From March 7ththe Blue Penny Museum – founded in 2001 by the MCB – celebrates painter and poet Malcolm de Chazal (1902 – 1981). For Emmanuel Richon, the museum’s curator, believes it is vital to introduce the general public to the man he calls “the Mauritian painter par excellence, a truly singular artist, impossible to pigeonhole or label”. Delphine Raimond
“Landscapes, Creole spirit, flashes of thought, sirandanes of approach, surprise of pictorial solutions, bursts of execution, joy of color, preservation of the spirit of childhood…” are just some of the words that describe Emmanuel’s admiration for the artist. Until June 7, some forty works belonging to private or institutional collectors, such as Beachcomber or the MCB, will delight the Mauritian public.
“Surrealist”, according to André Breton. “Genius”, according to Francis Ponge. De Chazal was also described as zany or fada! At first,” confides Emmanuel, “they attacked his writing, but recognition by the great minds of his time gradually made this denigration impossible. This contempt then transferred to his painting, which was nonetheless the exact continuation of his written thought. The man had to suffer the ostracism of a particularly unjust rejection, but resisted and was strengthened by it. Viscerally independent, he was not afraid of otherness. His aphoristic, non-systemic thinking was enough to baffle many…”. A strong temperament and high self-esteem were the probable reasons for the discrediting of his somewhat misunderstood work.
As Emmanuel confirms, the works of the man who represented symbiosis with his island and its culture, a spirit of freedom and total originality, are complex. “In the enchanting harmony of colors, the almost always perfect crowding of his sheet, the choice of everyday themes… in the image of the exuberance of tropical Mauritian nature. Matisse was said to be the painter of happiness, De Chazal could be the painter of happiness squared.”
Free exhibition. 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
