Art: Bourgeois Heartbreak

Paris Poet Blaise Cendrars used to baffle the bourgeois, and build up his painter friends, by writing such wild lines as these (about Marc Chagall):

He grabs a cow and paints with the cow

With a sardine

With heads, hands, knives . . .

Lately, Cendrars has chilled to his old chums, and steered clear of art galleries. In a recent issue of Les Arts magazine he explains why: “Nowadays all painters, even those who call themselves Communists, paint only for millionaires … I am heartbroken to have battled to install these bourgeois . . . Last time I saw Picasso, he looked seedy. ‘What’s the matter, Pablo?’ I said.

” ‘Ah,’ he sighed, ‘I’ve just dropped several million on Royal Dutch.’

” ‘What on earth are you up to, buying stocks?’ I said to him. ‘Who put that idea into your head?’

” ‘My broker, naturally,’ said Picasso.

” ‘Well, serves you right,’ I said.

“Furthermore, what have all these gentlemen done with their dough? Not one of them knows how to spend it handsomely. Do you know of one who ruined himself with a racing stable, or with a dancer? No, all bourgeois.”