Keri - Pompidou & Brancusi Studio

Amazing building for modern art and a gathering place. Around the museum are shops, food stands, and my favorite gelato spot. The building is unique because it's inside out: The A/C ducts (blue), water pipes (green) and electrical conduits (yellow) are on the outside of the structure which leave the inside incredibly open. 

Sometimes they show movies on the side of the building and people bring blankets to the inclined area.

Going up! Great view!

After a group exercise to get the 6 Scale electricity flowing, we compared 2 works on the 4th floor (modern work from the era around cubism, abstract...) 

My first painting was Picasso's La Muse, 1935. I chose this painting because the colors were striking and I was curious as to who was The Muse.

La Muse, 1935

Summary:

Neighborhood - very open room, light colored walls, the whole room has Picasso's work

Site - two paintings hang on the wall with The Muse, the other is also a figure

Exterior - figures are larger than human scale, I first connect with the bright colors

Interior - setting is a studio, composition has 2 figures, a table, a vase, a mirror/frame, and cushion

Object - the female figure is half naked, working/drawing/painting as the second figure sleeps unaware

Detail - thick paint is applied and layered, colors on top of colors with thick but purposeful strokes

My sketchbook notes breaking down the 6 scales of La Muse

sketch

I noticed that the woman, vase, and object in the frame all had white coloring similar to each other.I interpret   the meaning as the muse paints and works on inspiration while the artist sleeps or is unaware. The framed pictures resembles the vase of flowers on the table, which I believe is what the muse is using as still life. 

Location in the room relative toeach other 

My second painting was L' Aubade, 1942. I translated L'Aubade to "a morning love song"

Summary:

Neighborhood - same room with all Picasso's 

Site - on a wall by it's self, lots of space around it

Exterior - bigger than life size, slightly looking up, seen from a bench in the room (above right)

Interior - setting is a room, possibly a bedroom, composition also includes two figures, both are given the same importance in terms of size

Object - the figure on the right is holding the instrument but not playing it, the scene feels more intimate than the other because the figures are looking out to the viewer, the reclining figure has flowing hair and is nude like many of his other female paintings, she seems relaxed: "Do you want us to continue?"

Detail - thinner paint application except for the white of the man's shirt

L' Aubade

sketchbook drawing

detail close ups

Summary:

Both paintings are about inspiration. The first gets inspiration from a muse while the artist is unaware and the viewer is just seeing the event from outside. The second seems to ask the viewer to be a part of this inspiration and the figures are waiting to be inspired to preform. (I did not immediately interpret the gazes as looking out to the viewer in this way, but the fact that he is not playing suggests there is something missing - he is not only inspired by the woman in the painting)

Brancusi

A few feet from the Pompidou sits the Brancusi muesum that houses his sculptures in an completely unique fashion. As a trade for all his work when he died, he required that his studio be reproduced exactly as he had it, and he designed the space to make sure it was exactly as he wanted it. Our job was to take a picture of the space and let it define what was so unique about this museum. 

The most striking thing besides the amount of work everywhere, was that sculpture seemed to be sitting on other sculptures. What was the art and what was the pedestal?