|
|
La
Fleur en Papier
Dore
(The
Flower in Gold
Paper)
|
|
On
53 rue de
Alexiens in
Brussels,
Belgium,
this is a hard
to find, tiny,
crowded
French-speaking
locals' bar in
a commercial
neighborhood,
near an office
building, two
blocks from a
row of tourist
restaurants.
I stopped in
for a pint of
brew one night
in June of
1995.
Filled with
bench seats and
lots of little
tables, the bar
in the back
serves Duvel
and Stella
Artois beer on
tap.
Darkish and
crusty brown in
color, dusty
old framed
images cover
the walls,
interspersed
with scribbles,
poems and
graffiti.
They include
reproductions
of Clouet, and
Brueghel
paintings, and
Velasquez's
"Las
Meninas."
Resting on one
wall is an
antique doll
encased in an
oval frame in
blue velvet,
with convex
glass and
clusters of
flowers on each
side.
"What does
all this say
about Magritte?"
I thought.
|
|
There are no
images by the
Belgian
surrealist that
I could find
inside, no
photos of him
with the owner,
no evidence
whatsoever that
Magritte ever
frequented this
establishment,
which is
consistent with
his
personality.
He once wrote
that when asked
what the
relationship
between his art
and his life
was, "I
couldn't really
think of any,
except that
life obliges me
to do
something, so I
paint."
And to those
who tried to
interpret his
pictures, he
would answer
with the poet
Mallarme's old
quote:
"You are
more fortunate
than I
am."
In the end La
Fleur en Papier
Dore was simply
the bar where
he drank.
-Ken Magri
