1959 Jules Pascin Drawings Washington Irving Gallery NYC Exhibition Invitation

Description: You Are Cordially Invited To Attend An Exhibition of JULES PASCIN 1885 - 1930 DRAWINGS OCTOBER 26- NOVEMBER 14, 1959 WASHINGTON IRVING GALLERY 49 IRVING PLACE • NEW YORK 3, N. Y. BERNHARDT CRYSTAL, Director THE MARVELLOUS MONSIEUR PASCIN By Alfred Werner As a draftsman, Jules Pascin is in the class of Degas, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautree. As early as 1907, when he was only twenty-two, he exhibited in the famous gallery of Cassirer, Berlin, where his drawings were hung along with works by Van Gogh, and such German artists as Max Lieber-mann and Kaethe Kollwitz. Praising his drawings, a German eritie compared them to the work of Aubrey Beardsley, yet found them to be very original and personal. There is an "absinth mood" about them, he wrote, they are characterized b a weird fantasv and a " nervous irritability. Pascin was extravagantly prolific! A friend recalled. *He was always drawing, drawing when on his feet, when lying down, when sitting; drawing everything on every material. Paper covers on the pub table, menu-cards, cigarette cartons, every surface attracted his pencil, pen or brush." He bent any medium to his purpose, ink thinned out with soda water, the burnt ends of match-sticks, dregs of coffee, to make, with uncanny magic, sketches of what the Japanese call The Floating World. George Grosz, in his autobiography, hailed the masterliness of his Bulgarian-born colleague, several years his senior, whom he observed sketching at the Café du Dome in Paris: "We would all stand around your table and watch with admiration. What Pascin set down, without preconceived plan, in a few lively strokes, catches gesture and character so splendidly that the drawing gives the impression of completeness even when the line is stretched to the vanishing point. Undoubtedly, he was aware of the inherent value of his work. But he was careless about it after completion. If a drawing fell to the floor, he would not stoop to pick it up. On such occasions, many a stranger salvaged a precious piece, while many drawings were surelv abstracted by the countless visitors to his studio on Boulevard Clichy, where they were heaped up on the floor. Many sketches of this indefatigable man who "drew as he breathed," must have been lost forever through negligence. During the artist's lifetime, and particularly after his premature death by suicide (1930) thousands have been captivated by Pascin's deceptively casual, sensitively nervous, expressive line. However, only a trained eye can appreciate fully the aesthetic merit of his resilient line and see beyond the satirist's devastating power of observation. Thus, when sketches by Pascin were first shown in New York (in 1915), American artists were in the forefront of those who admired the European's gift for swift, yet telling, statement, the freshness of his out-of-doors notations that emanated so much charm, though some were little larger than the palm of a man's hand. But these delicate things were still caviar to the general public, accustomed at that time to photographic realism….. The ament aladbation at the Washington belie findlat Singe fur tar so dearing Racin math in antonak of the host Word War because be dish set or at is Fight for his native coming ate the adanian of Franco techmically he was sell a subsed of king Ferdinand of Bulgara) ay thomal Anerican chitrendhip. But he distiked the hardness of Vow York wintors, and frequeng arogued from them to the pleasanter clinutes of North Carolina, Ionistana. Texas, and Florida. de even sistedl Gila). Tivo sketches made on these travel shrow Negroes relasing in front of its cethackle houses, and are typical of the dravings and watercolors he produced in the sons Though short hand notes of a flecting moment, these sketches have a finality and definitenes o assertion that permits no correction! The other drawings shown here were also done, at one time or another, in the United States (which the artist visited in 1927 and 1928). To anyone familiar with Pascin's work as a painter it comes as no surprise that in nearly all of these sketches figures of women, dressed or undressed predominate. His favored motif was the female, single or in groups, viewed tenderly, or with a touch of humor, a faint smile at her aggressive vanity. To him, as to Toulouse Lautree (who died a few vears before Pascins arrival in Paris), woman was fascinating as a sexual animal, far less inhibited in gesture and attitude than the male. Pascin loved to emphasize and even exaggerate woman's curves, and he good-naturedly poked fun at the obese specimens. Notwithstanding all accusations, he was rarely obscene for the sake of obscenity. He did not manipulate his sitters to strike a particularly immodest pose - his pen or pencil merely "surprised" a model. or a woman on the beach, in whatever "natural" position his snap-shot eye might catch her. Had he had a motto, it would have been "spontaneity above all!" He was not born to be an illustra. tor, subjugated to literary motifs. Only once did he really illustrate a book, when, as a young man.

Price: 65 USD

Location: New York, New York

End Time: 2025-01-05T23:49:37.000Z

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