, in: Politics of Easure. Memory, Representation, Tyranny and Ethos; ed. A. Markowska, Warszawa-Toruń , 2015
Marcel Proust's aesthetic theories have never been taken seriously by the mainstream of the Histo... more Marcel Proust's aesthetic theories have never been taken seriously by the mainstream of the History of Art, even though they appear in a few important texts by such scholars like Hans Belting, George Didi-Huberman or Mieke Bal. In my speech I want to present the framework of Proust's aesthetics. In the beginning I'm focusing on the philosophical status of art and the idea of perception in A la recherche de temps perdu. I analyze some examples of window images perceived and described by the protagonist of the novel and I'm comparing them with the classic European model of melancholic perception. Then I'm talking about the idea of museum and the famous scene of Bergotte's death in front of Vermeer's View of Delft. I'm giving some other examples of the same phenomenon (Hawthorns and Ruskin's flowers in Fontainebleau).
Finally, I'm talking about Venice as an absent city which is – I suppose – the most vivid example of Proust's attitude to the object of art.
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Videos by Konrad Niemira
W epoce nowożytnej Antwerpia była jednym z najważniejszych ośrodków europejskiego handlu, specjalizującym się przede wszystkim w sprzedaży cukru, pieprzu, metali szlachetnych i tkanin. W tym portowym mieście bez trudu można było także nabyć rozmaite wyroby luksusowe i dzieła sztuki: obrazy, ryciny, tapiserie, a nawet ukończone i gotowe do załadunku na statek nastawy ołtarzowe.
Podczas wykładu przyjrzymy się, jak wyglądał handel sztuką w Antwerpii. Interesować nas będzie przede wszystkim współistnienie tradycyjnych form sprzedaży z rozmaitymi „innowacjami”, takimi jak „galerie handlowe” specjalizujące się w sprzedaży obrazów czy objazdowe loterie, a także fenomen hurtowego eksportu dzieł sztuki do Ameryki Łacińskiej.
Books by Konrad Niemira
The monograph discusses works collected in the Polish and foreign museums and by private owners, examines the paintings known thanks to their pre-war photographs and reproductions, as well as introduces to the scholarship works previously listed solely in the 18th-century auction catalogs. The publication includes a detailed timeline of the artist’s life and a richly illustrated introduction to the vast body of his works seen in the context of French and Polish artistic culture of its time. The catalog was drawn by Konrad Niemira, PhD, the author of, among others, collection of essays Bazgracz. Trzy eseje o Norblinie and Honor bez egzageracji. Magnackie zakupy i świat rzeczy paryskich w XVIII wieku.
Publication supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
https://sklep.muzeumliteratury.pl/produkt/katalog-obrazow-catalogue-of-painting-jeana-pierrea-norblina-de-la-gourdaine-1745-1830/
https://www.amazon.com/Bazgracz-eseje-Norblinie-Niemira-Konrad/dp/8379082184/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZXNUNDB4O6I0&keywords=bazgracz&qid=1695665661&sprefix=bagrac%2Caps%2C236&sr=8-1
Źródła by Konrad Niemira
Papers by Konrad Niemira
https://arxregia.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/fragment.pdf
The subject of the article is the youth of the painter, draftsman and illustrator Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745–1830), and the circumstances that led him to enter the service of Princess Izabela Czartoryska and her husband Adam Czartoryski. Starting from a thorough examination of Norblin’s earnings in Poland, I analyze the non-economic factors that have caused his move there. The hypothesis presented in the text assumes that one of them was the artist’s difficult professional and social situation. In the first years of his stay in Paris, Norblin used to be associated with a circle of painters of low social renown. For almost a decade he was employed by Francesco Casanova, a painter who has been a controversial figure for both the Royal Academy and critics. He also failed to gain an influential patron or loyal clientele in the Academy circles. It seems that he had no prospects for not only making a career in Paris, but also for becoming independent of Casanova. Perhaps it was this social and professional stalemate that prompted him to undertake the “recruitment journey” via London and Spa, which eventually led him to Puławy and Warsaw.
https://zabytki.online/2021/03/30/kiedy-powstal-klucz-do-swiatyni-sybilli-w-pulawach/
https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/bhs/article/view/895/548
W epoce nowożytnej Antwerpia była jednym z najważniejszych ośrodków europejskiego handlu, specjalizującym się przede wszystkim w sprzedaży cukru, pieprzu, metali szlachetnych i tkanin. W tym portowym mieście bez trudu można było także nabyć rozmaite wyroby luksusowe i dzieła sztuki: obrazy, ryciny, tapiserie, a nawet ukończone i gotowe do załadunku na statek nastawy ołtarzowe.
