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Kosmaj Spomenik near Belgrade, Serbia. Sculptor Vojin Stojić and architect Gradimir Medaković. Poured concrete and rebar, completed in 1971.

"During this period, the Yugoslav break from Soviet socialist realism combined with efforts to commemorate World War II, which together led to the creation of an immense quantity of abstract sculptural war memorials, known today as spomenik."

Conservado desde 1984 en el Museo de Arte y de Historia de Ginebra « Baigneurs à la Garoupe» es una pieza maestra del museo suizo y obra esencial de Picasso, que la desarrolló íntegramente bajo el ojo del fotógrafo David Douglas Duncan. Éste realizó una cincuentena de fotografías de la puesta en escena de Picasso creando su obra «Baigneurs à la Garoupe» (donado en 1984 al MAH por su nieta Marina Picasso). Una serie realizada durante el verano de 1957, cuando la noche del 11 de julio Duncan y su cámara Leica tuvieron el privilegio de asistir a la creación de la obra, como ya hiciera Dora Maar en la confección de Guernica.

 Baigneurs à la Garoupe, 1957.

Fue en 1956 cuando David Douglas Duncan (Kansas City, 1916), fotógrafo celebre por cubrir episodios bélicos en Corea Vietnam o India para publicaciones cono National Geographic o Life, descubre a Picassso en su residencia «La Californie» de Cannes. Será éste el comienzo de una gran amistad que duró cerca de diecisiete años, durante los que Duncan fue uno de los pocos aceptados en la intimidad del pintor, invitado a compartir y fotografiar su proceder cotidiano. Más de 150 fotografías tomadas entre 1956 y 1973 en las que aborda la dimensión humana del genio, su atractiva y sorprendente personalidad y el ambiente que se tejía a su alrededor, introduciendo al espectador en un espacio de intimidad, reservado sólo a la creación, la familia y los amigos.

 El fotógrafo, 55 años más tarde, recordaba el momento en que tomó el valor de acercarse a la casa de Picasso, siguiendo la idea de su amigo y colega de profesión, Robert Capa y de cómo fue Jacqueline Roque, amante de Picasso en aquel momento, quién abrió la puerta. Picasso, que estaba dándose un baño, dio su aprobación para que pasara, produciéndose, minutos más tarde la primera y una de las más célebres instantáneas tomadas por Duncan.

Baigneurs à la Garoupe es una obra de gran tamaño (cerca de 2 metros de alto y 2,60 metros de largo) en la que el pintor ataca la tela desde la parte superior derecha para concluirla, diez minutos después, en la parte inferior derecha. Crea sin pausa, frenéticamente, sin interrupción, sin duda, siguiendo un impulso continuo y regular.

«Otros pintores pueden pasar un año para pintar y repintar un centímetro cuadrado del lienzo. Yo, pienso en este lienzo desde hace un año. Ahora dibujo durante algunos minutos ¡y es suficiente para terminarlo!» Picasso.

Esta obra fue largamente esbozada en septiembre de 1956, en una profunda búsqueda, puntuada en numerosos dibujos, sobre el tema de la playa, por un lado, y sobre las relaciones entre la pintura y la escultura, por otro. De echo, existe una versión esculpida de Baigneurs à la Garoupe, conservada en la Staatsgalerie de Stuttgart, y que fue fabricada a partir de fragmentos de madera de deshecho, enroscadas las unas con las otras hasta componer los seis personajes del cuadro: L’homme-Fontaine (El hombre-fuente) , La femme aux bras écartés ( La mujer de los brazos abiertos), etc.

Se trata de una investigación, la que vinculaba la escultura y la pintura, que Picasso llevaba explorando notablemente desde 1912. Con sus cuadros relieve, sus ensamblajes, Picasso puso en tela de juicio el aspecto plano del cuadro integrando en él objetos reales. Un proceder que desarrolló a lo largo de toda su carrera, creando sus ensamblajes a los que dotaba de una dimensión escultórica ingente. 

Les Baigneurs, 1956. En el caso concreto de Baigneurs à la Garoupe la conclusión a este interrogante que planteado llega con la emancipación de los ensamblajes de madera del marco del cuadro, cobrando una independencia que los convertía en un grupo escultórico propiamente, perfectamente diferenciado de la estricta bidimensionalidad del cuadro.

Le carnet de croquis en el que podemos ver que Picasso mezclaba todas las técnicas: dibujo, pintura, escultura… Este cuaderno nos muestra que, por ejemplo, todas las cabezas de los Baigneurs fueron objetos de estudios separados.  

