Les demoiselles d'Avignon

Shame on me. I learnt only recently that the large oil painting of this name, painted in 1907 by Pablo Picasso, which portrays five nude ladies, two of them wearing seemingly african masks, has nothing to do with Avignon's beauties. The damsels were sex-workers in a brothel on carrer d'Avinyó, a red light district in Barcelona. The work - dubbed "le bordel d'Avignon", or simply "le bordel" by the painter- remains one of Picasso's most famous, and is considered to be the first Cubist work of art. Its first public exhibition after WW1, was a public outrage ( because of the painting technique, not of the subject, mind you) and the painter kept the canvas rolled in his atelier for some years. Bought (cheaply, at 35.000 francs) by couturier and collector Jacques Doucet on the promise that it would be donated to the Louvre Museum after his death, it was priced at 350.000 francs immediately after changing hands, wrote art historian Richardson. After Doucet death, it was sold by his widow mme Doucet to an art merchant in 1937, for financial reasons, alongside with major cubist paintings from Braque and Picasso and is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, since 1939.
Luckily, other paintings of Picasso, alongside with masterpieces of Cezanne, Modigliani, Vuillard, Sisley, Manet, Foujita, Derain... are however to be found in Avignon. The bulk of the collection of Jacques Doucet is hosted in a remarkable building, rue Laboureur, less than a hunded meters from our flat in rue Figuière.
The Musée Angladon is open to the public since 1996, and displays major works of french painters in a carefully preserved XVIIIth century setting, the former home of the museum founders Jean and Paulette Angladon-Dubrujeaud, heirs to the wife of famous Parisian collector, who fought trough their final years to constitute a Foundation ( wich is no small deed in the french legal system). Their generosity certainly match their uncle's, famous patron of the arts, and nonetheless a very shrewd buyer.

An art hotel in front of the Popes' Palace

The large, sloped square in front of the Palais des Papes in Avignon is adorned with a large, handsome building, surprisingly baroque in inspiration in front of the gothic Palace, and almost windowless : la Monnaie des Papes , the Pope's mint.
This building, dating from the XVII century, was later converted into a "conservatoire", or school for the performing arts. The conservatoire Olivier Messiaen has since been moved to the Place Pie, at a stone's trow from our flat. The deserted mint, looking rather like a Roman palazzo stranded in Provence, has recently been sold by the municipality to a british investor, who wants to create an Art Hotel.
While somme people wince at the comparatively low price - 3 million euros, a trifling sum for a building this size, listed as a World Heritage building by UNESCO- the commitment of the investor to create local jobs ( about 45 for 27 rooms) and to open the Art hotel to the huge number of visitors to the square is apparently worth the sacrifice of one of the city's most valuable piece of real estate.
Park Plaza hotel, the lucky buyer, part of Carlsson hotel worldwide, is the owner of Art'otel group, which plans openings in Marrakech, Amsterdam, London, says the city magazine Avignon Actualite. Fashion designer Kenzo will be in charge of interior decoration, and Fendi, the luxury brand will be also trown in somehow. But hopefully the place will not cater to fashionistas alone, art exhibitions shall be a permanent fixture of the hotel. A ground-floor gallery is part of the plans, which include a large glass-covered patio in the center ; the mineral facade of course will be left untouched. Add music, works of art in the rooms.. Half vault, half palazzo, the former Papal mint will sure need creative ideas to make it a pleasant place to stay.
The municipal opposition regrets that this singular heap of stones has not been converted into a youth hostel. It is maybe a sign of the times that this locale, once so vibrant with young crowds in the summer, during the Avignon's festival, shall go the way Saint Germain des Prés has... fashion and commercial contempory art. But on the other hand, let's face it, the city finances are probably better served by this very upmarket project. Avignon is not only a gorgeous gothic and baroque inner city, but also has huge suburbs with a rather young population, coming from all around the mediteranean, who badly needs jobs and resources.
For more modest budgets, there is always the opportunity of staying in our studio flat. A week there costs a fraction of a night in a four-star joint. We did hang a couple of paintings on the wall, too... and I will be glad to talk to you about the artists.

Several Martini's later...

To celebrate the 700th anniversary of the coming of the Popes in Avignon, the local Petit Palais Museum and the famous Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena in Italy, together organize a fascinating exhibition focusing on the legacy of Simone Martini. This Sienese painter died in 1344 in Avignon, where he followed the Papal court.
It is a pleasure to wander among the gold covered panels, gleaming like huge icons in the dark hall of the Petit Palais, close to the Pope's Palace. A pleasure and a privilege, for the Pinacoteca has lended to the Petit Palais several major paintings of the master and his followers, including two pictures of the Virgin Mary carrying the Infant Jesus which had never previously left that museum.
Sienese-inspired paintings from Avignon's masters are also included in this exhibition. The legacy of Simone Martini goes a long way into Renaissance painting, say the experts... but the splendid ornamentation, the praying and maternity themes, the serene indifference of the faces with slanted eyes, do leave the visitor subdued and wondering. How come this religious painting still is so powerfull, so impressive ? How come we seem to have lost our capacity for meditation, for prayer? Where and why did western civilization derail from its quest for eternity ? A must-see among the twelve or so museums in Avignon, but don't lose time, for the exhibition lasts only until Oct. 31. (Note : Worth several years of papal indulgence.)

Stay in a former Medieval LSD desintox center !

When we say our building is "historic" it's not merely because it is old, but because it was part of the ancient hospital Saint Antoine. The handsome hospital chapel next door dates from the thirteenth century. The ground floor of our building is noted for a great stone arch which was probably part of the hospital. (a symmetrical one is said to have straddled the tiny rue St Antoine to the left of the chapel.) You might be interested to know that in those days the people around the Mediterranean where suffering from intoxication by ergot, a fungus that grows on rye ( Well know nowadays under the name of LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) a potent mood-changing chemical discovered in 1938 and still manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot).

Huge and ugly epidemics of hallucination and other disorders (psychiatric and digestive) where cured during the middle ages in the Antonian's abbeys - nowadays we know it was done most effectively by removing the affected pilgrims from their contaminated source of bread, or "pain maudit", but it only contributed to make the Saint's cult stronger. (see Bosch's Temptation of St Anthony's painting, left.)
In 1403, the hospital welcomed Pope Benedict XIII and hid him when he fled from the french troops, leaving his nearby palace, in the guise of an ordinary monk. The great medieval poet Alain Chartier is also buried here since 1449.
In the mid-XXth century, the city has contemplated destroying the place which was nearly in ruins but finally they restored it in 1972, with the very welcome help of the Institute for American Universities. What remains today are the old church walls, well maintained, for the place has been transformed into an exhibition hall and cultural center. (An other part of St. Antoine church has been renovated into a movie theater for 'off the mainstream' films, Action Republique.)
The studio flat that we rent is on a floor that dates from the XVIIIth century, but actually shares its northern wall with the hospital church. The niche in the wall match the spaces between the pillars. No drugs allowed, of course, but fresh rye bread can be had for breakfast in the nearby boulangerie.