Page 57 - Studio International - May 1965

Paris Commentary

pastels which are a little acid and 'technicolour'. The ink or of colour bursting on the paper or the canvas to
emotion has become finer. Less concerned with be necessary, on top of that. to construct, to interpret,
harmony and gradations. totally different in its spirit. to organise. in short. to ·work'. (This is the reason).
and of a different influence within the evolution of From there stems the taste of Wols for the most intimate
painting. the poetical and crisp willingness of Wols has and the least opaque techniques-ink, drawing, water­
made an impression up to an obsession on a whole colour, divagations of the pen. the pencil. the water in
generation of 'informals'. real or not. There is no need sizes voluntarily modest. 'The vision of the inside'
here to introduce Wols: it has been done well before. writes Jean-Paul Sartre, 'will exteriorise itself on a

Bernard S�by There is no more today a friend of modern art who "very small page" by an imperceptible agitation of the
Gouache 1964
32¼ X 39} in. ignores the aesthetic, both disenchanted and elevated. fingers-an imaginary thing touches the surface of
Galerie L'Oeil always controlled to the last line, to the smallest touch the paper: it is the manner of being of a cryptogame.
of colour of the one who wrote: 'In each moment. in of a passion of Wols. of the world indiscernable'.
each thing. eternity is there'. Our aim is only to under­ Such an aesthetic a little elaborated could have led
line the emotion which clings to the last message of not only to informal but to unformed. But Wols had
Wols. and which emanated from the few canvases, the enough richness and interior tension to sublimate this
drawings and the water colours put together. in world of larvae, weightless. immediate, where he has
homage to his memory: Galerie Alexandre lolas. established his art and soaked the slightest thing with
For Wols, there is no work of art: eternity and mystery gravity. This is what makes him great and how he
are too present in the smallest spot, in every element of touches us. ■
231