Saturday 10 March 2012

My first Corbu

I've bought my first Le Corbusier drawing. My first, sounds like they'll be more or that I preside over some kind of collection - neither is true. Meanwhile it may not even be by him at all.
Whatever the provenance, and what do I care for the provenance (last week I nearly bought a Barnett Newman from suburban Detroit for $100) it is a kind of milestone. After years of struggle, I've finally given myself this prize. It was found on E-bay and I got up specially at five this morning, that says it all. The advent of just having marks in pastel on cardboard just like Le Corbusier on our wall is very exciting indeed, so exciting I immediately put up the new venetian blind. Have a history and pocket like me and buy a 'Corbu' on E-bay and you are suddenly inspired to do housework.
I already think of it as a 'pissed off Corbu' or a 'Corbu rudely interrupted' or better just 'bad Corbu', one of his great outpourings that tragically didn't quite make the grade but still carry the whiff of genius (the tits are unequivocal Corbu tits) a treasure cast aside in a minor huff to lie around for years somewhere near Tangiers, to surface first in Milan, and now to rest via E-bay destiny, as one of Le Cobusier's not so great moments, with me. I was, after all, taught by tutors who had Picassos but those were the signs of the times - 'well mother knew this chap who......etc etc' or 'Well mother was rather taken with him!' do wa diddy. These days I wouldn't go near an orginal Koolhas, but one dodgy Corbu will make me smile every day.
My mate Dan has bought a life size 'Guernica' from China for £300, but he's not sure whether he can get it out of the country.

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