  Gracias a las fotografías podemos ver que Picasso se apoyó en esculturas para crear, jugando con las piezas de madera y combinando sus formas para hacer nacer el cuadro. Discreto pero al acecho, Duncan es capaz de captar la increíble energía que desborda al trabajar Picasso. 

Fue un verdadero privilegio el de Duncan al poder presenciar el proceso creativo de sus obras pues Picasso, receloso de su espacio limitaba la presencia en su estudio, permitiendo en contadas ocasiones a Duncan su presencia en él. « “Sólo los niños y los animales podían cruzar el taller sin destruir nada” tenía costumbre de decir mi padre. A la lista de permitidos se añade Doonkhan, como él llamaba a David Douglas Duncan […] él se colaba entre los obstáculos con una habilidad felina, con los pies calzados con chinelas afganas. Ese gran gato silencioso nos ametrallaba constantemente con su Leica» Recordaba Claude Picasso. «Nos caíamos bien y nos fiábamos el uno del otro- recordaba Duncan en su visita a la exposición de sus fotografías de Picasso, que tuvo lugar en Málaga en 2011- No le molestaba ni preguntaba qué hacía. Miraba y disparaba. Sin flash, sin hacer ruido. Con el máximo respeto».  

También fue positiva para Picasso la presencia de su amigo Doonkhan (al que también llamaba Ismael) gracias a su fresca y sincera admiración por el pintor, mientras documentaba su trabajo. En una entrevista que concedió posteriormente el pintor a Brassaï, otro fotógrafo, afirmó: «No es suficiente con conocer las obras de un artista. Es necesario también saber cuando las hizo, por qué, cómo, en qué circunstancias, […] Yo tengo para la posteridad a documentación más completa posible.»

La obra se convierte en telón de fondo del taller de Picasso, siendo escenario de las escenas cotidianas del verano de 1957. Duncan, testigo tanto de su confección como de las anécdotas que protagonizaron con él de fondo los habitantes de La Californie, demostró con sus fotografías que la pintura y la escultura no son reflejos de la vida misma. Eran frecuentes los temas de baño en la obra de Picasso. La Garoupe era una playa particular de Cannes: un lugar marcado por la modernidad, donde la gente nadaba entre las boyas y saltaba desde los trampolines. Una modernidad que Picasso dejó penetrar en su obra y de la que Duncan pudo ser testigo, observando a los verdaderos bañistas de la Garoupe. Sus bañistas son lejanos descendientes de los de Cézanne y los retratos de los que, despreocupados y libres, disfrutaban de la playa de Cannes.

F. Schiller, Plage Garoupe, 1950.

Exposiciones que han reflejado esta relación fotográfica:

“Picasso in progress”, Musée National Picasso, París, 1 abril-5 junio 2009. http://www.musee-picasso.fr/homes/home_id24104_u1l2.htm

“Picasso crea. A través de la cámara de David Douglas Duncan”, Museo Picasso, Málaga, 20junio- 25 septiembre 2011.

http://museopicassomalaga.org/exposicion.cfm?id=72

“David Douglas Duncan fotografía Picasso”. Instituto Cervantes, Madrid, 10 octubre 2012- 10 enero 2013.

http://milan.cervantes.es/FichasCultura/Ficha84133_24_1.htm

“Picasso à l'œuvre. Dans l'objectif de David Douglas Duncan», Musée d'art et d'histoire, Ginebra, 30 octubre 2012- 3 febrero 2013

http://www.ville-ge.ch/mah/index.php?content=1.2.1.1.1.1.&id_eve=1557&langue=frs

“Picasso à l'œuvre. Dans l'objectif de David Douglas Duncan» Musée d'art et d'industrie André Diligent, Roubauix, 18 febrero- 20 mayo 2012. http://www.roubaix-lapiscine.com/publications/178/picasso-a-l-oeuvre-dans-l-objectif-de-david-douglas-duncan.html

Fruto de esta amistad fueron también diversas obras publicadas por Duncan:

Goodbye Picasso (Adiós Picasso) 1974.

The Silent Studio (El estudio silencioso) 1976

Viva Picasso 1980

Picasso and Jacqueline 1988.

También es interesante consultar:

Viva Picasso

immagini di vita d’artista

David Douglas Duncan

Fabbri Editori, Milano 1980, 153 pagine,  illustrato con foto in nero e colori di  David Douglas Duncan

euro 30,00

email if you want to buy [email protected]

L'uomo e l'artista in una straordinaria galleria di foto d'arte in nero e a colori, molte a piena pagina, dell'amico e noto fotografo/giornalista americano.

Definitive portrait of Picasso by photographer David Duncan who was an intimate friend of the artist and his family for 20 years. These are 150 of Duncan’s favorite photos, black-and-white and color.

