‘landscape (the grasshopper)’

mixed media on board
310mm x 310mm
Kim Pieters 2018

from ‘the guitar lesson’ series
seven paintings

…Some days after moving in I had gone to see Max Jacob in Montmartre, at the café La Savoyarde, where he had his sessions. It was there that I met André Masson for the first time. He told me that he had just rented a studio at 45 rue Blomet. We were going to be neighbours, we were going to become and to remain friends to this day. Our studios were next door, and we each could hear everything that went on in the other’s. His was very noisy and mine was very quiet. Masson lived with his wife Odette and his little girl Lili in indescribable chaos and filth. I had a mania for order and cleanliness. The canvases were put away, the brushes cleaned and I would polish the parquet with wax. The studio was as impeccable as a ships cabin. I lived alone with absolutely nothing, but when I went out I would wear a monocle and white spats. I liked to leave my monastic cell for the unbelievable chaos of papers, bottles, canvases, books and domestic objects that peopled the studio next door. I liked little Lili, I brought her sweets and made her sit on my knee. We would talk and drink, we would listen to music…

Joan Miró ‘Souvenir de la rue Blomet’
Unpublished memoir, transcribed by Jacques Dupin, 1977

from
‘I’m going to smash their guitar’ Joan Miró 1917-1934
catalogue to the exhibition “La Naissance du Mode“
(Birth of the World)
in Galerie 1,Centre Pompidou from 3 March to 28th June.
Paris.France.2004.

…Aragon came to see us sometimes but more often we went to find him in a chic joint in Montmartre, Aux Zelis, I think, where his dandy outfits and coloured socks were a sensation.

As for Breton and Éluard, they came down rarely from their hill, and only came to see our paintings. My ‘Farm’ and my still lifes never interested them. They realised my existence only when I liberated my painting to poetry and dream with ‘Ploughed Land’, ‘Harlequin’s Carnival’ and the rest. We would go ritually to attend meetings of the Surrealist group, which were held at midday at Le Cyrano in place Blanche. Masson took part in the discussions, for the most part I stayed silent…

Joan Miró ‘Souvenir de la rue Blomet’
Unpublished memoir, transcribed by Jacques Dupin, 1977

from
‘I’m going to smash their guitar’ Joan Miró 1917-1934
catalogue to the exhibition “La Naissance du Mode“
(Birth of the World)
in Galerie 1,Centre Pompidou from 3 March to 28th June.
Paris.France.2004.