Stairmaster
Newsletter October 16, 2022
Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. This week began well, I met up with Carol of
www.ParisBreakfasts.blogspot.fr. She has been so generous with her comments on my posts and I love her watercolors. And I also have a pair of red glasses. We met not far from her place, at Berthillon, on the Île St. Louis. There was a line of people waiting to get an ice cream cone. There were not a line of people waiting to sit in Bertillon’s salon de thé (Figure 1) I had a brownie, Carol had a slice of cheesecake. The ambiance was lovely, the company was congenial, the brownie was insanely delicious. (Figure 2) It was more like a large square of the best fudge you have ever eaten. Intense, dark chocolate with a hint of coffee to bring out the richness. I was able to eat about 1/5 of it. Doggy bag, not a problem. Getting the waiter to speak French, impossible.
Figure 1. Berthillon, on a quiet day - there’s usually a line on the right for ice cream. But as I found out last week, there’s not a line to get into the salon de thé, on the left
Figure 2. Day 1 of my brownie at. Berthillon, I got to know and admire this brownie during the next week that we were together!
I savored slices of that brownie for the next five days. Which Carol couldn’t quite believe when I told her. Until I explained how I became the portion control princess, now queen. My mother, who always had a weight problem tried to make sure that I would not have the same problem. This is how she did it. Anytime we ate together, when she decided that I had eaten enough, (I’m not sure how she determined it), she would just put her hand on mine to keep it from reaching my mouth with whatever superfluous tidbit I had in it. I guess it could have pushed me into becoming bulimic or anorexic but instead it made me, as I mentioned above, the portion control princess.
Another Sunday, another American brunch. This time a little place called Clint (Clint Eastwood, I suppose) not far from Père Lachaise. There is nothing I hate more than pre-syruped pancakes. (Figure 3) So, unless you don’t mind your bacon drowning in syrup or you remember to ask for your syrup on the side, I would pass if I were you.
Figure 3. Pancakes and bacon (and an egg, too!) drowning in syrup at Clint’s
But that misadventure was followed by a trip to Montmartre, unfortunately without an appetite. Unfortunately because it was the last day of the annual vendange fete. (Figure 4) The square around Sacré Coeur was packed with food stalls. My son would have been delirious. He has never encountered a food stall or a food truck that he didn’t love. There were miles of sausages and an alarming number of cheeses to choose from. There was champagne by the glass, which you buy, too. And oysters by the dozens, tray not included. (Figures 5, 6) And a cart with a short, chubby Donald Trump, ready to fist bump anyone who happened by. (Figure 6a) The funicular was too busy but the steps weren’t. They were decorated this year by an artist named Ojan and they made walking up almost enjoyable. (Figures 7, 8)
Figure 4. Fête des Vendanges, Montmartre on a beautiful day in Paris
Figure 5. Cheeses on display at Fete de Vendanges, Montmartre
Figure 6. Oysters, opened and sold directly by the producer
Figure 6a. Trump waiting to fist bump
Figure 7. A few (a very few) of the many (a lot) steps up to Sacre Coeur, Montmartre
Figure 8. The Montmartre steps and me
Later in the week, I went to the Musée d’Orsay to see the Munch exhibition, which I’ll tell you about soon. While I was there I saw a surprising exhibition by a contemporary artist, Kehinde Wiley. The artist who painted Barack Obama’s official portrait. (Figure 9) I say surprising because the Musée d’Orsay is a modern museum, not a contemporary one. In the long, processional space, filled with statues of classical and Biblical heroes and martyrs and women whose sensuous nudity (Figure 10) is reason enough for their presence, are two works by Wiley, a statue of a recumbent figure called ‘The Young Tarantine (Mamadou Gueye)’ (Figure 11) and just across from it, a painting of a recumbent figure, Woman Bitten By A Serpent. (Figure 12) Are they sleeping? No, they are dead. I know because the artistic convention for showing a recumbent figure sleeping is for one arm to be above and behind the head. (Figure 13).
Figure 9. Barack Obama, Kehinde Wiley, 2018
Figure 10. Musée d’Orsay, sculpture corridor
Figure 11. The Young Tarantine (Mamadou Gueye, Kehinde Wiley, 2008
Figure 12. Woman Bitten By A Serpent Kehinde Wiley, 2022
Figure 13. Sleeping Venus, Giorgione
Both painting and sculpture were inspired by paintings like Hans Holbein, The Dead Christ in the Tomb. (Figure 14) But rather than a classical hero or a Christian martyr, Wiley has immortalized and monumentalized anonymous black people. But what about the titles. Wiley borrowed their names from two 19th century statues of nude women, both in the museum’s permanent collection and both displayed where Wiley’s two works temporarily are. Woman Bitten by a Serpent by Auguste Clésinger (1847), (Figure 15) and The Young Tarantine by Alexandre Schoenewerk (1871). (Figure 16) Nude women whose poses are a celebration of sensuality. Surely Wiley didn’t choose the names as a joke, but as social commentary.
