POETRY, LOVE AND LIBERTY - Observatoire

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Practical Information
Palais Lumière Evian (quai Albert-Besson)
Open every day from 10 am to 7 pm (from 2 pm to 7 pm on Mondays)
Open Monday 1 April (Easter), Wednesday 1 May, Wednesday 8 May, Thursday 9 May (Ascension
Day) and Monday 20 May(Pentecost).
Tel.: +33 (0) 4 50 83 15 90 www.ville-evian.fr
Curators: the Town of Saint-Denis, the Museum of Art and History, Sylvie Gonzalez,
the Chief Curator of Heritage and Director.
• General public
- Full price: € 10.
- Tours with audio-guides (French and English): € 4 plus
the entrance fee;
- Individual guided tours every day at 2.30 pm: € 4 plus
the entrance fee.
Themed tours (see the details in: “Beyond the exhibition”).
• Young people/families
- Free for children under 10;
- Reduced price: € 8 for young people aged 10 to 16,
students and large families;
- Guided tours for families: discovery trail for children
under 10 accompanied by their parents, every Wednesday
at 4 pm.
- “the Palais Lumière game”: a booklet guiding visitors
round the exhibition playfully, available at the welcome
desk.
- Educational workshops (see the details in: “Beyond the
exhibition”).
Groups
- Reduced price: € 8 (for groups of at least 10 people);
- Guided tours booked in advance: + 33 (0) 4 50 83 10 19/
courrier@ville-evian.fr, € 55 per group of 10 to 25 people,
plus the entrance fee.
At the Palais Lumière
• 15 June - 22 September
Legends of the Seas
The art of travel on board liners
ENTRANCE FEES
Coming up in 2013
Pupils/teachers
- Free for school groups;
- Guided tours booked in advance: +33 (0) 4 50 83 10 19/
courrier@ville-evian.fr, € 55 per group of 10 to 25 people;
- Teaching materials are available online at www.villeevian.fr
Concessions (upon presentation of written proof)
- Free for members of UDOTSI, Léman sans frontière
cardholders and journalists;
- Reduced price: € 8 for job-seekers, disabled visitors,
C.E. or C.N.A.S. cardholders, associated hotels and holiday
accommodation groups, media library and swimming
pool members
- 50% off entry price on presentation of a “Ville d’Evian”
family card (full or reduced price);
- Your ticket offers a 30% discount on entry to exhibitions
being held at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny.
• Exhibition catalogue on sale at the welcome desk: € 35
Box office at the entrance of the exhibition.
Tickets on sale in the FNAC sales outlets and on
www.fnac.com
Discover the Palais Lumière Evian on
At the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny
• 28 June - 24 November
Modigliani and the School of Paris, in partnership with
the Pompidou Centre
Fernand Léger, Paul Éluard, 1947, courtesy of the Museum of Art and History, Saint-Denis. Photograph: Irène Andréani © ADAGP, Paris 2012.
Sunday 3 February
• Concert by the professors of Evian School of
Music, in association with the exhibition.
- “Two songs” of Francis Poulenc on poems by
Paul Eluard, voice and piano;
- “Caprilena” by Jacques Ibert, for solo violin;
- “Scaramouche” by Darius Milhaud, for saxophone
and piano;
- “Allegro Appassionato” by Camille Saint-Saëns
for cello and piano;
- “Gymnopedie” by Erik Satie for piano;
- “Sonata for oboe and piano” by Camille
Saint-Saëns.
In the Auditorium of the Palais Lumière. 6.30 pm. Free
entrance.
Friday 15 February
• “Liberty of the Ages” concert/show by piano
soloist Vittorio Forte. Pieces include
- F. Couperin’s “Pieces for Harpsichord”,
- F. Chopin’s “Mazurkas”,
- G. Martucci “Fantasy on “La Forca del destino””
- G. Gershwin’s “Songs” & “Rhapsody in Blue”.
At the Palais Lumière. 8 pm (one hour without an interval).
€ 15 / € 13 (reduced price) including a visit to the exhibition.
Box office at the entrance of the exhibition.
• Themed tours
- Friday 8*, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 March:
“Women, the muse and Éluard”
The female figures featured in the anthologies and
their relationships with the artist;
- Thursday 21 March: “Éluard, the Surrealist poet”
The artist as interpreted through free and avantgarde
poetry;
- From Wednesday 8 to Sunday 12 May:
“Éluard, the poet of peace”
Éluard’s commitment during the 1930s and the
Second World War.
