The Palenque Traveler Goes to Chartres
Jun 21st, 2005, 08:43 AM
#22
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PICASSIETTE'S HOUSE
Chartres also offers one of Europe's most peculiar and totally bizarre sights - Picassiette's House, which has gained respect as one of the world's finest works of so-called primitive art or Art Naive. "Picassiette" was a half-admiring, half-mocking nickname given to an eccentric cemetery sweeper because of what he was creating in his house and garden. He was fashioning a vast mosaic out of junk he scavenged in his sweeper duties and walks around his neighborhood, eventually covering every inch of his garden and homemade house, even including the furniture, with the masaic's fabric being made up of illions of shards of broken bottles and dishware, as well as bits of flint, old clocks and porcelain, which he fashioned into his version of such famous sights as the Chartres Cathedral, Mont St. Michel, Loire chateaux and the Mona Lisa along with his own throne, chapel, wall muralas and statues of butterflies, birds, flowers, giraffes, cats, dogs and more. Picassiette's real name was Raymond Isidor, who started the project in 1928 and spent as estimated 29,000 hours of time creating it until his death in 1964, having masaicked virtaully every surface of the house and garden. After looking at his work, one may agree with Picassiette's own lament, "they made me a sweeper in the cemeetery, like someone thrown among the dead, when i was capable of doing other things, as i have proved." One can also feel the pain that Picassette must have felt when neighborhood kids taunted him sarcastically with the 'Picassiette' name and called him "Fou". The art world has come to respect the project, and Picassiette's House is now acclaimed as a superb example of primitive art - being on a par with LA's Watts Tower and Detroit's Heidelberg Project, two similar 'Art Naive' extravaganza junkpiles in the States. Respect for the project, however was slow coming and there was once, after Picassiette's death, talk of leveling it all. The house's survival was assured after it was bought by the city in 1981 and in 1983 was classified as a national historical monument. The house/garden is in a typical French neighborhood, where all the houses hide behind high walls. (# 22 Rue du Repos, about 1.25 miles southeast of the cathedral. City buses run near it.)
Chartres also offers one of Europe's most peculiar and totally bizarre sights - Picassiette's House, which has gained respect as one of the world's finest works of so-called primitive art or Art Naive. "Picassiette" was a half-admiring, half-mocking nickname given to an eccentric cemetery sweeper because of what he was creating in his house and garden. He was fashioning a vast mosaic out of junk he scavenged in his sweeper duties and walks around his neighborhood, eventually covering every inch of his garden and homemade house, even including the furniture, with the masaic's fabric being made up of illions of shards of broken bottles and dishware, as well as bits of flint, old clocks and porcelain, which he fashioned into his version of such famous sights as the Chartres Cathedral, Mont St. Michel, Loire chateaux and the Mona Lisa along with his own throne, chapel, wall muralas and statues of butterflies, birds, flowers, giraffes, cats, dogs and more. Picassiette's real name was Raymond Isidor, who started the project in 1928 and spent as estimated 29,000 hours of time creating it until his death in 1964, having masaicked virtaully every surface of the house and garden. After looking at his work, one may agree with Picassiette's own lament, "they made me a sweeper in the cemeetery, like someone thrown among the dead, when i was capable of doing other things, as i have proved." One can also feel the pain that Picassette must have felt when neighborhood kids taunted him sarcastically with the 'Picassiette' name and called him "Fou". The art world has come to respect the project, and Picassiette's House is now acclaimed as a superb example of primitive art - being on a par with LA's Watts Tower and Detroit's Heidelberg Project, two similar 'Art Naive' extravaganza junkpiles in the States. Respect for the project, however was slow coming and there was once, after Picassiette's death, talk of leveling it all. The house's survival was assured after it was bought by the city in 1981 and in 1983 was classified as a national historical monument. The house/garden is in a typical French neighborhood, where all the houses hide behind high walls. (# 22 Rue du Repos, about 1.25 miles southeast of the cathedral. City buses run near it.)
Nov 30th, 2006, 11:07 AM
#23
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Bienvenue sur le site de la ville de
For hours of opening check out this site operated by the City of Chartres:
Chartres- Maison Picassiette 22 rue du Repos 28000 Chartres Ouverture annuelle Du 1er avril au 30 novembre Tous les jours sauf le mardi et dimanche matin ...
http://www.ville-chartres.fr/site/si...amp;ssrubr=336
(open Apr 1-Nov 30 daily ex Tue and Sun morning) - PalQ
For hours of opening check out this site operated by the City of Chartres:
Chartres- Maison Picassiette 22 rue du Repos 28000 Chartres Ouverture annuelle Du 1er avril au 30 novembre Tous les jours sauf le mardi et dimanche matin ...
http://www.ville-chartres.fr/site/si...amp;ssrubr=336
(open Apr 1-Nov 30 daily ex Tue and Sun morning) - PalQ
