Jean Cocteau, an artist of infinite talent

One hand holds an open book, the other a pair of scissors, the third a pen, the fourth a brush. The fifth reaches the lips to allow the artist to smoke, the sixth is free, ready to welcome new activities. Six moving hands define the wonderful world of Jean Cocteau, creating a multi-talented mix and anticipating the purpose of an exhibition that tells the story of a brilliant, unconventional, courageous and visionary artist.

Inside of black and white photo, taken in 1949 by photographer Philippe Halsman for LIFE magazine, Cocteau is seen as a mythological creature with great power and yet, mainly because of his great abilities, he was criticized by those who, unable to put him in a category, preferred to define him as an athlete. A real example artistic fluidopenly gay and addicted to opium, which he did not hide, explores themes and disciplines without setting boundaries, opening for contamination.

A prominent figure in the French cultural panorama of the twentieth century, friend of intellectuals and artists such as Pablo Picasso, Coco Chanel and Edith Piaf, partner of the designer Elsa Schiaparelli (with whom she created an eye-shaped ring with a pearl teardrop) , Cocteau However, he is still not understood among his contemporaries, thus triggering a short cycle between fame and lack of attention. Writing, drawing, painting, sculpture, theater, cinema, photography, different disciplines are always explored with enthusiasm, to the extent that, writes WH Auden, “His work leaves us with lasting feelings of happiness, not because it does not involve suffering, but because nothing in it is rejected, regretted, or created hatred. Happiness is a sign of wisdom, more reliable than we think, and perhaps Cocteau has it more than others.”

USA. NYC. 1949. French poet, artist and director Jean Cocteau. © Philippe Halsman / Magnum Images

Jean Cocteau. Revenge of the juggler (until 16 September) is an opportunity to discover the artistic and human adventure of a free spirit, with love and poetry of life: in the title of his film. The blood of a poet shows the poetic idea of ​​art that crosses different modes of expression: novel poems (novel), picture poems (to draw), theater poetry (theater), important poems (non-false) e movie poetry (cinema). He defines himself as a poet and is also a novelist, playwright and critic, he writes memoirs and essays on art and music, he devotes himself to travel writing. In it, words and images sit without controlling each other: the title pages of books given as gifts have written and painted symbols, decorated with a star or a harp, a symbol of Orpheus, whose story – along with other elements of Greek mythology – remains constant in his productions and his thoughts.

Beyond the work, the exhibition tells a beautiful story: of the artist and his relationship with Peggy Guggenheim and Venice, a city he visited for the first time at the age of fifteen and to which, after the Second World War, he returned regularly for the Venice Film Festival. His connection to the lagoon is strong as is his friendship with the American patron: in a shot from 1956 Cocteau is on the terrace of the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and is wearing Peggy’s sunglasses. The meeting between the two took place in 1938 when, at the suggestion of Marcel Duchamp, Guggenheim opened his London gallery, making the first in the field of art and exhibiting paintings by Cocteau. The project involves the exhibition of the producers of the theatrical work Knights of the Round Table and a drawing made on paper intended, ultimately, to be viewed by few. Peggy Guggenheim herself describes the details of the story and its conclusion: “It was an allegorical subject with a title. Fear gives wings to courage and includes a photo of actress Jean Marais who, along with two other severely disfigured people, was seen with her pubic hair exposed. Cocteau had attached leaves to it, but the painting caused a great scandal in the British tradition, who erected it in Croydon. Marcel (Duchamp) and I ran there. I asked why they are against nudity in art: they answered that it was not nudity, but pubic hair scared them. I promised not to show this paper publicly, but only privately to a few friends, and so they allowed me to take it. I liked it so much that I finally bought it.”

Curated by Kenneth E. Silver, an art historian at New York University, the exhibition presents more than one hundred and fifty works: from drawings to photographic works, from jewelry to tapestries, as well as books, magazines, photographs, films. from the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the Musee Jean Cocteau, the Séverin Wunderman Collection in Menton and from private sources such as the Cartier Collection, from which it originates. the sword that accompanied him in his election to the Académie Française in 1955: decorated on the hilt with a blue-eyed profile, like Orpheus, a precious professional sword – of gold, silver, emerald, ruby, diamond and white opal – shows initials and other symbols taken from his novels and films.

In black and white video A message for the year 2000recorded in France a year before his death, sitting in the dining room of the Villa Santo Sospir, decorated by him, in front of his tapestry. Judith and Holofernes (1948), Cocteau reflects on his legacy and turns his attention to the future: “Actually, my work is more similar to me than the face you have now in front of your eyes. If my work is legitimate, I wish the words to be written on my grave. I’m starting (I’m starting)”. A a lesson for generations of artists.