Collioure Post No 2 (Charles Rennie Mackintosh Residency 2013)
No, not that kind of French letter! I mean the kind that you send with a stamp via La Poste.
Like the Royal Mail, La Poste issues books of themed stamps. Stamps still, to certain extent, define a country so it’s with slight dismay that I find Britain to be represented by Dr Who, football heroes, transport, space (?), Harry Potter and a selection of mostly mediocre royal portraits.
On the other hand, La Poste, I think, produces more interesting stamps reflecting the very best of French culture, heritage and even “le quotidien”. Of course you might argue that Dr Who and football heroes do provide an accurate representation of British life ….
I had to send a letter to a friend back in the UK and happened upon a book of stamps featuring Cubist paintings. I chose a Braque and a Herbin, the latter because until my second week at Collioure (and to my shame), I had never heard of Auguste Herbin.
Collioure Day 13. Rain is forecast for most of the day, so I decide to head off to Ceret to see the museum of modern art there. Several people, including my co-artist Frances MacDonald, have recommended it. Ceret is about 20 miles inland from Collioure, but fortunately still accessible to me as there are no mountains to scale and therefore no acrophobia-inducing roads to contend with. It proves to be a pleasant little market town with the most magnificent art gallery. Most of the massive gallery space is currently taken up with a Herbin retrospective, but there are also some lovely Picasso ceramics in the final gallery.
No, not that kind of French letter! I mean the kind that you send with a stamp via La Poste.
Like the Royal Mail, La Poste issues books of themed stamps. Stamps still, to certain extent, define a country so it’s with slight dismay that I find Britain to be represented by Dr Who, football heroes, transport, space (?), Harry Potter and a selection of mostly mediocre royal portraits.
On the other hand, La Poste, I think, produces more interesting stamps reflecting the very best of French culture, heritage and even “le quotidien”. Of course you might argue that Dr Who and football heroes do provide an accurate representation of British life ….
I had to send a letter to a friend back in the UK and happened upon a book of stamps featuring Cubist paintings. I chose a Braque and a Herbin, the latter because until my second week at Collioure (and to my shame), I had never heard of Auguste Herbin.
Collioure Day 13. Rain is forecast for most of the day, so I decide to head off to Ceret to see the museum of modern art there. Several people, including my co-artist Frances MacDonald, have recommended it. Ceret is about 20 miles inland from Collioure, but fortunately still accessible to me as there are no mountains to scale and therefore no acrophobia-inducing roads to contend with. It proves to be a pleasant little market town with the most magnificent art gallery. Most of the massive gallery space is currently taken up with a Herbin retrospective, but there are also some lovely Picasso ceramics in the final gallery.
Auguste Herbin was essentially part of the Cubist movement, but in his younger years he toyed with impressionism, post-impressionism and fauvism. However for me, it was his abstract work that was most stunning and contemporary; the foundation of which was his “alphabet plastique”, a compositional system based on the structure of letters and his work on colour theory.
www.musee-ceret.com/mam/expositions_realisees.php
www.musee-ceret.com/mam/expositions_realisees.php