| An exhibition by Pierre Girieud, at the tartane, rue St-Saëns, shows the seriousness of the plastic demonstrations given in this establishment.
It is a retrospective offering a keen interest in the personality and work of Girieud who was the friend of the greatest of his time and first of all Pablo Picasso whom he knew in 1900 at the Azon cafe, in full Montmartre.
Born in Marseille in 1876, he spent his childhood in our city where he discovered the art of painting and drawing.
In 1900, he was in Paris, settled in Montmartre where he met Picasso while waiting to get to know the Fauves of the Moreau workshop.
Girieud, very influenced by Gauguin, is drawn into a classic movement resulting from the latter and perhaps, one does not think about it enough, of Puvis de Chavanne, the author of the famous frescoes of the Palais Longchamp. Girieud is full of thoughtful enthusiasm. In Cassis where he went (1904) he became friends with Matisse, Braque, Derain and Othon Friesz. He travels to Italy, (...) to France to stay in Provence where he decorates Jas de Puyvert (1932). He illustrated numerous works, in particular the Temptation of St-Antoine by Faubert and Domnine by Paul Arène, to which he had a deep admiration.
He will also paint a tribute to the author of Jean des Figues.
In love with different degrees of the primitivism of Paul Gaugin, Sérusier and Maurice Denis, the fact remains that Girieud went it alone. Charles Chassé assimilates him to the Fauves.
Personally, I classify it as a defector of Fauves, which remains in the tradition of Poussin and Cézanne.
Provence has also imbued it with its classicism: "it is in Provence, he wrote, that I find the landscapes that move me the most. They have the grace of Italy, the harshness of Spain, greatness and measure. " You would think you heard Chabaud (the mountain is my Parthenon).
Girieud remains the painter of large mural compositions, a talented fresco artist. (he decorated the Faculty of Sciences of Marseille). He is one of the first to have got rid, in his youth, of the initialism which had corrupted decorative art by appealing to Poussin, to Cézanne and, I repeat, to Puvis de Chavanne.
Its thick and very neat paste takes on enamel tones, the charred appearance of stones. Robert Rey said: "He painted the olive trees, each leaf of which is like a mirror which takes the tone of reality and transposes it into a minor".
And, further on: "Girieud is a noble artist. He rises to an austere beauty and has taken his glory to take the harshest and longest path. With Seyssaud and Chabaud, Girieud must be considered as the most sincere of Mediterranean artists".
It is true that the appearance of this painting is grave and clear. It also highlights the original lithographer and the powerful designer.
The Tartane exhibition gives us a glimpse of Girieud's talent. We will see nudes, landscapes of Provence, drawings, compositions that highlight the generous gifts of this great painter.
The opening on Wednesday attracted, as always, a large crowd. |