Podczas wykładu przyjrzymy się, jak wyglądał handel sztuką w Antwerpii. Interesować nas będzie przede wszystkim współistnienie tradycyjnych form sprzedaży z rozmaitymi „innowacjami”, takimi jak „galerie handlowe” specjalizujące się w sprzedaży obrazów czy objazdowe loterie, a także fenomen hurtowego eksportu dzieł sztuki do Ameryki Łacińskiej.
The monograph discusses works collected in the Polish and foreign museums and by private owners, examines the paintings known thanks to their pre-war photographs and reproductions, as well as introduces to the scholarship works previously listed solely in the 18th-century auction catalogs. The publication includes a detailed timeline of the artist’s life and a richly illustrated introduction to the vast body of his works seen in the context of French and Polish artistic culture of its time. The catalog was drawn by Konrad Niemira, PhD, the author of, among others, collection of essays Bazgracz. Trzy eseje o Norblinie and Honor bez egzageracji. Magnackie zakupy i świat rzeczy paryskich w XVIII wieku.
Publication supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
https://sklep.muzeumliteratury.pl/produkt/katalog-obrazow-catalogue-of-painting-jeana-pierrea-norblina-de-la-gourdaine-1745-1830/
https://www.amazon.com/Bazgracz-eseje-Norblinie-Niemira-Konrad/dp/8379082184/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZXNUNDB4O6I0&keywords=bazgracz&qid=1695665661&sprefix=bagrac%2Caps%2C236&sr=8-1
https://arxregia.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/fragment.pdf
The subject of the article is the youth of the painter, draftsman and illustrator Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745–1830), and the circumstances that led him to enter the service of Princess Izabela Czartoryska and her husband Adam Czartoryski. Starting from a thorough examination of Norblin’s earnings in Poland, I analyze the non-economic factors that have caused his move there. The hypothesis presented in the text assumes that one of them was the artist’s difficult professional and social situation. In the first years of his stay in Paris, Norblin used to be associated with a circle of painters of low social renown. For almost a decade he was employed by Francesco Casanova, a painter who has been a controversial figure for both the Royal Academy and critics. He also failed to gain an influential patron or loyal clientele in the Academy circles. It seems that he had no prospects for not only making a career in Paris, but also for becoming independent of Casanova. Perhaps it was this social and professional stalemate that prompted him to undertake the “recruitment journey” via London and Spa, which eventually led him to Puławy and Warsaw.
https://zabytki.online/2021/03/30/kiedy-powstal-klucz-do-swiatyni-sybilli-w-pulawach/
https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/bhs/article/view/895/548
Marcello Bacciarelli (1731–1818), a Roman painter and draughtsman active in Dresden and Warsaw, was invited by Empress Maria Theresa to Vienna, where he stayed between April 1764 and October 1766. According to his son’s account of this time, Bacciarelli was to have painted a large-format portrait of the four archduchesses represented as three Muses and Apollo [sic] on the Parnassus. The author suggests that the painting in question corresponds to a composition displayed in Hofburg and attributed to Johann Franz Greipel. Bacciarelli’s letters, published here for the first time, shed light on the circle of his Viennese acquaintances and clients, which included two painters active at the court of Maria Theresa, Jean Baptiste Pillement and Joseph Rosa, the writer Pietro Metastasio as well as ambassadors, princes and erudites frequenting Viennese salons. New findings concerning Bacciarelli’s biography are interesting in the context of the social and salon nature of 18th-century artistic culture.
