Memories - Miró - Duke Ellington - Bonnard - Calder

Joan Miró in front of a horde of journalists and photographers at the Maeght Foundation, in 1968, yes 1968, nine years before the opening of the Center Pompidou.
Funny detail: the photographer with the catalog stuck in his belt! And Miró, straw hat in one hand, the other in his pocket. Master's relaxation!

The Maeght Foundation designed by Aimé Maeght is:
- the creation of a building by JL Sert with the desires and discussion with the artists: Léger, Braque, Giacometti, Miró, Chagall, Calder…
- Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sun Râ, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, John Cage and Merce Cunningham live…
- show works from major museums or private collections usually jealously preserved abroad…
- the Bacon-Freud exhibition (1995) when the trend at the time was to obscure painting…
- present other cultures from other civilizations: “The Imaginary Museum of André Malraux” (1973), “Arts of Black Africa (1989), “Millennium Art of the Americas” (1992)…
- celebrate writers and poets with moving exhibitions, Prévert, Reverdy, Malraux, René Char…
- introduce the general public to artists known, at the time, mainly from the inner circle of art: Bram van Velde (1973), Tàpies (1976), Rauschenberg (1984), Christo (1985), Germaine Richier (1996) , Otto Dix (1998), Rebeyrolle (2000), Barceló (2002), Yang Pei Ming (2007)…
- honor the greatest artists in masterful exhibitions, Chagall (1967 and 1984), Kandinsky (1966 and 2001), Bonnard (1975), de Staël (1972 and 1991), Klee (1977), Léger (2004), Giacometti ( 1978 and 2010 - last exhibition I organized)…
I stop the list here, because each year was a profusion of discoveries, juxtapositions or confrontations of cultures, expressions and creations.

Pierre Bonnard, in November 1889, took the lawyer's oath. What a journey! Matisse was a notary's clerk. Here he is with his beloved dachshund. He had several: Ubu, Black, Poussette and Dingo!

One summer of 1966, here I am alongside Duke Ellington
"Miró and I are walking on the path that leads to the Foundation. Grandpa is there, among jazz musicians installed on a terrace with their instruments and our large Steinway which has been taken out. A black giant is playing chords. Grandpa introduces me and here I am sitting next to Duke Ellington, playing with four hands. Then the Duke improvises a memorable "Blues for Miró" listens attentively, I stay at his side.
At the end of the piece, Miró explains to me that although the notes are so few in number, like the colors, their combinations are infinite. So that I understand even better - I am only seven years old - he mentions Prévert who, with the same words as everyone else, as me, gives life to unique poems. This discussion will forever change my life. The source is simple, genius does everything."
Excerpt from my book The Maeght Saga, chapter “The Minotaur watches over us”

Not bad: Varda - Calder - Maeght!
A hodgepodge of works, a hodgepodge of talents.
Calder installs his works in the gallery of Aimé Maeght, Photo Agnès Varda, 1954.
I like the poster placed on an easel. At each exhibition, my grandfather asked the artists to create an original lithograph poster, that is to say a specific creation which is not a reproduction of a work. Grandpa wanted young people and less fortunate amateurs to be able to have a work for a few francs. Especially since he tended to give them away! This is why he wanted to have his own printing press, so the artists were free to create anything with the best technicians at their service.

No doubt this is genius: out of everything, out of nothing, to make something remarkable. Picasso photographed by Arnold Newman in 1954.