The Effects of Marie Laurecin

Recently on Marie-France Riviere's actu-blog, I came across her poster advertising a new exhibit featuring the work of feminine cubist/nouveau artist, Marie Laurecin. I had never heard of this woman painter or her important place in art history, especially from the feminine perspective. Marie France's work captured the diverse faces that appear in Madame Laurecin's  collection of girls, women and children.

Like most contemporary women of her time, Marie Laurecin was overshadowed by her male counterparts and never given full credit for her originality. She was known as the muse of famous poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, and remained in the shadow of avante garde giants like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Interpretation of her paintings is limited and yet remains open to the observant eye and the visitor's personal experience. Such was the case with me. I googled her name and viewed an on-line gallery of her work. She made a strong impression and prompted me as a writer to define her subjects and how they might affect a woman's recognition of her own strengths and weaknesses, emotions and desires -- "a visual vocabulary" of being feminine.







The Effects Of Marie Laurecin

The ghost of her early training

haunts each face she paints,
a porcelain malaise
shining  elusive and strange.

Her women glance down

or away from the present
almost waiting
for a former life or lover  to return

 Yet, when we invade

their privacy, they become
 our  shadows tracing
what we have known
of lamenting on guitar,

touching the totem

of our vulnerable self:
that sparrow ,doe, spaniel --
fern, feather, morning glory vine,

and wishing to accomplish

what we fear we cannot not.
The potential shame always crushed  in
like bone ash or clay.
______________________________________________
Note -- The opening line in the poem refers to her training as a painter of porcelain.

 

Credits --  The lovely  poster is by French artist, Marie-France Riviere
www.griviere.com/expo2000

The other paintings are those done by Marie-Laurecin.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Marie+Laurencin&qpvt=Marie+Laurencin&FORM=IGRE