Fauvism [antikvár]

Sometimes very little is needed, not for an artistic movement to be born, but for it to get its name. We speak of 'fauvism' today simply because at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905 the art critic Louis Vauxcelles was struck by the effect created by a Torso of a Child by the sculptor Albert Marque which stood in the centre of a room filled with paintings by Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Friesz, Manguin, Valtat, Jean Puy and others. The torso was treated in the manner of the great Florentine sculptors, while most of the paintings were a riot of primary colours. 'The purity of this bust,' wrote Vauxcelles in Gil Bias (17 October 1905), 'comes as a surprise in the midst of the orgy of pure colours : it is Donatello among the wild beasts (Donatella che^i les fauves).'' And so the word 'fauve' found its way into the vocabulary of criticism and into the history of art. Thus there is nothing scientific about the term 'fauvism', but use has charged it with meaning and it now defines one of the most important artistic movements of the twentieth century. The importance is due to two things : first to the quality of the works, the number of exhilarating canvases given us by the fauves, and secondly to their influence, which can be seen in the works of numerous contemporary painters. However, the movement was short-lived, and it never achieved the cohesion of the impressionist or nahi movements. Its leaders knew each other, and some of them were friends; but they did not form what one might call a school. The first encounters between future fauves probably took place in 1892. It was in that year that Matisse and Marquet met at evening classes at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and formed a friendship which was to last throughout their lives. Continuing their studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, they met again in Gustave Moreau's studio, which Matisse entered in 1895 and Marquet in 1898. In fact Moreau's studio played a role in the history of fauvism which deserves special mention. Not only did it house two other painters who 11