The Art Pope

Luc Smekens

Translated by Zoe Winslow Laird

Colophon

Title: The Art Pope

© 2015 Luc Smekens

Physical book first print: October 2015 - ISBN: 9789462661479 Dutch language

Translator: Zoe Winslow Laird

All rights reserved

Published by: Weststroombank

Illustration “Urbi et Orbi” : Johan Houthoofd

Cover made by: Popsjes&Co design

http://www.popsjesenco.com

Code: 20180228

ISBN: 9789462663015

NUR: 646

Except for the exceptions stated in or under the copy write law of 1912, nothing from this publication may be multiplied, stored in an automated data base, or made public, in any form or in any way, be it electronic, mechanical, via photocopies, recordings or in any other manner, without written permission in advance from the publisher.

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Do you know Vauxcelles? Louis Vauxcelles? He is probably the biggest doofus in the history of art and everyone tipped their hats to him. He invented the terms for cubism and fauvism, mockingly easy to understand, because he despised these art styles. That is to say he viewed Picasso, Braque, Matisse, de Vlaminck en Derain as a bunch of negligible nitwits.

WE WRITE PARIS, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTRURY. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles goes to an exhibition.

“Hello mister Vauxcelles, how are you? May I take your coat and hat please?”

“Ha, Louis, you have to see this. Come along with me.”

In a specific exhibition room Matisses and Derains were hanging on the wall. There was also an academically executed sculpture placed on a pedestal.

“Ha,” Vauxcelles yelled, “Donatello amongst wild beasts! (Les fauves).” Common acclamation and hilarity. Oh Vauxcelles, you did it again!

I wonder what kind of man Vauxcelles must have been like. I think: he was smart, subtle, cultivated, attractive and celebrated in Parisian saloons.

Imagine for instance the following: if someone introduces the insult fauvism and this word later on victoriously defies time, then that is something worth noticing.

At the very least, this supposes high esteem with a large audience. This audience being the bourgeoisie of Paris, the indisputable cultural capital of the world at the time; the opera and bel canto enthusiasts, the Casanovas of ballet dancers (the Parisian Musée d’Orsay harbors an Art Nouveau section where there is a magnificent double bed that by the way doesn’t seem like it’s been made to sleep in), the admirers of Bouguereau.

I want to make one thing explicitly clear about Vauxcelles. Pertaining to all that I have previously mentioned, he appears to me to have been a big fish of his time and amongst surroundings; an unavoidable critic. In short, we are dealing with a true art pope here, who completely fell short of expectations.

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