This memorial commemorates the death of the American aviator (and poet, it is stated) Evelyn Graham Frost, who was flying with the English pilot Ruddle. The plane crashed here on 5 January 1934. The plane left Orly on that day, flew through mist, and then hit a high-tension cable. Frost, who lived in France and had held her pilot's licence for a year, was burned to death. Her companion escaped with slight injuries. Poet? Well, the only reference to Frost's poetry I can find is a poem called 'Memory' which was published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, in July 1932. This is it in full:
'Now leaning through the cyclamens of sleep,
Myself now one with each faint-scented stem,
I dreamt I drank the color of your voice;
And those high instants wherein each may keep
His trysts with sounds beyond the verge of noise
Were trapped within that music's interim.
Your hair streamed one with the straight growth of light,
Your fabulous long hands enclosed my sky,
My whole world arched beneath your rare bright palms;
While like soft petals, than all skies more bright,
Your fingers blurred to nearness, and your arms
Parted the cyclamens and crept to me.
It seemed there was no world beyond your mouth,
No space-time but the one that here compressed
Meaning and truth to your strong lips; it seemed
That neither east no west nor north nor south
Had substance now, nor all the heavens dreamed
In all the values life makes manifest.
Then slowly, from that dream's apocalypse,
Moved the pale brightness of your face; I knew
Stirless and exquisite, each plane withdrawn.
The flowers that were your hands moved to eclipse
In other skies than mine; each tone moved on,
Each echo muted; and then slumber grew;
And on the edge of sleep's giant interim
Waking, I wept beneath each frail pink stem.'
L'Église Saint Martin de Vic is two kilometres from George Sand's house, and Sand underlined its importance. It is indeed a masterpiece of France's religious heritage, with its magnificent frescoes from the twelfth century. Due to scaffolding and covering, I was unable to take a suitable photo of the exterior.
Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre, where Jacques Tati's first full-length film Jour de Fête (1947) was largely filmed, is very much influenced by the film and the director, as the central square and its shops, etc, can't fail to remind us. There's an eponymous museum which shows a film of the making of it, a statue of François the postman (played by Tati himself) stands outside it, and there's even an app giving information on various places shown in the film throughout the small (850 pop.) village. Actor Pierre Richard was guest of honour at the inauguration ceremony at Sainte-Sévère on the 70th anniversary of the film, where a roundabout operated by pedal power (similar to that used in the film) was permanently installed. There's also a roulotte (gypsy caravan) to remind of the fête foraine.
L'abbé Aymon was the priest in Thevet-Saint-Julien from 1941 to 1987, during which time he sculpted shapes from the natural world, namely roots. From roots his knife created small and large representations of animals, from, say, giraffes to bugs. The church St Julien was built at the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th, although it is shot through with the work of L'abbe Aymon in the 20th century, who made very remarkable wooden sculptures, such as the balustrade, which (conventionally enough) bear the words: 'Le Seigneur-Dieu les expulsa du jardin d'Eden' on the left, but on the right the very less conventional: 'O heureuse faute qui nous valut le redempteur'. A remarkable museum, a remarkable church, and a remarkable curé, who was not only a religious figure, but also an artist, an inventor, and something of a voyant. Le Musée des racines remembers this man, illustating his artistic work by its many examples of sculpted wood. It is quite a fascinating place to visit.
The church is just opposite Le Musée de racines, with its oak door (made from nearby trees) representing the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luc and John and their symbols, a rather bad shot I took of the balustrade, and an example of the a carved wooden pillar: all sculpted by l'abbé Aymon.
Emmanuel Arredondo created this in Varennes Vauzelles a few miles to the north of Nevers.
Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)
La Fontaine Niki de Saint Phalle et Jean Tinguely stands in front of the mairie in Château-Chinon. It was President François Mitterrand's idea to have the fountain here, where he had been mayor between 1959 and 1981. A plaque at the side of the fountain notes that there are only five similar fountains in existence, of which the only other in France is the Fontaine Stravinsky next to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Saint Phalle is responsible for the coloured elements, her husband Tinguely for the kinetic parts. This is a remarkable piece of art, and merely sitting by it and watching it is a strangely peaceful experience. It has been here since 1988.
Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)
It was René Fallet's wish to be buried in Thionne (pronounced 'Thioune') to the north of Jaligny-sur-Besbre, with the words 'écrivain bourbonnais' on his grave. A plaque here mentions the spirit of his friend Voltaire Dauchy wandering around here.
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