EXHIBITION: HOW TO PAINT AIR – Newspaper
The surprises of Normandy are far from over. The André Malraux Museum in Le Havre, another coastal town in this region of northern France, is currently hosting an unusual exhibition that dwells entirely on an invisible factor not only in the works of the world’s great painters, but also in those of photographers and artists dedicated to filmmakers… the wind!
There are more than 150 oil paintings, watercolors and sketches created by well-known artists spanning more than a century such as Goya, Turner, Corot, Renoir and even legends such as Claude Monet, not to mention the film footage of the Lumiere brothers, the inventors of the moving images that can be seen here projected on screens. They all focus on a single element – the power of storms, gusts and gales over forests, cities and even the waves of the ocean.
In the words of Madame Pascale Dubus, a much-respected art historian who sadly passed away a few months before the opening of the exhibition and who was one of the main forces behind this extraordinary show: “Even the elements lacking in an ordinary viewer can come to the imagination of one artist who happens to be a genius. The wind might be an invisible factor to the rest of us, but not to them.”
Much earlier, Gustave Geffroy, a respected early 20th-century art critic, described his encounter with the painter Claude Monet as follows: ‘When I visited him, according to our agreement, he was busy painting on the beach, dressed in a coat and hat. The wind was freezing and so strong that it blew away his hat, his brush and even his canvas several times.
A museum in France showcases legendary artists’ attempts to capture the invisible wind in their work
“But he insisted on staying where he was, convinced that the only way to paint an invisible element like the wind is to capture it with your senses and your imagination, simply by resisting and going against his strength resists.”
The Le Havre Museum itself has an interesting history. Unlike most other French museums, which were originally built as palaces, castles, or private residences for the wealthy families, this one was built authentically as an art museum after WWII, with a series of transparent glass walls and luminous windows to showcase it Exterior views of the sea and forest as gigantic works of art created by nature itself.
It was inaugurated in 1961 by André Malraux, a well-known writer and art critic who was appointed France’s very first Minister of Culture by none other than President Charles de Gaulle himself.
It is a thrill to enter this museum and through transparent glass walls observe the natural art scenes, in addition to the masterpieces that have been painted by legendary artists for more than a century, focusing on an element invisible to the rest of us .
Painting the Invisible is on display at the Musée André Malraux, France, until October 2, 2022
Published in Dawn, EOS, October 23, 2022