Page 46 - Studio International - May 1965

Henri Hayden From cubism to classicism

1 by Raymond Cogniat
The great creative periods are tyrannical. devouring;
Cubism was particularly so because it so totally,
brutally transfigured the 'real' and the vision that artists
had of it. that it made an annulment of the past and of
anything, in the future. which could relate to this past.
It brought glory to but a small number of its creators.
underestimating or forgetting the others and especially
those of its adepts who tried to escape its constraints.
Hayden underwent this hard experience and had to
pay by long years of enstrangement for his will of
independence. Yet he had played an active part in
this movement and had brought to it a contribution
of high quality, although he had not been one of its
first creators. such as Braque. Picasso or Leger.
Born in 1883. in Warsaw. Hayden followed simul­
taneously the courses of the Polytechnic School and
those of the Beaux Arts School of his natal city. His
vocation triumphed over hesitations towards 1 905 and
his arrival in Paris in 1907 well shows the passionate
interest which he brings to the aesthetic conflicts of
this ardent period where the ideas. out of which
Fauvism and Cubism have just been born. are con­
fronting each other. He is still too young in this fight
to have immediately taken sides without having
personally experienced the new formulas.
Moreover. Cubism itself is still in a theoretical and
embryonic stage; Hayden needs to follow in his turn
the stages of this initiation. He passes quite rapidly
through this period of personal experiences and
hesitations and. as soon as 1910-1911. one feels in
him. with evidence. the temptation to look for the great
synthesis and the structures of geometrical tendency
which. under the ·cezannienne· inspiration. will bring
this artist to a most orthodox cubism in the logic of an
adhesion lucid and intimately consented. Soon Hayden.
in fact. will participate actively in those audacious
manifestations by which some uncompromising artists
end in imposing their system on a public which at first
was rather reticent. It is evident. however. that for all
these artists gifted with a very characterised personality,
the cubist aesthetic. exaltant as it may be. contains in
counterpart constraints which most of them will finish
by finding hard to bear. The best. even of those who
created it. will only remain faithful to it on the surface
and provided they can model it to their needs. which
is a way of recanting as evident as pure and simple
abandonment.
Hayden could not escape this rule which is the con­
dition of its evolution. To escape from the restrictions
of the system. round about 1922. he turns very
categorically towards representation more confo1·ming
to the material truth of the subJect. without even uti I isi ng
the Cezannienne deformities which he was using ten
years before. He broaches this new period relying on
what he acquired during his preceding experiences
with a sense of construction which puts a certain
order in his compositions. but bringing with it a great
deal of suppleness in expression without falling into
realism. One can see then his concern to respest. by
1 simplifying them. the shades of the real world and the
Henri Hayden
Bouteille et Gateaux 1963 harmonies of nature. His landscapes. his still-lives. his
18 X 13 in. portraits. express primarily a sensitiveness. a poetic
2 emotion. which however does not exclude his will to
Henri Hayden dominate the theme. In this formula. he certainly
Pavsage en Rouge 1964
19j X 25) in. appears to us nearer to Oerain than to Picasso. and this
3 attitude well shows that he participates in the anguishes
Henri Hayden of his time rocked between contradictory propositions.
Vue Sur La Fert:J Sous Jouarre 1963
21 J x 2s:: in. During some years. he continues his work in a relaxed
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