Париж Тәуелсіз Суретшілер Салоны

French artists' salon and exhibiting space

The Société des Artistes Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists) or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "sans jury ni récompense" ("without jury nor reward"). Albert Dubois Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were among its founders. For the following three decades their annual exhibitions set the trends in art of the early 20th century, along with the Salon d'Automne. This is where artworks were often first displayed and widely discussed. World War I brought a closure to the salon, though the Artistes Indépendants remained active. Since 1920, the headquarters has been located in the vast basements of the Grand Palais (next door to the Société des Artistes Français, the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, the Société du Salon d'Automne, and others).

The Salon des Indépendants (Salon des Artistes Indépendants) is an annual independent art exhibition aimed at a large audience that takes place in Paris. It was established in response to the rigid traditionalism of the official government sponsored Salon. Since the first exhibition of 1884, at the Pavilion de la ville de Paris (Champs Élysées), the organizing Société des Artistes Indépendants has vowed to bring together the works of artists claiming a certain independence in their art. The event is characterized by the absence of both awards and a selection jury. There are however placement or hanging committees. In contrast to the Salon d'Automne, which takes place in Paris during autumn months, the Indépendants is held during the springtime, inspiring artistic production during winter months, as artists prepare for the show. Several important dates have marked the history of the salon. During the Second Empire, artists not backed by the official Académie de peinture et de sculpture in charge of the exhibits at the annual Salon or without support supplied by actual political constellations had little chance to advance. From year to year the number of artists working in Paris, the number of artists submitting works to the official Salon and the number of works refused by the jury increased, but neither the Second Empire nor the Third Republic found an answer to this situation. For years, the artists had counted on official support. In 1884, finally, the artists began to organise themselves, and a "Group of independent artists" was authorised by the Ministry of Fine Arts to arrange an exhibition, while the City of Paris agreed to supply rooms for the presentation. So, from May 15 through July 15, the first "free" exhibition of contemporary art showed more than 5000 works by more than 400 artists. Although sustained by Mesureur, deputy chairman of the Council of Paris and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, by Frédéric Hattat, chairman of the Fine Art commission in the same council, by Albert Dubois Pillet, commanding the Republican Guard, member of the Grand Orient de France, the beginning of the Company, considered as a nest of revolutionaries, were difficult.

Members of the Groupe challenged this foundation and succeeded to have an exhibition arranged "for the victims of the recent cholera epidemic", inaugurated December 1, 1884, by Lucien Boué, President of the Paris City Council. But financially the result was a catastrophe. Nevertheless, in spring 1885, the "Groupe" organised its next exhibition, this time with some success.

The Salon des Indépendants arose through the need by artists to present their works to the general public independently, rather than through the official selective method of the "Salon" (created by Louis XIV). A small collective of innovative artists—Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Camille Pissarro along with Albert Dubois Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac—created the Salon des Indépendants. The right to present their works to the public with no restrictions was their only condition. Article no. 1 of the By laws of the organization: "The purpose of Société des Artistes Indépendants—based on the principle of abolishing admission jury—is to allow the artists to present their works to public judgement with complete freedom". The proceeds of the first show were earmarked for the victims of cholera. The second exhibition was held in 1886 in a temporary building in the Tuileries Garden with 200 paintings exhibited, including the first showing by Henri Rousseau. By 1905 Pierre Bonnard, Jean Metzinger and Henri Matisse had exhibited there. Many avant garde artists, including those associated with the Société des Artistes Indépendants shifted towards commercial venues in the 1890s. Due to space constraints stemming from preparations for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the 1899 exhibition had only 187 artists, down from more than 1000 in 1897. In 1900, the Indépendants reached its lowpoint, with only 55 exhibitors and few serious or substantial critical reviews.

In 1901, however, the society rebounded with more than 1000 paintings exhibited, and critics paying it serious attention again. Reviews of that years show were decidedly positive, even calling it "one of the most brilliant exhibitions" in the group's 17 year history. Fontainas, who had cried "Why M. Signac?" in 1897, and in 1899 declared the society "almost dead" did an abrupt about face in 1901, highly praising the Salon. Art critic Roger Marx highly praised that year's exhibition and importantly, he continued to link its success to the ideals of freedom on which the society had been founded. "Overall, the exhibition of the Independents is more and better than the protesting Salon des Refusés; it gives the example of an open society where the rights of all are equal, where everyone is answerable only to himself and remains individually responsible. The artist admits and shows himself as he is, openly without pretense; the viewer, meanwhile, receives no watchword from the jury, follows the inclination of his preferences and decides, in his own way, from beginning to end. Fortunate training for the will, is it not true, that which accustoms man to use his independence to act, to think by himself and for himself, consulting no one, in the blissfulness of free will!" In the following years the exhibition continued to grow in both numbers and importance. 2,395 works were exhibited in 1904, and in 1905, the Salon showed 4,269 works by 669 artists. By 1908 six thousand works were displayed at the Indépendants. In 1910 the number of artists increased to 1,182, rising progressively to 2,175 by 1930. But the Société's inclusive principles meant it would always be subject to the criticism that it valued quantity over quality: in 1926 the critic Louis Vauxcelles estimated that only 100 of the 3,726 artworks were of any value.