4 pm. € 4 plus the entrance fee.
*Friday 8 March, Women’s Day.
Reduced price entry/ € 8, for women who take part in the tours.
BEYOND THE EXHIBITION
• Art history classes / conferences, given by Virginie
Tillier, Doctor of the History of Art. Programme:
- Monday 11 February: “Dadaism and
Surrealism during the European Avant-Garde
movements (1905-1935)”;
- Monday 11 March: “Dadaism: visual and
literary art”;
- Monday 8 April: “Surrealism: artists, actions,
visual and literary art”;
- Monday 6 May: “Paul Éluard, poet and art
enthusiast: the Surrealist artist”;
- Monday 13 May: Reading of Éluard’s poetry
in two voices.
At the Palais Lumière. 8 pm. (Reservations are required and
can be made at the welcome desk). € 8 per session; € 30 for
the series of 5 conferences.
From Saturday 2 March to Saturday 11 May
• Educational workshops for children and
teenagers:
- Saturday 2 March: “Collage portrait”
(for 6 to 10 year-olds)
- Saturday 9 March: “I had a dream”
(for 12 - 16 year-olds)
- Saturday 30 March: “Surrealism”
(for 6 to 10 year-olds)
- Saturday 27 April: “I had a dream”
(for 8 - 12 year-olds)
- Saturday 11 May: “Pictures and liberty”
(for 8 to 12 year-olds)
At the Palais Lumière. 10 am-12 noon Educational workshops,
preceded by a short visit to the exhibition (30 mins)
(Reservations are required and can be made at the welcome
desk). € 5 per child per workshop.
• Adult workshops:
- Saturday 16 March and 20 April: “Surrealism”
At the Palais Lumière. 10 am-12 noon. Educational workshops,
preceded by a short visit to the exhibition (30 mins) (Reservations
are required and can be made at the welcome desk). € 13
per person per workshop, including entry to the exhibition.
• Family workshop:
- Saturday 4 May: “Collage portrait”
(for 6 year-olds and over)
At the Palais Lumière. 10 am-12 noon Educational workshop,
preceded by a short visit to the exhibition (30 mins)
(Reservations are required and can be made at the welcome
desk). € 5 per child per workshop and € 8 for each accompanying
parent, including entry to the exhibition.
Additional information available by calling + 33 (0) 450 83 15 90.
André Beaudin, Dominique Eluard, 1950. Encre de Chine
sur papier, musée d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Cliché
Irène Andréani © ADAGP, Paris 2012.
Max Ernst, La Ville entière (1935-1936). Gouache sur papier et empreintes de
rouleaux de broderie. musée d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Cliché : Irène Andréani.
André Beaudin, Paul Eluard, 1947. Bronze, musée d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis.
Cliché Irène Andréani © ADAGP, Paris 2012.
Nusch Eluard, André Breton, Greta Knutson, Valentine
Hugo, Cadavre exquis (1930). Pastel sur papier. musée
d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Cliché : Irène Andréani.
Paul Eluard
POETRY, LOVE AND LIBERTY
Picasso
Breton
Ernst
Dali
Arp
De Chirico
Cocteau
Léger
Toyen
Dora Maar
Giacometti
Man Ray
Magritte
Apel les Fenosa
Izis
Brassaï...
2 February
26 May 2013
Palais Lumière
Evian

Born just before the turn of the 20 th century,
Paul Eluard (1895-1952) is known as the
great poet of love and of peace. He was also
a patron of the arts.
The exhibition Paul Éluard, Poetry, Love and
Liberty is composed of seven chapters that
invite visitors to learn about the poet and his
work through pictures, paintings, drawings,
engravings, official and personal photographs,
books and manuscripts, objects,
films and recordings. It presents a partial
view of the life and works of this great figure
of early-20 th -century poetry, whose commitments
and untimely death denied him the
honours he deserved – he refused the Legion
of Honour – and from entering the hall of
fame. Each chapter offers a different perspective
on his work. Our aim is for each
visitor to be inspired by the original language
of poetry after visiting the exhibition.
