The Escape – 23/03/2024

For what feels like the first time since Le Baby’s arrival in our lives, P. And I got a day off. Together. At the same time AND in the same place. We got a full 7 hours of doing exactly what we wanted and it was GLORIOUS. It was also in Paris which made it even more delectable.

Amongst other things we went to a MUSEUM. Did I mention we went together ? I mean, as a couple ? Possibly the best day of 2024 so far. At the very least, in the top 5.

So we went to the Musée D’Orsay and saw the exhibit featuring the work of Nathanaelle Herbelin and I have to say, it was refreshing. 

40 years after the Guérilla Girl’s LEGENDARY poster, it feels like museums and the art world in general are making teeny tiny tentative steps in the right direction. A museum such as the Musée d’Orsay putting in the spotlight a YOUNG COMTEMPORARY WOMAN ARTIST shouldn’t feel this incredible/exceptional and yet… This brings to three the number of exhibits celebrating exclusively female artists that I have had the pleasure of visiting (the other two were Rosa Bonheur at the Musée des Beaux Arts of Bordeaux in 2022 and Germaine Richier at the Centre Pompidou in 2023).

These are the numbers available on the French government website concerning the combined catalogs of all the collections of French museums : female artists represent 6,6% of the entire data base with 4% of the art works. Stats du Ministère de la Culture

Before female emancipation, female artists that painted for a living were few and far between but today ?! What’s the excuse ?

I’ve been reading the work of one Maeva Regnaud who worked on the subject for her masters thesis in Public Policy and she explains that (Etat des lieux de la valorisation des artistes femmes dans les pratiques muséales françaises) :

• 1) Researchers in Art History were very reluctant to take into consideration gender bias in France for the longest time which means there’s a lot of catching up to do on the subject

• 2) Though today, a significant number of exhibits are dedicated to women, on the whole, museums in France are still not investing or collecting female artists work. Museums have yet to be recognized as non neutral, normative and political spaces. If/When that happens along with giving the institution the means to evolve, then we might see a glimmer of light at the end of the patriarchal tunnel.

Back to Nathanaëlle Herbelin – Être ici est une splendeur

The fact that Nathanaëlle Herbelin’s work is good AND carries a message that is spot on is just the cherry on top.

Her work is, of her own admission, inspired by the Nabis, artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and Felix Valloton. It shows in her depictions of ordinary day to day life, regular people and still lifes. I found the color compositions beautiful and soothing.

And so many more. All the paintings put together left me with a sense of modernity, freshness and warmth at the same time. That is, in terms of color composition, my « take ». Fresh interiors and warm bodies but mostly the collection is a bridge between the universal subjects of yesterday and today. Spoiler alert : they’re the same.

The important move was making the parallel with examples of the artists inspiration by putting said inspirations directly on the walls near Nathanaëlle Herbelin’s paintings.

Gotta love the juxtaposition of Jeremie au bain with Nu accroupi au tub by Pierre Bonnard. Even as someone who knows nothing about art, the comparison is grating :

How could this parallel not start a conversation about the male gaze in Art ? When the male narrative has taken up all the room for so long, having Nathanaëlle’s work up on those specific walls felt like rectifying a wrong. And where better to have the conversation than at the museum hosting the art. I for one, welcome it. It’s long overdue. Raising awareness is essential. I mentioned the exhibit to someone and was told « yes, it’s a fashionable point of view ». No. It’s not fashionable, it’s necessary.

Ce que j’en retire : Another someone recently told me of their method to stimulate creativity. Art that is found to be « interesting » (pretty-awesome-stimulating-alloftheabove) is documented and then sourced in terms of style-subject-colorama to create something else. 

I’ve done that too. Merci Nathanaëlle. And thanks Daisy for the idea.

Additions to the TBR :

• Etre ici est une splendeur de Marie Darrieussecq
• Rosa Bonheur – L’Audacieuse de Natacha Henry
• Why have there been no great women artists de Linda Nochlin