Page 49 - Studio International - January 1966

back to the fore with an exhibition called Le Musée their execution. 'I find my titles after I have executed
de l'Homme, suivi de la Pêche au Sc'eil Levant. a painting or a collage,' he said. 'If I had thought up a
As in his last exhibition, Max Ernst has given the title in advance then it would indicate that I had a
most enigmatic titles to his paintings, sculpture, premeditated notion, and that would make it a copy,
collages and assemblages. His highly imaginative so to speak. If there were a preconceived idea in my
compositions leave the average spectator in a state mind, then there would be no need for me to make a
Max Ernst of wonder and bewilderment, and the catalogue gives note of it, for I believe in spontaneous painting. In
La Pêche au Soleil Levant 1965 no logical explanation of their meaning. I asked him other words, I think of painting in terms of writing.
Collage and painting on wood
Galerie lolas whether he gave his compositions titles before or after Once I start working on a canvas the image of what
was vague before starts to become clearer and,
gradually, my writing on the canvas becomes painting'.
Another new gallery has just opened on the Left
Bank, Galerie Lutèce, 13 Rue Guenegaud. Wall space
is limited, but the gallery stores the work of a great
number of works by both well-known and lesser-
known artists, mostly in the non-figurative fields. The
aim of the directors, Mr Mayer and Monsieur Michelin,
is to interest a new generation in collecting, and to put
original drawings, oils on paper, etc., within the reach
of a larger public. Their first show, for example, included
works priced at from 300 to 5,000 francs by artists
ranging from talented newcomers to international
veterans such as Man Ray.

Finally, an intriguing exhibition of drawings by Alastair
(who claims to have Russian, Spanish and English
blood in his veins, but who lives in Germany) at the
Galerie Motte. His very fine technique, in both drawings
and water-colours, is most original and personal. The
only other artist to whom his finesse and illustrative
mannerism can be compared is Aubrey Beardsley. n

Above
Alastair Man Ray
Les Reitres de Wallenstein 1960 Needle and Thread 1937
Pen-and-ink and water-colour Pen-and-ink drawing,
drawing an illustration to Paul Eluard's
Galerie La Motte poems of 1937 Les Mains Libres
Galerie Lutèce
39