From Grindel to Éluard. Born on 14
December, 1895 in Saint-Denis, France,
Eugène Émile Paul Grindel broke free from
his family when he met a young Russian
woman, Elena Diakonova, known simply as
Gala, at the Clavadel Sanatorium. He went
there at the age of 17, when a sudden onset
of illness forced him to interrupt his lacklustre
studies. He discovered poetry with Gala, who
was to cross war-torn Europe in 1917 to
marry him. Young Grindel was not destined to
follow in the footsteps of his father, an estate
agent. After self-publishing the anthology
Premiers poèmes (First Poems) in 1913, the
poet took on his maternal grandmother’s
surname, Éluard, for his subsequent works.
During the First World War, he served in the
army, where he wrote his Poèmes pour la
paix (Poems for Peace).
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky, dit), Paul Eluard et André Breton, vers 1930.Tirage argentique.
musée d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Cliché Irène Andréani © ADAGP, Paris 2012.
Surrealism. After the First World War, Éluard
was involved in the subversive movements of
Dadaism and Surrealism, of which he was an
active, loyal member. He forged solid friendships
with various other painters and writers
and produced many successful pieces in collaboration
with his friends. He was director of the
review Proverbe and his name featured at the
bottom of surrealist leaflets, in various reviews
and on the back of the Cadavres exquis
(Exquisite Corpses). He published around fifty
anthologies in the Interwar Period, many of
which were illustrated by his two closest friends,
Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso.
His painter friends. This beehive of collective
creativity is reflected in his collaborations with
the painters in his circle of friends. His collections
were illustrated by the greatest artists of
his time and he was very fond of their works. A
keen collector, he had particular tastes and
remained stubborn in his choices. On his
constant quest for enough money to support
his lifestyle as a travelling invalid, he swapped,
sold and exchanged all that he couldn’t keep in
his various apartments in the north of Paris. His
choices influenced his poetry. Written and
painted works were created in unison by the
two artists; images and words collided.
Primitive art. In 1931, the Paris Colonial
Exhibition provoked the rage of the Surrealists.
Like many of his friends, Éluard became
interested very early on in what he called primitive
art. As well as appreciating the aesthetic
aspect of these pieces, which he mostly bought
during short trips to Belgium, he trusted that
their resale would bring in enough money to live
off for a month or two. His activities were a
major factor in the diffusion of African, Oceanian
and Amerindian art amongst his friends.
Anonyme, Statuette, non daté, bois. musée d’art et
d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Cliché Irène Andréani.
Picasso, Spain and Guernica. Picasso was
undoubtedly the poet’s dearest friend. They
were united by their political views, not least
their shared opposition to the devastating bombing
of the town of Guernica by Franco.
Picasso’s famous painting was accompanied
by a poem by Paul Éluard. They were to remain
very close until Éluard’s death in 1952.
Éluard often wrote poems to accompany the
painter’s work. Picasso, meanwhile, illustrated
the poet’s collections. After the Second World
War, both artists stood as ambassadors for the
Communist Party and for the Peace Movement
under the symbol of the dove. The collection Le
Visage de la paix (The Face of Peace) is the
perhaps the most accomplished result of this
fraternal relationship.
A poet and a feminist. Éluard is the poet of
love. He celebrated women in very way: the
life partner, the temptress, the point of comparison
with himself. Each of his collections
focuses on his love for one or other of his
wives: Gala, his first love; his dear Nusch and
then Dominique, who assisted him in his political
role, are all honoured by the most beautiful
lines ever written in French. Surprisingly,
given the masculinity of the Surrealist movement,
his work also served as the preface for
several female painters and writers.
Liberty. A poet of love, Éluard was also the
poet of the Resistance. His poem Liberty
embodies the resistance of France to the
German occupation. Read in public in
Marseille, then scattered in thousands of
Pablo Picasso, Grand vase aux danseurs
et aux musiciens, 1950, terre rouge,
estampage sur matrice en platre. musée
d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis.
Crédit photo Irène Andréani
© Succession Picasso 2012.
Pablo Picasso, Nusch Eluard, 1941, huile
sur toile, Paris, MNAM Centre Pompidou
© Succession Picasso 2012.
copies all over France by R.A.F. planes, this
message of hope would revive enthusiasm
and galvanise the population. Éluard succeeded
in veiling the poem in mystery to assimilate
liberty with the narrator’s beloved.
Translated into more than ten languages, set
to music by Francis Poulenc, recited by generation
after generation of schoolchildren, and
reproduced in the form of an illustrated
tapestry, Liberty continues to be published
today for children to read.
Paul Eluard – Liberté, 1941, encre sur papier. musée d’art et d’histoire, Saint-Denis. Crédit photo Irène Andréani.