12.11.15

Street poles


Many streets in Paris, especially the narrower ones, are equipped with poles. This is a way to protect pedestrians and to avoid wild car parking. More and more of them are painted in a colourful way. A street artist, known as CyKlop, is especially known for this. When you see an eye on top of each pole he has painted, the relation to the ancient mythological cyclops is evident.  

Here we can see CyKlop in operation.

CyKlop has rather recently painted a number of poles in a small Montmartre street, Rue Piémontési. It’s a tribute to artists who have lived and worked in the area.

Each pole refers to a specific painting. Here are a few. Maybe you can find some others?




Addendum: My friend Jeanne (Birmingham Alabama) found this one. Bravo and thanks!

I would like to make some special comments with regard to the Modigliani one: A painting of the same series from 1917 was a couple of days ago sold to a Chinese taxi driver turned billionaire for $170m, the second highest price ever paid for a painting. It seems that he has the intention to exhibit the painting in one of his (two !!) museums in Shanghai.  At least it will be possible to see it. However, the highest rated pieces of art are today often just bought as capitalistic investments, kept hidden, in a vault in a bonded warehouse in Geneva, Dubai, Shanghai… awaiting sale for a higher value, tax-free. Also, a number of new museums are created and they all need a “Joconde” to attract the public. All this creates incredible prices for some pieces when artworks by other, living or dead, artists have difficulties to be sold at decent prices.

This may again remind us that Modiglaini had one single exhibition in his lifetime, in 1917. It was organised by the remarkable gallerist Berthe Weill. (I wrote about her here.) It seems that it lasted only for a few hours - police intervened because of the nudity - and obviously nothing was sold. The $170m painting, from 1917, was probably part of the exhibition. A year later Modigliani tried to sell all he had for $100, but found no buyer. He died in 1920, at the age of 35. 


7 comments:

Thérèse said...

Food for the mind!
Bravo pour cette série.

claude said...

Pas mal comme idée !
J'aime assez.
Quand je pense qu'un nu de Modigliani s'est vendu à prix d'or et que lui a crevé la dalle toute son existence.

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

AMAZING post Peter. As usual,so much to see. Thanks for sharing . Lots of interesting facts too.take care.

Jeanie said...

First of all, I always thought those must have been from long ago when people had to tie up their horses. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

Second, I love them! Very clever and very well done -- and so extra delightful to see.

And finally, thank you for the info and shout out to one of my favorites, Modigiliani. One of his paintings that had been in our Detroit Institute of Arts was recently auctioned, much to my sadness. It was part of a private collection on more or less permanent loan. Less, I guess. I'm glad the one that sold to the Chinese collector will be exhibited. I couldn't agree more about the sharing of art.

Anonymous said...

Love those light brown eyes. A pianist friend of mine has eyes that same kind of color.
What a great idea por those poles. Kudos to that artist who painted them.
Thanks for sharing this!
Maria

Shammickite said...

Sending my sympathy and support to the people of Paris today. My heart is crying.

Studio at the Farm said...

I love these painted street poles! What a wonderful way to brighten a mundane object!!

Kathryn