1883 -1941 · Warsaw, Paris and poetic cubism

Instruments, bottles, cards and fragments of coffee make Louis Marcoussis a singular cubist, both architect of space and poet of the object.

Louis Marcoussis was born in Warsaw in 1883 under the name Ludwik Kazimierz Władysław Markus. After initial training in Poland, he moved to Paris at the beginning of the 20th century and attended the Académie Julian, Montmartre and avant-garde circles. He drew for the satirical press before meeting Picasso, Braque, Apollinaire and Juan Gris. Apollinaire suggested the name Marcoussis, borrowed from a town near Paris. Around 1910, his language shifted towards Cubism. Tables, glasses, stringed instruments, playing cards and café signs were broken down into transparent plans which nevertheless preserved the sensitive memory of the object. The Port Bar and Night Café combine geometry, urban light and implicit human presence. Checkered still life, rum, bass and violin, bottles of marc and cards show his way of intertwining letters, musical curves and colorful facets. Engaged during the First World War, Marcoussis then resumed international activity, exhibited in Europe and the United States and devoted himself with increasing intensity to engraving. His etchings and illustrated books accompanied Apollinaire, Gérard de Nerval and other poets. Died in Cusset in 1941, he left a cubism less austere than intimate, where construction became a form of memory. His etchings and illustrated books accompanied Apollinaire, Gérard de Nerval and other poets. Died in Cusset in 1941, he left a cubism less austere than intimate, where construction became a form of memory. The "Louis Marcoussis" selection notably compares Still Life to checkerboard, rum, bass and night coffee. Its reading favors composition.

Marcoussis does not break the object: it redistributes its memories, sounds and surfaces in a transparent architecture.