Georges Malkine

Georges Malkine, Self-portrait

Georges Alexandre Malkine (October 10, 1898 – March 22, 1970) was the only painter to sign the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924; the other signatories were, for the most part, writers. His 1926 painting Nuit D'amour was the precursor of the lyrical abstract school of painting.

• "He has pushed individualism to the point of impertinence! But what art in his expression of the ineffable whenever he took the pains to do so!" — André Breton
• "Georges Malkine has left his delicate mark on the window of time, made as with a diamond, without altering its transparence, without blurring the view, leaving the purest trace that can only be discerned from a certain angle and in a certain light." — Patrick Waldberg (1970)

Life

Georges Malkine chose not to expose his private life, and, apart from his film and theatre career, his work was known only to those who bought and collected his work from the few shows he had, or who witnessed the historic carryings-on of the time. He avoided groups like the plague, as well as anthologies and other methods of categorizing (and, to his mind, demeaning) artists; his example championed the concept of individualism.

A recent false rumor to the effect that Malkine was homosexual has been traced to a Man Ray photograph of him kissing his wife, who wore her hair short, like a man's. This 1930 photo included Malkine, his wife Yvette, André de la Rivière, Robert Desnos, and the sculptor Lasserre. This idea and any elaboration upon it is pure fabrication.

"[Malkine] is perhaps the only artist", said French art historian and author Patrick Waldberg in his 1970 book on him, "about whom it can be said that through his life and his work, reality and dreams may cease to be viewed contrarily." Indeed, Malkine lived Surrealism, allowing his fate to be tossed where the wind would blow it, eschewing all attachments to fame, money, career, and other like things that seek to confine, define, and, in the end, confuse the real issues. He believed a man's wealth was contained in the inner landscapes, and didn't like to talk about himself; his paintings were the glimpses he provided for those who were interested.

Georges Malkine had a musical soul, and especially loved the piano; his highest love was for poetry.

Work

Malkine's work spans the years from the early 1920s right up until the time of his death in 1970. He painted approximately 500 pieces in his lifetime, and did some writing and illustrating. His solo shows numbered only seven (four more were posthumous), but he contributed to 37 collective shows (19 posthumously). He won the William and Norma Copley Foundation Award in 1966. His records and reports from other sources show his periods of greatest activity as being the twenties, the early thirties, and the sixties. The body of his work is remarkable in that it ended with a period of productivity that was just as strong and notable as the early periods. He embarked at this time on his "Demeures", a series of metaphorical portraits of the great artists from many disciplines, these portraits taking the form of buildings or "dwellings" of the artists, each reflecting his perception of their character or their work.

Malkine was not devoted uniquely to the art of painting; between the years 1933-1939, he acted in 20 films, working with, among others, Jean Gabin, Billy Wilder, and Michèle Morgan. In 1950 he wrote a farcical novel called A Bord du Violon de Mer, which is now taught in college texts as a brilliant example of humor and puns in French writing. In the exercises after the excerpt, when asking the students to write something about what they have just read, one text suggests that when doing so, they should not feel constrained by the laws of reason.

Recent shows

A retrospective of Malkine's early and late paintings opened at the Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, a Paris art gallery on the rue de Seine in June 2004. Two major shows in 1999 contained paintings and drawings by Malkine, from both his late and early periods. The Surrealism: Two Private Eyes exhibit at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, taken from the immense Surrealist art collections of Daniel Filipacchi and Nesuhi Ertegün, included a beautiful four-painting array and one drawing. The other show was entitled Georges Malkine: Le Vagabond du Surréalisme, and was a four-month, one-man show at the Pavilion des Arts in Paris, the showcase gallery of the Musée de Paris. It was the most complete Malkine retrospective to date. Five paintings were shown in Paris in 1995 in a collector's show at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, titled Passions Privés. His paintings appear at numerous European art auctions, and most of them are in collections throughout the world.

Paintings

A selection of his paintings may be seen here.

Acting in films

1933 : L'Ange gardien. 1934 : Mauvaise graine : The secretary. 1934 : L'Or : Zorloff. 1934 : Liebe, Tod und Teufel : Vikhom. 1935 : Le Diable en bouteille : Vikhom. 1936 : The First Offence. 1936 : Un de la légion : The russian legionnaire. 1937 : La Dame de Malacca : A guard. 1938 : La Tragédie impériale : Begger. 1938 : S.O.S. Sahara : Ivan. 1938 : Le Joueur. 1939 : Le Corsaire. 1939 : Derrière la façade : The taxi driver. 1939 : La Tradition de minuit : A gangster. 1939 : La Loi du nord. 1939 : Pièges. 1940 : Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 1940 : Les Musiciens du ciel. 1941 : Remorques : Un marin.

Persondata
Name	Malkine, Georges
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Date of birth	1898
Place of birth
Date of death	1970
Place of death