Marc Petitjean Knihy

Ainsi commence le livre de Marc Petitjean. Par une première rencontre qui le plonge soudain dans la vie tumultueuse de Frida Kahlo, artiste engagée, anticonformiste, bisexuelle, redécouverte par les féministes aux Etats-Unis et en Europe dans les années 80, devenant l'icône que l'on connaît aujourd'hui – mais aussi dans les zones secrètes de la vie de son propre père. Qui était ce curieux Michel Petitjean ? Quelle a été la relation entre lui et Frida durant les quelques semaines de son séjour en Europe, en compagnie d'André Breton, de Picasso de Dora Maar, de Marcel Duchamp ? Et pourquoi lui a-t-elle offert ce tableau énigmatique et si intime ? Le mystère de cette relation, à l'image de Frida Kahlo, est d'une telle force qu'elle traverse tout le livre comme un trait de lumière.

Bustle: Best Book of the Month From the critically acclaimed author of The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris, a fascinating, intimate portrait of one of Japan’s most influential and respected textile artists. Writer, filmmaker, and photographer Marc Petitjean finds himself in Kyoto one fine morning with his camera, to film a man who will become his friend: Kunihiko Moriguchi, a master kimono painter and Living National Treasure—like his father before him. As a young decorative arts student in the 1960s, Moriguchi rubbed shoulders with the cultural elite of Paris and befriended Balthus, who would profoundly influence his artistic career. Discouraged by Balthus from pursuing design in Europe, he returned to Japan to take up his father’s vocation. Once back in this world of tradition he had tried to escape, Moriguchi contemporized the craft of Yūzen (resist dyeing) through his innovative use of abstraction in patterns. With a documentarian’s keen eye, Petitjean retraces Moriguchi’s remarkable life, from his childhood during the turbulent 1940s and 50s marked by war, to his prime as an artist with works exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world.

Enero de 1939. Frida Kahlo llega a París. André Breton, deslumbrado por sus primeros cuadros, la ha calificado de surrealista y le ha prometido montarle una exposición. La breve estancia de la pintora en la capital francesa sirve para que conozca –y critique ferozmente– los círculos artísticos de la ciudad. También, para exponer en una galería y para que Picasso reconozca su talento único y escriba a Diego Rivera: “Ni tú ni Derain ni yo somos capaces de pintar una cara como las que pinta Frida Kahlo de Rivera”. Corren tiempos difíciles, la guerra civil española se desangra en refugiados que intentan cobijarse en Francia, y en esas semanas, asimismo, Frida ayuda a la causa. Durante su estancia en París es acompañada por Michel Petitjean, el enlace con la galería, al que regala como despedida uno de sus cuadros: El corazón. La obra ocupa un lugar de honor en casa del joven, que siempre recordará con admiración a la artista. Años después Marc Petitjean, hijo de Michel, recibe una inesperada noticia sobre su padre y decide investigar esas vibrantes semanas con Frida Kahlo. Aquella que en su día asegurara a Breton, el Papa del Surrealismo: “Yo no pinto mis sueños, sino mi propia realidad”.

This intimate account offers a new, unexpected understanding of the artist’s work and of the vibrant 1930s surrealist scene. In 1938, just as she was leaving Mexico for her first solo exhibition in New York, Frida Kahlo was devastated to learn from her husband, Diego Rivera, that he intended to divorce her. This latest blow followed a long series of betrayals, most painful of all his affair with her beloved younger sister, Cristina, in 1934. In early 1939, anxious and adrift, Kahlo traveled from the United States to France—her only trip to Europe, and the beginning of a unique period of her life when she was enjoying success on her own. Now, for the first time, this previously overlooked part of her story is brought to light in exquisite detail. Marc Petitjean takes the reader to Paris, where Kahlo spends her days alongside luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Dora Maar, and Marcel Duchamp. Using Kahlo’s whirlwind romance with the author’s father, Michel Petitjean, as a jumping-off point, The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris provides a striking portrait of the artist and an inside look at the history of one of her most powerful, enigmatic paintings.

This intimate account offers a new, unexpected understanding of the artist’s work and of the vibrant 1930s surrealist scene. In 1938, just as she was leaving Mexico for her first solo exhibition in New York, Frida Kahlo was devastated to learn from her husband, Diego Rivera, that he intended to divorce her. This latest blow followed a long series of betrayals, most painful of all his affair with her beloved younger sister, Cristina, in 1934. In early 1939, anxious and adrift, Kahlo traveled from the United States to France—her only trip to Europe, and the beginning of a unique period of her life when she was enjoying success on her own. Now, for the first time, this previously overlooked part of her story is brought to light in exquisite detail. Marc Petitjean takes the reader to Paris, where Kahlo spends her days alongside luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Dora Maar, and Marcel Duchamp. Using Kahlo’s whirlwind romance with the author’s father, Michel Petitjean, as a jumping-off point, The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris provides a striking portrait of the artist and an inside look at the history of one of her most powerful, enigmatic paintings.