Feline Inspiration

Cats. Like Marmite, Kanye West and reality TV they tend to polarise opinions. To detractors they're cold, calculating, sinister beings who use humans for food and attention. To cat lovers, the very traits that irk the haters – their cool countenance, air of superiority and unwillingness to be stroked if not in the mood – are all signs of character, which opposes the dogged subservience of their canine rivals (to the cat lover, dogs are just a little too...eager to please).

Paul Klee, Cat and Bird, 1928
Oil and ink on gessoed canvas, mounted on wood, 38.1 x 53.2 cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York

And perhaps this is why so many artists seem to be in league with moggies (especially 20th Century artists for some reason). You only need type in artists and their cats into Google and you'll be greeted by a slew of pictures of the most influential artists of the last century positively cooing over their cats - Picasso, Klee, Dali, Matisse...the list goes on. Perhaps these visionaries found a spiritual alignment with the feline aloofness, which mirrored their artistic detachment from the world; or perhaps cats represent an air of refinement so necessary to the development of some of the defining art movements of the 20th century. If Picasso, for instance, had looked to a dog for approval of one of his paintings, he'd have been greeted with a tail-wag at the earliest instance and perhaps stopped there... a cat on the other hand would turn its nose up at even the most incredible, awe-inspiring, mind-blowing painting, inspiring the artist to strive further, bigger, better, and before he and the world knew it, the inspiration for both the cubist and modern art movement Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was created... all because of the scorn of his pet cat (although this may not be proved, it certainly can't be disproved, which is good enough for me).

Left: Picasso’s nonplussed cat averts his gaze from the camera
Right: Could Picasso’s masterpiece and disputed inspiration for the Cubist and Modern Art movements itself have been inspired by a cat?
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Oil on Canvas (244 x 234 cm).
Museum of Modern Art, New York

And then of course there's the Egyptians. Can you imagine the Pharaohs (and their thousands of slaves of course) going to all the effort of hauling tonne upon tonne of rock on top of each other (without a single crane in sight), and then carving said rock with their bare hands, to create a stone monument of a woman's head perched atop the body of a bugle or a sausage dog (' just doesn't work, does it?) And that's not to mention the scores of statues, carvings and engravings dedicated to them. Cats back then weren't just revered, they were worshipped.

Cat with Kittens (detail).
Reportedly from Saqqara, Egypt. Late Period to Ptolemaic Period, Dynasty 26 or later, circa 664–30 B.C.E.
Bronze, solid-cast and wood, 6.1 x 8.8 x 5 cm.
Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.406E

For proof of the Egyptians’ love for cats the Brooklyn Museum has a permanent exhibition of carvings and statues called Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt; cat lovers in the area can show their allegiance by stopping by. For all you non-Brooklynites, you can side with fellow feline fans by picking up a copy of any of the following ebooks: Picasso; Klee; Klimt; Dali; Bonnard.

Paul Klee: creatividad y abstracción

Ya a finales del siglo XIX el arte estaba intentando cortar con el formalismo academicista, pero a principios del XX la cosa se salió de madre: empezaron a nacer vanguardias sin control, se desató la creatividad individual dando paso a artistas, más que a movimientos artísticos, se cortó con la función representativa de la realidad (sobre todo en la pintura) para dar paso a la expresiva. Surgieron movimientos como el expresionismo, el cubismo, el rayonismo o el dadaísmo. Incluso la música «clásica», esa disciplina que parece permanecer invariable a lo largo de los siglos, experimentó una sacudida con el atonalismo y, más tarde, con la música concreta.

Esta crisis en las artes (entendida esta palabra como ’mutación importante en el desarrollo de otros procesos, ya de orden físico, ya históricos o espirituales’) brota de una realidad mundial inestable, en la que se ha perdido la fe en el ser humano, con grandes avances científicos que se utilizaron para cambiar para siempre el significado de la palabra «guerra» (podrían haber sido buenos, pero así somos). Fue entonces cuando se empezó a entender el arte como acción transformadora, con un fuerte componente lúdico a la vez que autocrítico. Lo que está claro es que estas nuevas tendencias no dejaron a nadie indiferente, y si no que se lo digan a los nazis que lo consideraron tan importante como para hacer quemas públicas de las obras.

