As an homage to Miss Eudora Welty
I was lucky enough to see Miss Eudora Welty read "Why I Live at The P.O." at the Morgan Library in New York. She had that Mississippi Southern drawl that meant her words went on for yards, sweet and light as lilies and tart as lemon pie. 
In Paris, one goes to the post office to post letters, of course. La Poste is also a bank, and it has a supply of cute La Poste gifts and knickknacks, perfectly good boxes in which one can send any manner of gifts and/or junk, the typical mailing minutiae, and now machines where we can weigh and stamp our letters ourselves--although this is without the beautiful and artful choice that comes from an actual human being selling them.
Not the bird's nest P.O. where Ms. Welty's Sister would want to throw her cot, but as is the case in France, one can find art in the most unexpected places. This is what I saw at my post office in the 20th Arrondissement:
A porcelain mural by Russian Cubist sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), who arrived in Paris in 1908, and created an oeuvre in wood, clay, stone, and bronze as well as producing drawings, watercolors, engravings, gouaches, and tapestry cartoons.
I was quite taken with these scenes that had such presence and big style.
The man and the woman. Communication! Letters flying through the air on all kinds of wings.
M. Zadkine was here and made his mark in Paris.
And his sculptured slabs (tiles?) were manufactured in famous Sevres, just as Marie Antoinette's dishes were.
From the Zadkine Foundation:
Instead of vainly seeking novel styles and solutions, a sculptor should rather alternate his aims. Novelty then comes to him of its own accord. At one time, I concentrate on poetry, on a kind of expressionist sculpture, and at other times on form, I mean on a kind of sculpture that concentrates on formal relationships rather than on emotions or ideas. I suppose that this principle leads to a kind of oscillation in the evolution of my own particular style as a sculptor, but I feel that it prevents me from repeating myself, I mean from settling down in the monotony of a few routine tricks which I might be tempted to use again and again.
---Ossip Zadkin
Writers and artists find inspiration in the little things. From the little, comes the universal.
For information about the
Musée Zadkine
in Paris, click here.
Musée Zadkine
100 bis, rue d'Assas,
75006 Paris
Téléphone : 01 55 42 77 20 - Fax : 01 40 46 84 27
Read "Why I Live at The P.O." here.
All photos taken by Beth Arnold on her iPhone and Canon PowerShot SD750.
---Beth Arnold in Paris