Figure 14. The Dead Christ in the Tomb, Hans Holbein
Figure 15. Woman Bitten by a Serpent, Auguste Clésinger , 1847.
Figure 16. The Young Tarantine, Alexandre Schoenewerk, 1871
Nearby is Gustave Courbet’s Burial at Ornans, painted 170 years ago (Figure 17). The enterrement of an insignificant person (the artist’s uncle) on a scale that had previously been reserved for people of rank and wealth. Wiley takes it farther. According to Christophe Leribault, president of the Musées d’Orsay, “While playing on the stereotypes of Western painting and sculpture, Kehinde Wiley conveys a current message on the violence of contemporary society…” Wiley said, ”The archeology that I unearth in this exhibition is the specter of police violence and state control over the bodies of young people of color…”
Figure 17. Burial at Ornans, Gustave Courbet, 1848
The setting is serene, at odds with the idea of police brutality. According to the artist, “ Flowers too have been considered peripheral, invisible or just decorative, and they too want to be on the front of the stage. So they insist, the same way we might see black bodies as invasive …” Which is a pretty fascinating explanation.
The decorative background with historic references and a contemporary context, remind me of the photographs of Victor Omar Diop, (Figure 18) about whom I have written before. Because just as Diop refers to sports in one of his most important series of photographs, Wiley’s contemporary spin is a Louis Vuitton logo teeshirt.
Figure 18. Self Portrait, Victor Oma Diop. Instead of flowers and a LV logo shirt, Diop goes for a flower patterned background and drapery. Diop’s contemporary reference is the soccer ball he holds.
Finally, on a lighter note. Cookies. I’m on a cookie quest these days. It began at the Ritz, with the cookie by François Perret that Dorie Greenspan made famous last Christmas. And that I have made several times, with terrific results. So Ginevra and I were really looking forward to tasting Dorie’s inspiration. The original Ritz cookie was a disappointment. Mine were way better, way bigger and way, way cheaper. But since then I haven’t been déçu. I bought a Yann Couvreur cookie at the Gare Montparnasse when I was heading to the Dordogne at the end of September. It was a hazelnut cookie, with hazelnut dough, roasted and crushed hazelnuts, crushed milk chocolate and fleur de sel. De rigueur these days for anything sweet to have a little shower of fleur de sel on it (so easy to get in French supermarkets). The Couvreur cookie was rich and delicious and if you read what I wrote above, you won’t be surprised that it took me a few days to eat it.
More recently, I’ve been getting my cookies at Utopie, (Figure 19) a few blocks from my place. They sell two kinds of cookies, both described as being made with Fleur de Sel Cookie Dough. One has Dark Chocolate Chunks and Almond Chips, the other has Milk Chocolate Chunks and Pecan Chips. They are both delicious. A little less sophisticated than Yann Couvreur’s cookie, but a little bigger and a little less expensive, too. My plan, until I leave for San Francisco next month, is to concentrate on cookies and to return to Bertillon to try their cheesecake and tarte tatin. And I am definitely going to get that brownie again. I’ve got my work cut out for me …
Figure 19. Cookies from Utopie, plus three black sesame Madelines (don’t ask).
Gros Bisous, Dr. B.
Readers’ comments, for which I am truly grateful.
Thanks for the Update Dr. B. I am in same box with you as to opera....and I want the traditional costumes too. ...same with ballet...oh well. As to the Brunch place, it is on my list....and sounded good. I made a similar one this weekend, just for me and my Teddy Bears ! Most appreciative, Jacquelyn G, N. California.
My dear Beverly, I just finished reading your blog and I was pleased to see your description of your evening at the opera. Perhaps you can get a discounted ticket for the Magic Flute/ La Flûte Enchantée. I hear that this production très réussite, except for the modern costumes. On my side, I just saw Idomeneo, Mozart’s first opera. A sacrifice theme that reminds of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. I was thinking of you since the main role was attributed to a mezzo-soprano. I read in the program that Mozart wrote it initially for a tenor, but at rehearsal the tenor was so bad, he changed it a woman. Back to your blog : I think that your diversion into music will be appreciated by your readers. Best, José-Francis, New York & Paris