Cultural Arts

www.lagunajournal.com

Toulouse Lautrec Lives
Salon Exhibit with Ambiance of the Belle Époque Era
at the San Diego Art Museum

by Lydia E. Ringwald

An exhibit of original Toulouse Lautrec paintings, drawings and lithographs in the San Diego Art Museum exudes the ambiance of an era. The installation of art works in color-coordinated gold and red ‘salon’ with decorative chandeliers, maroon velvet drapery evokes the Belle Époque, the decadent world of demimonde and their gentlemen clientele. All of the glimmer of this dim glamour was the inspiration for the over 100 paintings, drawings and posters advertising shows at the Moulin Rouge and stars of the Follies Bergere, currently on display at the San Diego Art Museum.

But for Toulouse, of aristocratic origin, stunted at birth and crippled in a riding accident, this was a world saturated in absinthe, the lethal concoction that anesthetized him from the excruciating pain of ordinary reality; the intoxicating potion that seems to have inspired his often cruel yet vibrantly thrilling insights into art and life.

Although associated with master poster artist Jules Cheret, whose charming images reveal the gaiety, elegance and revelry of the Belle Epoque, Lautrec’s insightful line cuts deeper to reveal a raw, emotionally charged vivisection into the life of the demimonde, damsels of questionable virtue driven by poverty and low social status to a life catering to the sexual whim and caprice of their wealthy patrons. 

In Lautrec’s carnival of carnality, horses and harlots were repeated subjects, interspersed with images of trapeze artists and circus performers, jockeys and gentlemen in top hats. Sometimes just a top hat casually tossed onto a piece of boudoir furniture, without the actually image of the gentleman is enough of an implication since a discreet gentleman of proper social standing would not want to be depicted in a painting with his maitress.

Yet Toulouse Lautrec’s world is a world without pity and world without blame.

Images of demimonde sensuality often express a freedom that respectable women in polite society during the Victorian era did not enjoy.  In our time, the often cheerful high stepping Can Can kicks and splits may be more of an image of liberation than of degradation. Yet Lautrec, in his vision of the prostitute also indulges in the seamy side, revealing his models in their most unflattering moments, yawning or exhausted with legs askew or sprawled apart, depicting the ugly underside of the lives of those shunned by polite society.

Lautrec’s cruel line expressed excruciatingly insight with an emotionally depraved edge that was admired by Oscar Wilde and other rebels and artistes of the Victorian era. It is interesting to note that Lautrec defended his friend Oscar Wilde during his darkest hours of criminal sentencing and incarceration for Victorian vices.

This unique installation of over 100 works of Toulouse Lautrec, a gift from the Baldwin M. Baldwin Collection to the San Diego Art Museum, offers a rare opportunity to view spectacular collection of Toulouse Lautrec’s assembled together for the first time in 20 years. The exhibition will remain at the San Diego Art Museum until December 12, 2010.

Please check the museum website for information about the catalogue ‘Toulouse-Lautrec: The Baldwin M. Baldwin Collection,’ and schedule of exhibition lectures and events

Lydia E. Ringwald is the Laguna Journal's  Cultural Arts Columnist and photo-journalist, as well as a Southern California based artist.  Click on any of her articles below:

**************************************

WHEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VISIT PRIMITIVES AT THE VILLAGE IN  LAGUNA BEACH ON THE GOLD COAST. OVER LOOKING THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 

TURQUOISE SILVER JEWELRY, KOKOPELLI, ZUNI, HOPI, NAVAJO, DREAM CATCHERS, KACHINA DOLLS, SILVER JEWELRY, BRACELETS, RINGS, NECKLACES, EARRINGS AND ARTIFACTS 

577 S. COAST HWY, LAGUNA BEACH, CA (949) 376-7632  or go to: NATIVE TRIBE-PRIMITIVES LTD  We now have Color Diamonds

*****************

 **************************************