle facial
portraits.
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| Morerod Self-Portait |
The third
Museum has a world-wide reputation. Its instigator was the painter and sculptor
Jean DuBuffet. He studied and collected Art Brut, created by individuals in
various sorts of asylums and prisons, at first in Europe, and then world-wide.
The vast collection inspired and terrified me. In it you meet and see the work
of individuals who created their work obsessively.
I wonder,
is madness the price of non-stop creativity?
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