1902 04 continued the success seen in the 1901 Salon. Critics increasingly praised the harmony and beauty of Neo Impressionist paintings of the Mediterranean coast. The art critic Fagus wrote in La Revue Blanche that Henri Edmond Cross's works that year showed "the quivering of these Provencal pines, the beautiful rise towards the arabesque, towards the beautiful line, towards a new classical canon!". This year also featured a retrospective of works by Toulouse Lautrec. For the first time, the establishment journal Gazette des Beaux Arts reviewed the annual Salon in 1903, marking the coming of age of the Indépendants. In 1903, Jean Metzinger sent three paintings to the Salon des Indépendants, and subsequently moved to Paris with the proceeds from their sale. He again exhibiting several paintings, this time along with Robert Delaunay, at the Indépendants of 1904, where Cross presented his Venice series. In 1905 the salon featured retrospectives of works by Seurat and Vincent van Gogh. contrasting the paintings with a Renaissance style sculpture that shared the room with them. At the 1905 Indépendants Henri Matisse exhibited with Albert Marquet, Jean Puy, Henri Manguin, Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy, Kees van Dongen, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Charles Camoin and Jean Metzinger. This exhibition was reviewed by Vauxcelles in Gil Blas on 4, 18 and 23 March 1905. Matisse exhibited the proto Fauve painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté. In the Divisionist technique and brightly colored, it was painted in 1904, after a summer spent working in St. Tropez on the French Riviera alongside the neo Impressionist painters Paul Signac and Henri Edmond Cross. The painting is Matisse's most important work in which he used the Divisionist technique advocated by Signac, which Matisse had first adopted after reading Signac's essay, "D'Eugène Delacroix au Néo impressionisme" in 1898. Signac purchased the work after the 1905 Salon des Indépendants. Matisse is in charge of the hanging committee, assisted by Metzinger, Bonnard, Camoin, Laprade Luce, Manguin, Marquet, Puy and Vallotton. In 1906 Metzinger had acquired enough prestige to be elected to the hanging committee of the Salon des Indépendants, in addition to his entry of eight works.

According to John Golding's influential history of Cubism published in 1959, it was at the Salon des Indépendants of 1909, held 25 March through 2 May, that one of the first Cubist painting was exhibited to the public: Little Harbor in Normandy (Petit port en Normandie), no. 215, entitled Paysage, by Georges Braque (Art Institute of Chicago). On 25 March 1909, Louis Vauxcelles qualifies the works of Braque (Bracke, sic) exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants as "bizarreries cubiques" (cubic oddities). In Room 16 hung works by Derain, Dufy, Friesz, Laprade, Matisse, Jean Puy, Rouault and Vlaminck.

Gleizes exhibits in the Salon des Indépendants for the first time: Portrait de René Arcos and L'Arbre, two paintings in which the emphasis on simplified geometric form overwhelms to a large extent the representational interest of the painting. According to Gleizes's memoirs, Alexandre Mercereau introduces him to Metzinger, but only after the Salon d'Automne do they become seriously interested in each other's work. It is suspected that Lolo belonged to Frédéric Gérard (Le Père Frédé), owner of the cabaret Lapin Agile in Montmartre. Roland Dorgelès and two friends, André Warnod et Jules Depaquit, attached a paint brush to the tail of the animal. The donkey did the rest. The painting sold for 400FF (equal to 1,257 Euros today) and was donated by Dorgelès to the Orphelinat des Arts. The painting forms part of the permanent collection at l'Espace culturel Paul Bédu (Milly la Forêt).

The Salon des Indépendants of 1921, which opened in January, had less Cubist paintings than the previous year. Braque and Metzinger were not represented. The artists that did exhibit included Gleizes, Ferat, Hayden, Marcoussis, Hellesen and Survage. With the Cubists were also Hélène Pordriat, Marthe Laurens, Irène Lagut, Alice Halicka and Sonia Lewitska. At the exhibition were also the works of Bissière, Blanchard, Dufy, Lhote, Tirman, Zadkine and Lipchitz. The hanging commission was conducted in opposition to Signac, who was in favor of the alphabetical order system. Léger left the placement committee in 1923. In 1924 placement was classified by nationality and alphabetically. Lhote left the placement committee, which consisted of 20 people, along with eight other members in 1925. Lhote was of the opinion that the change was mainly intended for the "Sunday painters". Signac and his supporters defended the alphabetical order stressing 'equal attention to all participants' and that there was no place for 'les petites chapelles' (the little chapels). The latter was especially directed against the neo cubists, who after the First World wished to be associated with well known artists. From 1920 the Société des Artistes Indépendants obtained the Grand Palais for its salon exhibitions. After World War II, the Salon des Indépendants was renewed with the artist group Jeune création, with the assistance of Dunoyer de Segonzac, Bernard Buffet, Jean Carzou, Maurice Boitel, Yves Brayer, Aristide Caillaud, Daniel du Janerand, amongst others.