Maillol, Frère, Pons. Catalan Arcadia.

Musée d’art moderne de Céret
Etablissement Public de Coopération Culturelle
Ville de Céret – Département des Pyrénées-Orientales - Région Languedoc-Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées
8, Bd Maréchal Joffre, BP 60413 - 66403 Céret Cedex- Tel : 04 68 87 27 76 / Fax : 04 68 87 31 92
Maillol, Frère, Pons.
Catalan Arcadia.
2 July – 30 October 2016
“Sticking to nature and doing what we want to do at the same time. It’s devil, you know.”
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol was born in 1861 in Banyuls and moved to Paris at the age of 20. He
usually spent his winters in Banyuls and worked in a farmhouse in the countryside. Later
on, Maillol’s model, Dina Vierny, turned the farm into a museum. Maillol became famous
with the sculpture ‘La Méditerranée’:
“It is beautiful. It means nothing. It is a silent work. I think we
have to go back in time and find such complete negligence of
all worries not related to the simple expression of beauty.”
André Gide, extract of his review of the Salon d’Automne,
Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October 1905
Aristide Maillol
Méditerranée, dite aussi La Pensée, entre 1923 et 1929
Marbre
110,5 x 117 x 68,5 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Photo RMN-Grand Palais (musée d'Orsay) / Thierry Ollivier
© domaine public
Aristide Maillol
La Douleur, Monument aux morts de Céret, Place de la Liberté, 1922
Pierre
Statue 160 x 95 x 72 cm (socle 141 x 116 x 92 cm)
Ville de Céret
© domaine public
In the twenties, Maillol also sculpted the war memorials for
four towns of the Pyrenees-Orientales: Céret, PortVendres, Elne and Banyuls.
In 1939, he returned to his birthplace. He spent the last years of his life with his model,
Dina Vierny, and produced the last sculpture ‘L’Harmonie’ which was left incomplete.
Aristide Maillol
Etude pour la première Harmonie, 1940
Fusain, sanguine, craie blanche et mine de plomb sur papier d'emballage
36 x 25 cm
Fondation Dina Vierny, Musée Maillol, Paris
Photo : Jean-Alex Brunelle
© domaine public
Aristide Maillol
Les nymphes de la prairie, 1930-1937
Bronze Rudier, Epreuve d'artiste
157 x 144 x 78 cm
Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, Paris
Photo Jean-Alex Brunelle
© domaine public
Henri Frère (Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines, 1908-1986) was an artist and a professor in
Perpignan. He met Maillol in 1928, and he immediately held high esteem and friendship
for him. ‘Conversations de Maillol’ was first published in 1956. It was a book of memories
written by Henri Frère who also photographed Maillol at work.
Henri Frère
Maillol travaillant à La Montagne,
années 1930
Photographie
Collection privée
© droits réservés
Henri Frère
Atelier de Maillol à Banyuls, La
Nymphe, années 30
Photographie
Collection privée
© droits réservés
“I observed Maillol live in his own kingdom with a
kind of old-fashioned simplicity. In that antique life
he had rediscovered, in an atmosphere of pure
confidence, we shared the bread of a great, naive
poet who was as authentic as nature. Everything was
full of life around him. He used the simplest words
Henri Frère
Paysage de Sorède
Pastel et gouache sur papier
21 x 28 cm
Collection privée
© droits réservés
and everything became sensitive. He was an
inexhaustible source.”
Henri Frère, ‘Conversations de Maillol’, 1956
Henri Frère
Au bord du ruisseau
Plinthographie
28 x 20 cm
Collection privée
© droits réservés
The exhibition allows visitors to discover Henri Frère’s
personal works including sculptures, drawings and
pastels of landscapes and nudes, as well as original
engravings on brick. Henri Frère’s works are remarkable for the sense of composition and
the use of an unusual and audacious chromatic scale.
Joseph Sebastien Pons (Ille-sur-Têt, 1886- 1962) was a Catalan-speaking poet. His
daughter married Henri Frère. As he was a great admirer and friend of Maillol, he
dedicated a conference – ‘Le sculpteur de Banyuls’ delivered in 1930 in Montpellier - to
the artist. The poetic work of Pons is an ode to Catalan nature. ‘Concert d’été’ was a book
of memories first published in 1950 in French, and illustrated with carved woods by
Maillol.
Joseph Sebastien Pons
Le Canigou vu d'Ille
Mine de plomb, encre et aquarelle sur papier
12,5 x 18,4 cm
Collection privée
© droits réservés
HER ARM WAS SO PALE
TAN CLAR TENIA EL BRAÇ
Her arm was so pale when, cheerful,
she was offering bread, water or salt,
that it reminded of the neve snow.
Her pace was a natural dance.
Tan clar tenia el braç, quan riallera,
donava el pa, l’aigua o la sal,
que hom pensava en la neu de la gelera.
Son pas era una dansa natural.
She was the daughter of Greece on her father’s side,
and the daughter of the Conflent on her mother’s side.
She was following the slope of the wood, and a
thousand wind roses
illuminated her face.
Era filla de Grècia per son pare
i per sa mare filla de Conflent,
i bosc avall li encenien la cara
les mil roses del vent.
Joseph Sebastien Pons, ‘Cantilena’, 1937
Around Maillol’s works, several collectors, poets and artists encounter: George-Daniel de
Monfreid, Gustave Fayet, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis, Etienne Terrus, Louis Bausil,
Manolo, Pierre Camo, André Susplugas…all of them bards of Catalan Arcadia.
The film by Claude Mossessian, Maillol, Frère, Pons. Une Arcadie catalane, is broadcast in the
auditorium throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Exhibition catalogue, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Nathalie Gallissot, Alex Susanna i Nadal,
Olivier Lorquin, Sébastien Frère, Somogy, 152 p., 24,6 x 28 cm.
Press contact:
Lydia Fons
04 68 87 97 32
[email protected]
Julie Chateignon
04 68 87 97 38
[email protected]
Museu d’art modern de Ceret
[email protected]
04 68 87 27 76
www.musee-ceret.com
www.musee-ceret-expo.com
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Opening Hours & Days:
Open daily 10am – 7pm until 30 September, 10am – 7pm until 30 October.
Closed on Mondays in October.
Full price: 8 €. Reduced price: 6 €. Free admission up to 12 years old.
Ticket office closes 30 minutes prior to Museum closing times.