THE APOSTLE OF CUBISM
Guillaume Apollinaire and the Cubist Life. By Cecily Mackworth. John Murray. 244 pp. It was inevitable that Guillaume Apollinaire, coming to Paris in 1899, should sooner Or later meet Picasso who left Spain in the same year to make France his home. Both men were passionately devoted to art—Picasso to painting and Apollinaire to writing and both were avantgarde thinkers —Apollinaire with the self-consciousness of a Writer and Picasso striving to understand his own vision. They did not, in fact, meet until 1904. They became devoted friends immediately. together with the poet, Max Jacob. It was largely through his interest in Picasso’s painting that Apollinaire became an art critic and won recognition earlier at that than as a poet. When. about 1907 painters started producing cubist pictures it was Apollinaire who championed them. It was around Apollinaire. and Picasso that a group gathered. Friends were always important to Apollinaire and he was at all times an amusing companion and brilliant conversationalist. Cecily Mackworth's book about Apollinaire is a good one. He emerges as a gay and Charming person though afraid of insecurity. His thought at various times of his life is illustrated in the book by excerpts of his poetry th French. English translations are given, however, and it is possible to read the book with the merest smattering of French. The book may be enjoyed simply on the grounds of the stories that it tells of the crowd that lived at Montmartre and changed the face of painting tor all time. Miss Mackworth, p Welsh woman who has . lived moat of her adult life in France, sees Apollinaire as- a . man representative of,: and in some sense embodying, not only his own time but sorfiething of the shape the twentieth century was to take. That was in his writing about art. In his poetry, it was not until his later years that he abandoned his lyrical classicism and applied something of the new way of seeing the world. Two clear things come through: Apollinaire was a foreigner in France; and through the influence of his mother he seemed fated not to understand and be happy with women. He had successes with them but even Marie Laurencin, with whom he seemed happiest, left him. He was bom to Angelica de Kostrowitsky, the child of c
two exiled Poles in Rome, and an officer of the Royal Army of the Two Sicilies. He was the older child of a union in which the parents never married. His brother became a well-respected bank clerk. Miss Mackworth has a strong feeling for the time and for the importance of the discovery of cubism to the painters who discovered it and those who worked under its influence. There are many stories from the time. There was the famous dinner party given by Gertrude Stein. The painters who were invited all had their pictures hung on the wall and she seated each painter opposite his own picture. It was a very successful party. The only one who noticed the arrangement was Matisse and he later told Gertrude Stein that she was a wicked woman. The happiest time for most of the group was when they lived at Montmartre and .were very poor. The only one who would think of buying clothes was the goodlooking young Italian, Modigliani, who had not yet begun to paint the sad-looking
, women later to make him . famous. Most had to supple- ! ment their income by work- ! ing at something other than ■ their art. Apollinaire wrote , erotic novels—very quickly and with a Rabelaisian type , of humour. If one of the l group had to impress a prospective employer, an applica- ; tian to Apollinaire would be • made and he would raid his ; brother’s wardrobe. , The, mother, in spite of . combining a life of mixing ; with high society and living from the benefits given to : her by the men on whom she 1 bestowed her favours, never 1 fully abandoned her child--1 ren and remained a domin--1 ating influence. She pre- ; ferred the younger son. • Apollinaire, if he knew his 1 origin, remained quiet about it. When he was first among : Paris liliterati, a brilliant talker even among brilliant t talkers, he was accepted, ’ though the question of his I background aroused Curi- ’ osity. Much later, a group • of right-wing writers launch- ■ ed a campaign against the ■ people they considered subi versive in France. It became ! centred on the cubists and
among the cubist group, particularly on Apollinaire, The question of his origin and his foreignness was brought up again. It was an overjoyed Apollinaire who finally was allowed to fight for his adopted country in the 191418 war. Apollinaire died in 1919 in the epidemic of Spanish influenza then sweeping Europe. He was 38 years old. His mother had not changed. Someone told her that her son was a famous writer and she -went to a friend for an explanation. When he had explained she said: "My other son is a writer too. He writes financial articles for an important paper in New York.” The book will be of interest to students of the period as a biography of one of the most significant figures of the time. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to get a grasp of some of the principles that have shaped the art, and much of the thinking of the twentieth century. There are several drawings by Picasso and others reproduced in the
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Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 3
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913THE APOSTLE OF CUBISM Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 3
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