30/07/20

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Beautifully carved wooden doors (bab) and window frames are a defining feature of traditional Omani architecture. Their designs are predominantly Islamic, featuring geometric, arabesque and floral patterns, with medallions and palm motifs often decorating the doors.

Peter Stark - Francis Bacon in his studio (1973) Bacon moved into 7 Reece Mews in 1961. A small former stable/coach house just off Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, London, became his home and studio until his death in 1992.

By the time of this photo the upstairs studio had already become legendarily famous because of its total chaos: Bacon did not allow any cleaning or even tidying of his art lair, and it was ankle-deep in paint-smeared rags, magazines, photos, slashed canvases, old brushes, books, dust, dust, and more dust.

Here is Bacon in his studio, caught by the camera of Michael Holtz in 1974:

With time the studio became only ever more chaotic; by 1980, when Jane Bown took this photo, there was barely any change in what this old mirror reflected.

The artist died in 1992. The studio was preserved in the state left by the artist and no one was allowed to change anything, including the dust accumulated for thirty years.

In 1998 it was decided to move the entire studio, in its full form and with all its mess (and dust), to Dublin, to the premises of the Hugh Lane Gallery (to which one of Bacon's heirs donated the entire studio contents).

Before this relocation the gallery hired Perry Ogden, a British photographer, to document in detail everything in this studio; this is just one of the pictures he took (from many hundreds later published as the book '7 Reece Mews: Francis Bacon's Studio'):

The studio was measured and mapped, carefully dismantled, and then reconstructed in Dublin (the native town of Bacon) piece by piece (walls, doors, even dust and paint scrapings). It has been on display since 2001, so you can come and take the very same picture now as Ogden took in nearly thirty years ago:

Rich Land, Poor Land, the summer group show at Carriage Trade in NYC about the dark side of land use and Manifest Destiny, has been extended and will reopen from Sept. 12 to Oct. 12, 2025.

Rich Land, Poor Land redux [greg.org]

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved."

“I’ve got a tremendous collection of cemetery stone photographs. Dr. [Edwin] Land [of Polaroid] has said, ‘I see so many pictures of tombstones. You come here, I give you a new film to try, and you go to work in the cemetery!’ I say, ‘Yes, because the stones are static. Some of them are very beautiful and I can work thoughtfully on them.’ This is a theme that affected me and affects a great many photographers. The early gravestone carvings and sentiments are a link — the closest link I know — to the past. And you get that assurance in New England in the old graveyards; you really sense a contact with past humanity, and the stones photograph beautifully.” —Ansel Adams.

Oualata, Mauritania

Oualata (also known as “Walata”), located in Southeast Mauritania, is one town out of a string of 4 in total, coined by UNESCO as the Ksour (ksar - singular, ksour - plural; a Maghrebi Arabic term meaning “fortified village”) of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata. The city of Oualata became a popular caravan city, a trading hub, between the 12th and 16th centuries CE. [1] Today it is renowned for its decorative vernacular houses.

The medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar, Ibn Battuta, wrote of his stay in Oualata in his Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, saying:

“Thus we reached the town of Iwalatan [Walata] after a journey from Sijilmasa of two months to a day. Iwalatan is the northernmost province of the Negroes, and the sultan’s representative there was one Farba Husayn, ‘farba’ meaning deputy [in their Ianguage]. When we arrived there, the merchants deposited their goods in an open square, where the blacks undertook to guard them, and went to the farba. He was sitting on a carpet under an archway, with his guards before him carrying lances and bows in their hands, and the headmen of the Massufa behind him. The merchants remained standing in front of him while he spoke to them through an interpreter, although they were close to him, to show his contempt for them. It was then that I repented of having come to their country, because of their lack of manners and their contempt for the whites.

…Later on the mushrif [inspector] of Iwalatan, whose name was Mansha Ju, invited all those who had come with the caravan to partake of his hospitality. At first I refused to attend, but my companions urged me very strongly, so I went with the rest. The repast was served–some pounded millet mixed with a little honey and milk, put in a half calabash shaped like a large bowl. The guests drank and retired. I said to them, ‘Was it for this that the black invited us?’ They answered, ‘Yes; and it is in their opinion the highest form of hospitality.’ This convinced me that there was no good to be hoped for from these people, and I made up my mind to travel [back to Morocco at once] with the pilgrim caravan from Iwalatan. Afterwards, however, I thought it best to go to see the capital of their king [of the kingdom of Mali, at the city of Mali].”

