CATALOGUECOMPLET

30 juin - 21 septembre 2014

Cognac Blues Passions
Martell
Cognac

Peintre expressionniste amricain, Harold D. Smith explore son exprience

personnelle en temps qu'homme noir aux Etats-Unis. Il a ralis plusieurs sries
au fil des ans: Pain and Privilege, recherche sur la juxtaposition
des preuves des noirs et des privilges des blancs, Okkkupy,
sur les mensonges, les distorsions de vrits, l'anti-intellectualisme dirig
contre les noirs amricains et donc tous les Amricains, Faces of Katrina,
aprs l'ouragan qui a ravag La Nouvelle-Orlans. Il sonde l'me de la musique
aussi. Comme avec Jazzstract, qui lui a valu une rtrospective,
Colors of Jazz, au Muse National du Jazz de Kansas City,
ou Jazzsynthesis. Et le blues. Thme qui l'a particulirement inspir
pour sa premire exposition europenne et cette nouvelle srie,
Colors of Life, ralise pour Cognac Blues Passions.

Harold D. Smith, an American expressionist painter explores jazz, blues,

and his personal experiences as a Black male in the United States.
He has done several series over the years: Pain and Privilege,
a research on the juxtaposition of the pains experienced by the Blacks,
and the privileges of the Whites, Okkkupy, about the lies, the distorted truths, the
anti-intellectualism directed against the American Blacks, therefore against
all the Americans, Faces of Katrina, after the hurricane that destroyed
New Orleans. He plunges into the soul of the music too. Like with Jazzstract,
which turned into a retrospective exhibit, Colors of Jazz
at the National Museum of Jazz of Kansas City, or Jazzsynthesis.
And the blues. A theme that has particularly inspired him
for his first European exhibit and this new series, Colors of Life,
painted for the Cognac Blues Passions festival.

MichelRolland
Directeur de Cognac Blues Passions
La peinture figurative dHarold Smith reprsente des visages, des personnages.
La puret des modles contraste avec la puissance de sa technique.
Sur la toile ou sur d'autres supports, il exprime ses pulsions, cre un monde
dans lequel les couleurs vives s'amonclent, sentremlent, se conjuguent,
et renvoient un spectacle perceptible du rel ou d'un monde imaginaire.
Sa peinture est un voyage enchant et vibrant sans cesse raliment par
sa curiosit inassouvie de la black music, sur fond de contrastes ethniques
et sociaux.
Cette vision rve et mouvemente dune musique qui l'meut donne
ses uvres une vibration lumineuse et raffine.
Port par ces sons et ces voix, Harold Smith peint... A vous de suggrer
le reste du chemin.
Director of the Cognac Blues Passions festival
Harold Smith's figurative painting depicts faces and characters. The pureness
of his models contrasts with the power of his technique.
Be it on canvas or on other mediums, he expresses his urges, creates a world
in which vivid colors accumulate, intertwine, combine, and bring forward
a perceptible reflection of the real or imaginary world.
His painting is an enchanting and vibrant journey, continuously fed
by his unquenchable curiosity of black music, in a context of ethnic
and social contrasts.
This intuitive and energetic vision of a music that touches him deeply gives
his work a luminous and refined ambiance.
Inspired by these sounds and voices, Harold Smith paints... Feel free
to convey the rest of the way.

-3-

HowlinWolf
Beaucoup de gens veulent savoir ce quest le blues. Jen entends beaucoup
dire: le blues, le blues... Mais je vais te dire ce quest le blues. Quand tas pas
dargent, tu as le blues. Quand tas pas dargent pour payer le loyer, tu as
encore le blues.
Beaucoup de gens disent Je naime pas le blues. Mais quand tas pas dargent
et que tu peux pas payer ton loyer, quand tu peux pas tacheter manger,
cest vraiment sr, tas le blues. Cest l. Je te dis, moi. Cest vraiment l.
Si tas pas dargent, tas le blues. Parce que tu penses mal. Cest a.
Et chaque fois que tu penses mal, tu penses au blues.
Tu vois? Sinon, si toi, tu reois tout tout le temps, si tas besoin de rien,
que tas mme pas besoin de tinquiter. Mais quand tas rien, tas pas le droit
de tinquiter de quoi que ce soit, et cest pour a que le blues est arriv.
Bon Dieu... De toute faon, tu le sais. Quand tu te dis Jai pas ci, jai pas a,
et que tu regardes par l-bas et queux ils ont ci et quils ont a, et que,
dans ton coeur, tu sens que tu nes personne, cest l que tu as le blues.
A lot of people want to know what is the blues. I hear a lot of people saying
the blues, the blues but Im gonna tell you what the blues is. When you aint got
no money, you got the blues. When you aint got no money to pay your house
rent, you still got the blues.
A lot of people talk about I dont like no blues but when you aint got no money
and cant pay your house rent and cant buy you no food you damned sure
got the blues. Thats where its at. I tell you. Thats where its at. If you aint got
no money you got the blues. Cause youre thinking evil. Thats right. Any time
youre thinkin evil youre thinking about the blues.
See. If you aint, if you, if youre getting everything you were sent, and dont need
nothing, you dont have no right to worry about nothing. But when you aint got
nothing then you got to worry about something, and thats why the blues come in.
And Lord, first thing is that you know I dont have this, and I dont have that
and you look over there at these other people, and they got this and got that,
and in your heart you feel like that you aint nobody, you got the blues.

