Young Orpheus for Arno Breker and Pablo Picasso.
Left: Drawing by Cocteau, dedicated two days before his death to Arno Breker. Fernand Mourlot lithographed the design for a limited edition. Right: Drawing with a dedication to Picasso one year earlier.
© Cocteau-Archiv, Edouard Dermit/Maco-VG, Bonn Germany
Paris (bpb) The Centre Pompidou in Paris has dedicated an exhibition on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Jean Cocteau. The artist died of a heart attack at age 74 at his chateau in Milly-la-Foret, France on October 11, 1963 after hearing the news of the death of his friend, the singer Edith Piaf.
The Centre Pompidou presents Cocteau (1889-1963) as an extraordinary multi-talented person: the poet, writer, critic, but also film director, drawing artist and player on the French musical scene, from 1920 to 1963. The wealth of his many activities is reflected in more than 1,000 works and documents on exhibition, such as: 335 drawings, 300 photographs, 22 paintings by major artists who celebrated him, 50 or so manuscripts, objects and sculptures. Finally, within the exhibition, a projection room shows an anthology of his films: Le Sang d'un poète, Orphée, Le Testament d'Orphée, Les Enfants terribles, La Belle et la bête, Les Parents terribles.
One part is missing in this retrospective exhibition devoted to Cocteau: the political aspect of this personality. 40 years after his death and 58 years after the Nazi-times, the organizers of the exhibition did not take the care to present an important aspect: the German occupation during World War II. and the part Cocteau played in those times. After 1945 he was criticized for his collaboration with the Nazis. But Cocteau used his friendship with the German sculptor Arno Breker to protect Pablo Picasso in Paris. Both intervened on the behalf of Picasso, who was caught by the German Secret Police (Gestapo), because of his support of the communist party.
Jean Cocteau is posing in his house a Milly-la-Foret for the bust, created by Arno Breker in 1962. Cocteau and Breker were reminiscencing about Pablo Picasso and the time of German occupation of Paris. By cooperating with Breker, Cocteau helped to save Picasso from the German Secret Service Police (Gestapo). They had Picasso under surveilance, because of his financial support of the Communist Party in those days.
Eyewitness miss in this exhibition the bust of Jean Cocteau, which Arno Breker created in 1962 and the sculpture "The Prophet". This bronze shows Cocteau in the year of his death. The bust by Breker is since 1963 on the grave of Cocteau.
The exhibition Jean Cocteau is held at Centre Pompidou from September 25th to January 5th 2004. (The French editor Gallimard is publishing a book on Cocteau).
There are several other exhibitions to honoring Cocteau:
1. Jean Cocteau: Universal Creator. May 6, 2004 to August 29, 2004, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal.
2. Jean Cocteau and Arno Breker, sculptures and erotic drawings and graphic works, Museum Europäische Kunst, Noervenich/Germany (museum@europaeische-kultur-stiftung.org)
3. By the Hand of Jean Cocteau: September 2, 2003 to January 23, 2004, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead NY.
Copyright 2003 West-Art, Prometheus 89/2003