He seems to have met an hateful sentiment against “white” North Africans from someone within the city. Nonetheless, he did not hate the blacks. Also by his own account (and as seen in the next excerpt), this city was inhabited by the Masufa Berbers, a tribe not known much about. The demographics of Oualata, being mostly black, could mean the Masufa are one of the few heavily black Berber tribes (the main most notably being Tuareg people), or they simply could have been the typical “white” Berbers.

University of Georgia historian Timothy Cleaveland notes in his book Becoming Walata: A History of Saharan Social Formation and Transformation (2002), on page 176, that the city was inhabited by a mix of the original Mande-speaking peoples (also inhabited by Soninke people as well), and later migrations of Zenaga-speaking Berbers, followed even further down the line by Arab or “Arabized” nomads. Although, he notes that the composition of the population didn’t change very much. [2]

The famous Israeli historian and expert of African Islamic history Nehemia Levtzion says in his book Ancient Ghana and Mali (1973) on page 147 that “Walata” had a mixed population of [”white”] Berbers and “Sudanese”; blacks. On pages 80 and 158, we read that it fell from its trading popularity to the city of Timbuktu in the second half of the 14th century. [3]

This is what Ibn Battuta had to say of his stay in the city of Oualata, its men and the quality of their women:

“My stay at Iwalatan lasted about fifty days; and I was shown honor and entertained by its inhabitants. It is an excessively hot place, and boasts a few small date-palms, in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Its water comes from underground waterbeds at that point, and there is plenty of mutton to be had. The garments of its inhabitants, most of whom belong to the Massufa tribe, are of fine Egyptian fabrics.

Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother’s brother. A person’s heirs are his sister’s sons, not his own sons. This is a thing which I have seen nowhere in the world except among the Indians of Malabar. But those are heathens; these people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending the prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and even if one desired to do so her family would not allow her to go.

The women there have ‘friends’ and ‘companions’ amongst the men outside their own families, and the men in the same way have ‘companions’ amongst the women of other families. A man may go into his house and find his wife entertaining her ‘companion’ but he takes no objection to it. One day at Iwalatan I went into the qadi’s house, after asking his permission to enter, and found with him a young woman of remarkable beauty. When I saw her I was shocked and turned to go out, but she laughed at me, instead of being overcome by shame, and the qadi said to me ‘Why are you going out? She is my companion.’ I was amazed at their conduct, for he was a theologian and a pilgrim [to Mecca] to boot. I was told that he had asked the sultan’s permission to make the pilgrimage that year with his ‘companion’–whether this one or not I cannot say–but the sultan would not grant it.”

In a quite hilarious situation, Battuta is surprised by this beautiful woman and attempts to flee like a nervous boy. And he does end up leaving the city of Oualata, in frustration, for Mali to see the king, and notes that it takes 24 days to reach if the caravan pushes on rapidly. [4]

Citation 4 is the text provided by Fordham University’s IHSP.

The renowned 15th-16th century Moroccan Berber-Andalusi writer, Leo Africanus, notes in his Descrittione dell’Africa that:

“The fourth part of Africa which is called the land of Negros, beginneth eastward at the kingdome of Gaoga, from whence it extendeth west as far as Gualata.” (pg 124)

“I* my selfe saw fifteene kingdoms of the Negros: howbeit there are many more, which although I saw not with mine owne eies, yet are they by the Negros sufficiently knowen and frequented. Their names there fore (beginning from the west, and so proceeding Eastward and Southward) are these following: Gualata, Ghinea, Melli, Tombuto, Gago, Guber, Agadez, Cano, Cafena, Zegzeg, Zanfara, Guangara, Borno, Gaogo, Nube.” (pg 128) [5]

The last two citations are unrelated pieces written to explain what exactly this “Gaoga” kingdom was, seeing that it isn’t written of otherwise, for anyone interested.

The beautiful ancient city of Oualata, Mauritania remains a notable tourist attraction today. An hour-long documentary was made about the muralist women of Oualata who decorate these houses, titled “En attandant les hommes”, in 2007 by director Katy Ndiaye.

See www.walata.org if you plan to visit. Below are some extra pictures of the city (one of them shows muralists at work). Enjoy.

Citations:

1. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/750/

2. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653366

3. http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/nehemia_levtzion_ancient_ghana_and_malibook4you.pdf

4. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.asp

5. Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa and of the Notable Things Therein Contained: Volume 1, pgs 124 and 128, published by B. Franklin, 1896

6. https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/XXIX/CXV/280/121509/THE-KINGDOM-OF-GAOGA-OF-LEO-AFRICANUS

These are some of the cave paintings found in Tassili N'Ajjer National Park in Algeria. Dubbed the "Greatest museum of Prehistoric art" the park is home to over 15,000 examples of cave art including pictures of early humans and animals (giraffes, elephants, cows etc..).