Creative Space – 1

(Studio in the rue de Furstenberg by Frederic Bazille)

What is a creative space? We might consider it a place where materials are organized and there is room to explore the art of making. Art critic and historian James Hall, author of The Artist’s Studio: A Cultural History (Thames & Hudson, 2022) has written a thought-provoking history of creative spaces including Victorian collector’s rooms and the sparse units of the Depot des Mabres in Paris where Rodin had two spaces. These spaces were described in Art Populaire as “…poor, severe, but big. No refinements. You would think yourself in a monk’s cell. This ascetic lair demands respect.”

Picasso was a collector of such an extraordinary number of objects he bought a second house to hold them (Hall, 2022, p. 199).

Sir John Soane, an architect in England during the Regency period filled his home with paintings, busts, plaster casts and objects. He referred to the objects in his home as “…studies for my own mind.”

He was later to bequeath his house museum and artifacts to England. This book by Bruce Boucher takes us deep inside the man and his creative space.

This room with the long counters where models of works in progress rest below walls hung with plaster models of gargoyles, column caps and decorative moldings is called the Drawing Office.

(World of Interiors Magazine)

This square piece of furniture floating in the room is intriguing.  He must have designed it himself and it is an ingenious way to hold models and fragments. You can imagine yourself walking around the edges studying each artifact or perhaps leaning down to get something from behind the cabinet doors.

Artist Henri Matisse painted this image of a studio.

This photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson shows Matisse at work in his studio. The cut out shapes on the wall behind him echo the shapes of the vases on the table where he works sketching a flower.

Claude Monet had a large studio and space for contemplating art on the grounds of his home in Giverny, France. In addition to what you see here, Monet collected Japanese woodblock prints.

(classic-art.tumblr.com)

Some of Monet’s most well-known paintings are of the lilies in the water garden at Giverny. He was fascinated by the play of light on water and had a small boat built and outfitted as a painting studio. Here he could anchor and paint inside an airy floating room.

Andrew Wyeth, an American realist painter of the 20^th century is known for his paintings of life in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and Cushing, Maine. His works are thought provoking and nearly monochromatic. Interestingly, his studio is of a similar palette.

(Photo of Cy Twombly painting in his studio – Mario Dondero)

American painter and sculptor Cy Twombly has been photographed in his studios and homes by renown photographers such as Mario Dondero, Bruce Weber, Francois Halard and Deborah Turbeville. The De Menil Museum in Houston has a large collection of his works exhibited in a dedicated building on the museum grounds.

(Photo credit – Bruce Weber)

In many of the photographs you will see Cy Twombly sitting down contemplating his large- scale works on canvas propped up against a wall. This is a photo of his favorite ornate “viewing chair”.

Here is a photograph of Julian Schnabel’s studio. He is a contemporary neo-expressionist artist and filmmaker. His first paintings to be recognized were portraits on canvas covered in broken dinner plates. His films are about artists and their creative lives. He is very much interested in the work that occurs in the moments of creative construction both for himself and for other artists.

An atelier is a “private workshop, studio, or creative workspace…”. John Whelan and Oskar Proctor, authors of Ateliers of Europe: An Atlas of Decorative Workshops, take us inside some of the most inspiring ateliers replete with the tools related to the process being performed. As we look at these spaces we may gather ideas for our own creative space.

In this photo we see a rolling rack for drying ceramics at the Wedgewood atelier in Stoke-on-Trent. Wooden planks rest on dowels which dowels which look as if they could be moved up or down depending on the size of the ceramics drying.

Feau and Cie specializes in antique decorative woodwork and paneling. The company has been in business in Paris, France for 150 years and cabinetmakers, joiners, sculptors, painters, and gilders work here to restore, preserve, and create reproductions of decorative woodwork or boiseries. This table in the atelier holds a collection of objects which may be representative of the work done here or possibly to serve as inspiration for the artists and guests to the atelier.

This cabinet is in the Antico Setificio Fiorentino or ASF in Florence. ASF originated in the middle 18^th century when a group of families decided to house their looms, patterns, and fabrics under one roof in a single atelier. This is the fabric sample showroom of the ASF atelier. The cases along the wall hold the samples the way bookcases in a library protect and hold the books.

Inside the Milanese bookbinder’s atelier, Conti Borbone, we see a stunning wooden cabinet. Every shelf holds a tight row of antique stamping implements, each in its own carved indentation. The drawers built below the cabinet are useful for organizing materials associated with bookbinding such as frames and coats of arms.

(Painting credit – The Artist in His Studio by Johannes Vermeer)

Perhaps this quick tour of some of the aspects of creative spaces will enable you to think about what sort of space might be made for your own creative endeavors. In the next post on this topic we will continue to examine studios or ateliers focused on various types of works.