Another World is an exhibition running from November 5 to December 12 at Nagas. It brings together artworks by major artists of the Parisian avant-garde and Surrealist movements: Roberto Matta, Louise Janin, Irène Lagut, Véronique Wirbel, Eric Cederberg, and Marcel Defize.
Just before the First World War, Irène Lagut started to paint. Her close friend Guillaume Apollinaire wrote the preface to her first major exhibition and introduced her to avant-garde artists. Then, she painted mostly young women and circus scenes. Close to the Cubists, she began a tumultuous relationship with Pablo Picasso in 1916 that ended in 1923 after many ordeals and a failed attempt at marriage. Her circle included Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger and Modigliani, and she collaborated with Raymond Radiguet and Jean Cocteau. The 1920s also witnessed the arrival of Louise Janin. Although she belonged to different circles from Lagut, she began exhibiting at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, showing paintings influenced by spirituality and Asian philosophies. Janin met František Kupka, and her work began to become less figurative. After exhibiting at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in 1925, she began developing her cosmogramme technique.
Four years later, in 1929, Marcel Defize held his first Parisian exhibition, with a preface by André Breton. His work featured deserted landscapes reminiscent of Yves Tanguy and strange figures. The sense of emptiness present in the show remains in the 1964 painting presented in our exhibition. The first artwork in his 1929 show was titled “Solitary” and the last one “Silence”. This feeling is also present in the painting by Eric Cederberg. An empty beach with outsized shells: just like a dream. The Swedish Surrealist mostly painted seascapes with senseless or paradoxical elements.
In the 1930s, Roberto Matta was introduced to André Breton by Salvador Dalí. Matta subsequently joined the Surrealist group, and Breton bought two of his artworks on that occasion. He went on to become a major figure in Surrealism worldwide, exhibiting alongside Dalí, Magritte, Ernst and others. Later in life, in 1983, the Chilean artist became the spiritual guide of a group of Latin American Surrealists in Paris. The group was called Magie-Image. Among the participants was only one woman: Véronique Wirbel.
In this exhibition, we have brought Matta and Wirbel together again. The artwork by Roberto Matta was made in 1988, and those by Wirbel in 1989 and 1990. At the time, the Magie-Image group was still active, and both artists were involved in it. Through this exhibition at Nagas, we also hope to bring a bit of magic back into the world.
