Black Images in European Art: Musée des Années 30

When I first saw the Charles Cordier busts of an African man and a Caribbean woman at the Musée d'Orsay, I thought I might never again see such noble and faithful "ethnographic" works.

Nègre de Soudan and La Capresse
Charles Cordier
Marble, onyx, and bronze
Musée d'Orsay
© Discover Paris!
At the Musée des Années 30 in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, I was amazed to find dozens of them!

The museum was founded in 1939 and was originally located at City Hall. In 1998, it moved into 3,000 m² of exhibition space at the Espace Paul Landowski.

Espace Paul Landowski
© Discover Paris!

Musée des Années 30 - Entrance
© Discover Paris!
While there are works portraying blacks on each floor of the museum,

La Sièste, 1934
Auguste Clergeau
Oil on canvas
Ruhlmann Furniture display, fourth floor
© Discover Paris!
including a small representation of Josephine Baker (second floor),

Joséphine Baker, 1936
Sebastien Tamari
Plaster
© Discover Paris!
the majority of the paintings and sculptures of this genre are found on the third floor.

Here, almost half of the display space is devoted to "colonial art."

Information panels (in French) provide background information on "orientalism" and the early 20th-century scientific/ethnographic missions in Africa, Central Asia, and China. Paintings and sculptures by dozens of artists are displayed. Several of these were originally exhibited at the former Museum for African and Oceanic Art in Paris.

Below are photos of some of the works found here. I found the sculptures to be particularly magnificent.

Jeune Somalien, 1936
Antoine Lyée de Belleau
Oil on canvas
© Discover Paris!

Rythme Africain, 1951
Evariste Jonchere
Patina on Plaster
© Discover Paris!

Chef Manzinga, 1925
Alexandre Iacovleff
Sanguine, pastel on paper
© Discover Paris!

Jeune fille Guéré, ca. 1940
Pierre Meauze
Bronze
© Discover Paris!
The collection includes two paintings by Emile Bernard, the French Post-Impressionist painter who mentored Loïs Mailou Jones.

Etude de Mulâtresse, 1895
Emile Bernard
Oil on canvas
© Discover Paris!

Femme accroupi, 1895 (detail)
Emile Bernard
Oil on canvas
© Discover Paris!
Boulogne-Billancourt is easily accessible from Paris via metro.  The Musée des Années 30 is well worth a visit to this western suburb!

To access an online brochure on the museum (in French and English), click HERE.

Musée des Années 30
Espace Landowski
28, avenue André-Morizet
92100 Boulogne-Billancourt
Telephone : 01 55 18 46 42
Metro : Marcel-Sembat (Line 9), Boulogne-Jean-Jaurès (Line 10)

Opening hours:
Tuesday through Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM (ticket office closes at 5:15 PM)

Entry fee: 6.50 euros; reduced rate for seniors: 4.50 euros

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The Female Faces of Africa

The female figure has always been used in the artistic portrayal of the continents.

Here are a few images of allegories of Africa that I have seen during my years in Paris (captions indicate locations).

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
1, rue de Sully
75004 Paris
© Discover Paris!

L'Afrique (head only)
Musée d'Orsay
1, rue de la Légion d'Honneur
75007 Paris
© Discover Paris!

U. S. Ambassador's Residence
41, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
© Discover Paris!

Les Quatres Parties du Monde
Jardin des grands explorateurs Marco Polo et Cavelier-de-la-Salle
avenue de l’Observatoire
75006 Paris
© Discover Paris!

Société Générale
6, rue de Sèvres
75006 Paris
© Discover Paris!

Cité Nationale de l'Histoire d'Immigration
293 Avenue Daumesnil
75012 Paris
© Discover Paris!
If you know of others, please share them in the comment box below!

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Black Paris Profiles™:Velma Bury – Part 2

Last week, you learned about Velma's arrival in the south of France and how she and her late husband Pol established their home in Paris. This week, I present Velma's activities as professor and art enthusiast, and talk of her appreciations of living in Paris.

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Velma at home
© Discover Paris!
Among her many activities as an art enthusiast, Velma taught a course at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts for ten years. Because she knew that students would need to communicate in English for the year abroad that they were required to complete for graduation, she created a formal training course on English vocabulary in relation to fine arts and presented it to the school’s director. Her course began somewhat less than auspiciously due to some anti-American sentiment among the faculty, but it rapidly grew in popularity and became one of the most sought-after classes at the institute.

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Black Paris Profiles™:Velma Bury – Part 1

Velma Bury, the grande dame of African-American Paris, has lived in the City of Light for over 40 years. A politically-active art aficionado and retired professor, she now runs Les Boules et Les Cubes, the company that handles the estate of her late husband, Pol Bury. Velma has personally witnessed the metamorphosis of the Paris art world, the city’s African-American population, and her beloved Montparnasse. She serves as advisor to Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, the French non-profit association that placed a tombstone on artist Beauford Delaney’s previously unmarked grave in 2010. As president of Les Amis, it is my great pleasure to bring you Velma’s story!

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Velma at her Montparnasse home
© Discover Paris!
Velma left her home in New York and her activities in the civil rights movement to permanently relocate to France in 1968 with her soon-to-be husband, Belgian sculptor Pol Bury. She and Pol booked passage on an Italian ocean liner and sailed to Cannes. Velma recalls that the ship was quite sumptuous and she has vivid memories of the four-day journey.

