Reviews on Inside Out Upside Down Gallery Site
Eugene Blot (1830 - 1899), Musee D'Opale-Sud & Musee Auguste Grasset de Varzy
This exhibition was developed by the two museums to commemorate the work of Eugene Blot a fine sculptor of clay figurines. The rapid demographic chnages that took place during the artists life time and their impact on his work is a central feature of the exhibition.
Blot was largely self taught and worked in close co-operation with a number of painters. This co-operation extended to using models to sit for paintings and sculptures to save costs. His work was largely developed to sell to bathers and the new rich that started going to the coast for holidays in the 1850s. It appears his work fell into this category and a rather higher order sculpture that was displayed at the Paris Salon as well as at other art exhibitons from 1854 to 1888.
The exhibition at the Grasset Museum in Varzy is in the temporary exhibition space. Darkly painted walls and strong directional lighting add a touch of drama to what might otherwise have been a dull collection of figurines standing about 25cm tall.
The second room of the exhibition space is the stunner of the presentation. Blots multi-figure compositions are quite amazing and fully explain in themselves how his work was good enough to exhibit at the Paris Salon. There are seven or eight compositional peices in this room and I spent quite a while taking in their originality and grace.
The museums have done a wonderful job in presenting this extrordinary sculptors work in a comprhensible and effective way. The accompanying book is well structured and full of information, not only on Blot but also on the development of coastal life during his lifetime.
I visit the Musee Auguste Grasset as often as I can. The temporary exhibitions are always interesting, well presented, while the main museum contains a collection of artifacts that is truely stunning. If you happen to be passing, going down to the Med make sure you pull off the expressway and visit this wonderful museum about 30kms east of La Charite.
author: Neil Miley