Summary
The subject of this article is the narration on the origin of Arkadia and the way in which it manipulates the categories of landscape park and architecture. Arkadia, a garden founded by Helena Radziwiłł circa 1777, is usually considered in the context of current fashions, women’s patronage, women’s rivalries or the presumed exalted personality of
the Duchess. Most of the researchers dealing with Arkadia created their narratives basing on the second-hand materials, while the actual archives (correspondence, expensa) were rarely quoted. Consequently, the iconographic material which circulates in the literature, for many years stayed the same. For this reason, the purpose of this article is to break the deadlock in research and draw readers’ attention to the
unrecognised problems: the political aspect of Radziwiłł’s project, the role which played in it the tradition of local aristocratic patronage, and finally: the significance of landscape elements in Arkadia (and not only its “hidden meanings”, as it was thus far claimed).
The contacts that Jan Lebenstein had in 1959-74 with the Galerie Chalette run by Artur and Madeleine Lejwa are discussed. The reconstruction and interpretation of those turbulent relations between Jan Lebenstein and the gallery were conducted on the grounds of the documents from the Gallery’s archive that are currently at the American Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. The used sources had previously remained unknown to Polish researchers.
Jan Lebenstein may have met Artur Lejwa in the spring and summer of 1959 during the trip of the latter to Poland. The middleman in the meeting was most likely Ryszard Stanisławski, who trough the Office of Foreign Trade organized export of Polish art to Western Europe and the United States. The artist started constant cooperation with the Galerie Chaletter only once he had migrated, namely when extremely successful following the Biennale of the Young in Paris, he settled down in France. In September 1961, the painter signed an exclusivity contract with Lejwa for trading his art in the US. This was the time when works on the artist’s monographic exhibition in the United States had begun. The first problems in the cooperation arose already in February 1962. The artist wanted then to sell paintings bypassing the Gallery, this causing the dealer’s protest. The dispute also covered the range of the activities of the dealer representing Lebenstein in France, namely Jacquesa Lacloche. Despite these difficulties, the opening of the artist’s exhibition, planned for March 1962, was held at the Gallery as scheduled, while the painter graced it with his presence. Lebenstein’s visit to the USA, meant by Lejwa as help to the marketing activities he was involved in, proved to be a failure. Lebenstein apparently (as reported by Lejwa) showed up in some company and having drunk, he behaved inappropriately. Upon the artist’s return to Paris, the cooperation became even harder. The dealer did not inform the artist about the sales of his works, while Lebenstein did not fulfill the Contract commitment of supplying a definite number paintings. In July 1963, Lebenstein decided to breach his Contract with the Gallery. For several months Lejwa ignored the correspondence on the topic, that is why in 1965 the case ended up in court. For the next decade the court failed to rule, while Lebenstein’s career was in stalemate. The conflict was resolved by the agreement between the Parties only in 1974, already after Lejwa’s death.
Although the figure of the ‘bad art dealer’ as well as the aversion to laws ruling in the art market were reiterated in Lebenstein’s statements, these have never before been confronted with the artist’s personal experience and the fact that the litigation with his former representative went on for over a decade. The purpose of the article, however, is not a black-and-white accounting for Lebenstein’s dislike of American art dealers. A critical analysis of the sources allow to find nuances in the dichotomy the artist was building: good artist – bad art dealer. In the course of the litigation Lejwa accused Lebenstein of cheating the French government over taxes, of not complying with the Contract as for the annual number of works he was to supply to the Gallery, and finally that any business cooperation with him was difficult due to his alcoholism. However, other Polish artists (e.g. Wojciech Fangor) cooperating with Artur Lejwa highly appreciated the dealer’s professionalism and logistics skills, Lebenstein being the only Pole in open conflict with the Galerie Chalette’s owner. The presentation of the course of the events and arguments of both parties inevitably questions Lebenstein’s version of the story and makes one perceive it as an attempt at a quasi-romantic narrativzation of history.
Lebenstein (1930-1999) and art market in Paris and New York in late
50s and early 60s of 20th century. In contrast to the most popular
interpretation of his art, understood as something profound and related
to existentialism, the other image is proposed. Its crucial point is
the idea of Lebenstein’s dependance on exigences and artistic policy
of western galleries such as Galerie Chalette in New York (owned by
Artur Lejwa) and Galerie Lacloche in Paris (owned by Jacques Lacloche).
Th e subject of analysis is Lebenstein’s artistic strategy, model of
his career and his capability to adjust (and his later inability to change
his attitude) to the current situation on the art market.
Finally, I'm talking about Venice as an absent city which is – I suppose – the most vivid example of Proust's attitude to the object of art.