Lorraine O'Grady
Charles Baudelaire (France, 1821-1867) is considered both the West's first modern poet and its first modern art critic. Perhaps his most important poetry was created out of his responses to an allegedly destructive relationship with his black common-law wife of 20 years, Jeanne Duval (from Haiti). A close reading of Baudelaire's poetry would indicate that he may have developed his aesthetic theory, that of a beauty which is contradictory and ambiguous and of its time, based on the example Duval provided. In Study # 3, Charles's language is my translation of his poetry. Since no words by Jeanne remain, I have invented for her. Charles: "Her belly, her breasts, those grapes on my vine, more cajoling than angels of evil, moved forward, disturbed my soul from its sleeping retreat, tumbling it from the rock-crystal throne where, calm and alone, it was seated." Jeanne: "The place not what I expect, it lonely and cold. Windows fix, courtyards shut, doors squint. If I could, I would go home, stretch out my hair like a bridge and go cross Charybdis." Lorraine O'Grady New York & Irvine, 2002 |