 


Villa R, 1919.
Óleo sobre cartulina, 26,5 x 22 cm.
Kunstmuseum, Basilea.

 

Uno de estos artistas, más denostados que admirados, fue Paul Klee. Habiendo bebido del impresionismo, se fue acercando al arte abstracto y colorista creando composiciones de ensueño que quieren imitar «en el juego del arte las fuerzas que han creado y siguen creando el mundo». Sus críticos le acusan de utilizar una pintura pueril y pretenciosa y de mezclar técnicas de manera disparatada, asumiendo que se debe a la indecisión en lugar de a la intención. Pero teniendo en cuenta que una de las ideas principales en su obra es el caos primigenio, ¿no es esta una manera brillante de representarlo?

 


Bodegón con dado, 1923.
Acuarela, lápiz de cera y tinta sobre papel adherido a cartulina. 27 x 38 cm.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

 

Como se dice, «para gustos, colores» (y si te gustan las vanguardias tienes unos cuantos a elegir). Este artista puede gustarte o no, pero lo que no se puede negar es que él fue uno de los impulsores del arte moderno; no hace falta que me creas, date una vuelta por el Reina Sofía, el MACBA, el MUSAC o el Guggenheim y lo verás por ti mismo.

Déjate atrapar por su obra y piérdete entre sus símbolos hasta encontrarles significado, o simplemente disfruta de los colores y formas de sus lienzos en «100 x Paul Klee», que puedes visitar en el Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen de Dusseldorf hasta el 10 de enero de 2013. Si Alemania en invierno te resulta muy fría, siempre puedes hacerte con Klee de Donald Wigal o disfrutar de sus representaciones de animales en Beauty of the Beast (ambos en inglés).

 

 

If you can’t do, critique!

Everyone is an artist in some way or another, wouldn’t you agree? Whether it’s with words on a page, musical stylings, in the kitchen, or paint/pencil/chalk on a board/canvas – everyone has their own unique way of expressing themselves. Many of us do it in the privacy of our own homes, never daring to show it to anyone for fear of rejection, being misunderstood, or simply not caring that the rest of the world learn to value our talent. “My momma thinks I’m special and that’s enough for me.”


Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Top of the Mountain, 1918.
Oil on canvas, 79.5 x 90 cm.
Private collection.

If you were, however, to venture out of your comfort zone and introduce your talent to the world, wouldn’t it be nice to already have a critic in your corner? That’s exactly how it went down for Altenbourg, Bacon, Braque, Kandinsky, Kirchner, and Klee. These men, members of Die Brücke through Art Informel (a branch of Bauhaus) and everything in between, were tirelessly supported by the one and only Will Grohmann – a German art critic and enthusiast – for over fifty years. That’s a long time to say nice things about a person, friend or not.


Paul Klee, Engulfed Landscape, 1918.
Watercolour, gouache and ink on paper on cardboard, top and bottom borders in satiny paper, 17.6 x 16.3 cm.
Museum Folkwang, Essen.

And while I do find Grohmann rather biased in his shameless support of his mates, I greatly admire his collection of correspondence. Having over 2500 pen-pals, I imagine Grohmann was quite busy writing letters, post cards, and, of course, his artistic criticisms. It’s really a pity that our own generation has found it nearly impossible to hold on to the beauty of the hand-written letter.

Feel free to sit down and write me a hand-written letter anytime, and I promise to respond in the same form. However, in the meantime, head over to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, now through 6 January 2013, to see In the Network of Modernism and admire the same works that captivated one of the most influential art critics of the 20^th century. When that’s not enough, order these colourfully illustrated ebooks: Kirchner by Klaus Carl, Klee by Donald Wigal, and Kandinsky by Victoria Charles.

-Le Lorrain Andrews