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The Musée Maillol

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Musée Maillol pictures by ClaudecfIt was a long walk from the park Montsouris, up the Ave. René Coty and Boulevard Raspil to the Musée Maillol but nice since the weather was cloudy and not too hot. As a true fan, I’ve been wanting to go to the Musée Maillol since it opened.

Having not done any homework for this trip I had no idea what to expect and was a bit disappointed at first since the temporary shows occupied maybe 2/3rds of the space, relegating many of Maillol’s smaller studies to be stuck on shelves in glass cabinets on the first floor.
Plus, both temporary shows, George Condo and Guy Peellaert, left me cold that day although in other circumstances and a different frame of mind I could have been seduced by Condo’s “clowns”. The Guy Peellaert room had a Tina Turner song looped ad nauseam which prevented more than a passing glance (Am I the only one who finds repetitious soundtracks in art works utterly despicable? I pity all museum guards that have to put up with that!).

And why go to the museum when you can see many of the larger bronze that the museum shows in the Carrousel part of the Jardin des Tuileries next to the Louvre?

Because they are “simply” nudes, and not filled with romantic theatrics, unnecessary ornaments or dramatics, Aristide Maillol’s oeuvre doesn’t always receive the recognition it should. And it’s a fact that it is not always that obvious to see how much of a master of dynamics, geometry and three dimensional space Maillol was, especially in the standing figures. His sculptures are not the geometric simplification of a body, and as such you can easily “understand” that body without help of any kind. Nothing complicated, a sturdy young girl holding an apple or sitting and holding her foot.
In fact you actually have to search the lines, shapes and dynamics of each work to realize the complexity of placing the figure in such a strong geometric space. Then suddenly the position of a big toe, finger or the figure’s massive back becomes essential to the overall structure and the work takes on a whole new stature.

The museum’s website praises the fact that Maillol’s sculptures announce abstraction, which of course they do, but to me the real miracle is that they have no desire to be abstract, they are exactly what they are and rare are the sculptors with that kind of eye for the human figure and geometric space; Michelangelo come to mind but offhand I can’t think of anyone else…

The flickr picture portfolio I’ve linked to above is by Claudecf who has a lot of great pictures of Paris, as well as other cities and things to browse.

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