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France's African Face in Bobigny

Bobigny's Marianne
© Discover Paris!

The town of Bobigny, which borders Paris to the northeast, is the préfecture (capital) of the department Seine-Saint-Denis. According to Jean-Jacques Brilland, director of the Bobigny tourist office, the identity of the city is based on three concepts:

Ville Monde – A city of the world, Bobigny is proud of its diverse population (over 100 ethnicities at present).

Ville Coeur – Bobigny, the heart of Seine-Saint-Denis, is a city of social solidarity.

Ville par Tous, pour Tous – A city by everyone, for everyone, Bobigny calls upon its citizens to speak up and be heard, always keeping the common good in mind.

The ultimate expression of this inclusiveness can be found in the Salle des Mariages (marriage hall) at the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). Entirely decorated by artist Hervé Di Rosa, founder of the art modeste movement, it is a testimony to the principle of direct democracy – the decisions regarding the reconstruction and decoration of the room were made after direct consultation with the citizens of the city. The elements that make up the room bear witness to the incredible diversity that has defined Bobigny since the 19th century.

Salle des Mariages at Bobigny
© Discover Paris!
The hearts that lovers carve on trees inspired Di Rosa to design the heart-shaped seats for the room. He created special chairs for the bride and groom, complete with men’s and women’s shoes for the legs. The backs are decorated with smiling faces. The top of the bride’s chair is crowned with a wire heart, representing the French expression coup de coeur, and the groom’s chair is topped by lightning bolts, representing the French expression coup de foudre. Both translate into English as “lovestruck.”

A second pair of these chairs is available to accommodate celebrations for same-sex couples. The chairs were created in Miami, where the artist had a studio for a period of time.

The most remarkable work in the room is Di Rosa’s sculpture of La Marianne, an emblem of France that has been used to represent the spirit of the Republic since the late 18th century. Although she has traditionally been depicted as a white woman, Di Rosa chose to represent Marianne as an African figure. Indeed, he engaged masters of the lost wax-casting technique in the town of Foumban, Cameroon to create the sculpture.

Bobigny's Marianne has the breasts and protruding belly (representing prosperity and generosity) that are characteristic of African statuary of women. She has Negroid facial features and Di Rosa's signature touch of two sets of eyes – one that gazes down upon the happy couple at the moment of their marriage, the other off into the distance, symbolizing eternity – the ideal length of the couple’s union. Marianne does wear the traditional Phrygien bonnet, which in this case represents the freedom of French-owned slaves at the time of the Revolution.

Marianne de Foumban
© Discover Paris!
The sculpture is nestled in a niche that is painted white and intentionally located between a long blue wall to the left and a long red wall to the right. Together, the colors represent Le Tricolore (the French flag). When the bride and groom stand up to take their vows, they stand before the mayor's table (heart-shaped; designed by Di Rosa), the flag, and Marianne.

Why an African Marianne? Di Rosa responds to this question as follows:

It is not written anywhere that Marianne is blond with blue eyes! For me, Marianne is love, the world, the Republic - so why not an African?

Di Rosa also acknowledged the pervasion of American-style hip-hop graffiti in Bobigny by installing several floor-to-ceiling panels decorated in this art form. One panel displays the Chinese hieroglyphic that represents love and another bears the word boboche, a term of affection for the city. These works created by four artists, three of whom are local residents.

Graffiti in the Salle des Mariages
© Discover Paris!
At the end of the marriage ceremony, the bride and groom select one of six original, signed and numbered serigraphs to take home as a memento of their union. (Two of them are shown below.) The artists who contributed these works are Hervé Di Rosa (France), François Boisrond (France), Rachid Koraichi (Algeria), Ricardo Mosner (Argentina), William Wilson (France/Togo-Benin) et Maître Akeji (Japan).

Serigraphie
(2006) William Wilson
© Discover Paris!

Serigraphie
(2006) Ricardo Mosner
© Discover Paris!
The Salle des Mariages was inaugurated on May 12, 2006.

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Black Paris Profiles™: Laurence Choko

Laurence Choko is the owner of Galerie Intemporel, a delightful space near the Centre Pompidou that features the works of African and African Diaspora artists. I first heard of her and her gallery when I began the fundraising effort for Beauford Delaney’s tombstone in 2010. In getting to know her, I discovered her fervor for promoting Diaspora artists. Laurence was pleased to grant me an interview for Black Paris Profiles™, and I am equally pleased to share what I learned from her below.

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Laurence Choko
© Morgan Roppers

Laurence Choko was born in Fort de France, Martinique. She spent her childhood and adolescence in Le Havre, and subsequently moved to Paris to study art. She returned to Martinique in her twenties, and discovered the art of the Caribbean at that time. In particular, she credits “the spontaneity of the artistic universe of Haïti” for helping her to understand Western art better. As a result, she began to collect art and decided to represent artists who had little visibility in Europe. In fact, her decision to represent these artists stemmed directly from the fact that they were not known in Europe.

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Black Paris Profiles™ is now available on Kindle.  Only excerpts are available on this blog.

To get your copy of Black Paris Profiles™, click HERE.

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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.