Six hands in constant movement, perhaps not enough to grasp everything the universe, ‘inspired’, written, painted, assembled, directed and staged by Jean Cocteauas much as the urgency to feel and communicate, impressed by the black and white of Magnum photographer Philippe Halsmanto the face and myth of the human and artistic adventure ofenfant terrible of the artistic panorama of the twentieth century (not only in France). To his unique and very personal aesthetic artistic explorations and contaminations of truth, touched by poetic lies. In short, the acrobatic dexterity embraced by the largest Italian retrospective ever dedicated to Jean Cocteau, with The juggler’s revenge unfolded in the rooms of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni museum and of Peggy Guggenheim Collectionoverlooking the Grand Canal of Venice.
Jean Cocteau Poetry (La Poésie), 1960. Marker and pastel on paper, 54 x 37 cm Brussels, Kontaxopoulos Prokopchuk Collection, Brussels Photo ©[email protected]
The skill of the juggler and the curator Kenneth E. Silver, deftly handles the artistic testament of the poet, together with the complex relationship between the artist and his creations of the Orphic one, directed with The blood of a poet (1930), Orpheus (1950) e Le testament d’Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi! (1960). The exhibition also includes ‘scandalous’ works, such as the portrait of the actor Jean Marais (and his pubic hair) in the allegorical subject entitled Fear gives wings to courage, never included in the drawings that cover the London gallery in 1938, with which Peggy Guggenheim inaugurates her career in the art world (on the advice offriend Marcel Duchamp). The work seized by British customs, returned to its rightful owner only after an exhausting negotiation and never shown publicly, is now finally shown together with the report by the French artist with the American tycoon and with Venice.
Jean Cocteau, Fear gives wings to courage (La Peur donnant des ailes au courage) 1938 Graphite, chalk and pastel on cotton (154.9 x 272.1 cm) Phoenix Art Museum Collection, Donated by Mr. Cornelius Ruxton Love Jr.
Jean Cocteau. The juggler’s revenge, Peggy Guggenheim Collection (13.04 – 16.09.2024) © Photo Matteo De Fina
The selection of one hundred and fifty works from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, enriched by prestigious international loans, ranging from drawings to graphic and editorial experiments, between tapestries, photographs and films, eros and desire, restores the visionary talent of Conteau, together with the ambivalence with the artistic avant-garde and the subversive attitude that entertains with the establishment to which he belongs, embodying the cultural, social and political contradictions of his era. Not just for the frank statement of his sexualityentrusted to the erotic autobiography of his sexual experiences, in the pages of Le Livre blanc (1927), to the reports of Les enfants terribles (1929), or because of the opium addiction that accompanies him throughout his life. After the death of typhoid fever, at just twenty years old, of the French poet, writer and companion Raymond Radiguet.
Jean Cocteau. The Juggler’s Revenge, Peggy Guggenheim Collection (13.04 – 16.09.2024)
The Academician’s Sword by Jean Cocteau, 1955 Gold, silver, emerald, ruby, diamond, white opal (originally ivory), onyx, blue enamel and steel blade, Length: 87 cm Cartier Collection
There outsider famewith his contemporaries, does not prevent him from undertaking prestigious collaborations and creations, such as the eye-shaped earring with a pearl teardrop, made with the designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Even the most fashionable shades of the fabric and jewelery designer arrive on display from the Cartier Collection (e Cartier as main sponsor), together with the initials and symbols of novels and films, embellished with gold, silver, emerald, ruby, diamond and white opal, in the Academic sword which accompanies him in his election to the Académie Française in 1955.
How to: Jean Cocteau. The juggler’s revenge, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (April 13 – September 16, 2024). More info here.
Jean Cocteau, Oedipus or the Crossroads of the Three Roads (Œdipe ou le carrefour des trois routes), 1951, Oil on canvas, Private collection. Jean Cocteau installation. The Juggler’s Revenge, Peggy Guggenheim Collection (13.04 – 16.09.2024)