-4-

ShermanH.Cox
Auteur de Three Points and a Poem Preaching Method
(Learning to Preach In the Black Tradition)
Quon le trouve dans la chorale de gospel le dimanche matin ou dans un club,
le blues est fait dmotion brute. On le retrouvera dans le prcheur de gospel,
le chanteur de RnB ou dans le trompettiste de jazz, ou mme dans le bluesman
traditionnel, tout cela remonte la mme source dmotion brute. Lendroit
o se retrouvent toutes nos aspirations et tous nos dsirs les plus sincres,
et qui montrent notre humanit...
M.A., M.Div.
Author Three Points and a Poem Preaching Method (Learning to Preach
In the Black Tradition)
"Whether it is found in the gospel choir on Sunday morning, or in the club,
the blues is about raw emotion. It might be the Gospel preacher, R & B singer,
or the Jazz trumpet player, or even the traditional bluesman, but they all go back
to the same source of raw emotion. That place that captures all of our strivings
and earnest yearning to simply allow our humanity to be seen..."

-5-

DinaM.Bennett
Docteure - ethnomusicologue
Ancienne directrice, responsable de lducation du Muse BB King
& du Centre dinterprtation du Delta, Indianola, Mississippi
La voix passionne du bluesman du Delta, celle, vaudevillesque, du chanteur
de blues qui raconte sa vie, celle qui se rapproche dun cri autoritaire,
celle, terre--terre, du bluesman urbain, celle, enfin, douce, de la chanteuse
de jazz, sont toutes des interprtations du blues. Une forme de musique
de la Post-Reconstruction qui narre la dimension sculaire de lexprience
noire amricaine. Ces voix diversifies et magnifiques nous invitent couter
le blues, couter ce quils racontent yeah, couter le blues, couter
ce quils jouent, et comment.
Le chanteur de blues qui partage ces motions et ces sentiments du blues,
est charg de messages. Damours non partages, damours perdues, dhistoires
de survie, de libert, de voyages en qute dune vie meilleure, demprisonnement,
et dautres preuves issues des ralits sociales, politiques, conomiques
de la vie. Le message du blues est exprim en des termes trs personnels
et, en mme temps, reprsente la sensibilit et lidentit dun peuple.
Ph.D. - Ethnomusicologist
Former Director of Education, B.B. King Museum
& Delta Interpretive Center, Indianola, Mississippi
The passionate voice of the Delta bluesman, the tell-it-like-it-is voice
of the vaudeville blues singer, the commanding voice of the blues shouter,
the earthy voice of the urban bluesman, and the smooth voice of the jazz singer
are all interpretive voices of the blues, a Post-Reconstruction form of music
that depicts the secular dimension of the Black experience. These diverse
and magnificent voices compel us to listen to the blues, listen to what
theyre sayin, yeah, listen to the blues, listen to the way theyre playin.
As the conveyor of blues emotion and feeling, the blues singer imparts a message
of unrequited love, lost love, survival, freedom, traveling (looking for a better life),
imprisonment, and other hardships stemming from the social, political, and
economic realities of life. The blues message is expressed in highly personalized
terms, yet it represents the collective sensibility and identity of a people.
Many blues performers served their apprentice in the Black church.
The blues is about oral expression and storytelling. Emotion. Realism. Joy.
Despair. As John Lee Hooker proclaims, youll never get out of these blues alive.
-6-

Exhuberance

-7-

Bluesmaninthewinter

BillieInBlue
-8-

BluesIsTheHumanSong

BluesWoman
-9-

BuddyGuy

Ecstasy
- 10 -

Impresario

JohnnyLittlejohn
- 11 -

NinaSimone2

RobertJohnson2
- 12 -

Sangin

TheSinger1
- 13 -

RawMemphisBlues

FredMcDowell

- 14 -

Bessie

BigBluesman
- 15 -

Billie

Cab
- 16 -

Crooner

Ella
- 17 -

Hendrix

Jimi
- 18 -

Koko

JuniorWells

- 19 -

Leadbelly

Monk
- 20 -

Muddy

PainAndPrivilege
- 21 -

RawBlues

Sarah
- 22 -

Thought

Wolf

- 23 -

Badu

Ascension

- 24 -

MarvinGaye

OmetteColeman

- 25 -

RayCharles

TheConfessional
- 26 -

StrangeFruit

Bluesman
- 27 -

HoundDogTaylor

AlexisSutter

- 28 -

Backwoods

Robert

- 29 -

BluesTheology

Joy

- 30 -

KokoTaylor

PrimalScream

- 31 -

HaroldSmith
www.haroldsmithart.com

Contact en France pour les achats de toiles

et autres demandes de renseignements:
Franoise Digel
f.digel@gmail.com
06.88.74.25.56