Mauvaise Caractère

Alsatian painter, Seytal Reclus, is known less for his own work than for the profound influence he had over an entire generation of 20th century French artists. From his esteemed academic perch at L'Ecole Royale D'Art Decoratifs et de Dessin, Reclus can claim the likes of Carpentier, Goutauld, Goldmann and my dear friend Currado Malaspina as former students.

Seytal Reclus, Self-Portrait. 1933

A common trait found in practically all of Reclus' students is a cut-throat, ill-tempered, paranoiac competitiveness. Reclus used to tell anyone who would listen "tu aimeras ton voisin que si elle porte une jupe."

Another fractured biblical injunction frequently used by Reclus was "זכור את עמלק"

"Remember Amalek!"

To Reclus, "Amalek" meant anyone who at any time had ever done or said anything that even remotely interfered with your intentions.

The fact that Reclus' own paintings are eminently forgettable is evidenced by the self-portrait reproduced above. Even for a piece of juvenilia painted nearly a decade before World War II, it seems hopelessly derivative and unpromising. His later work, or what remains of it - his Paris studio was looted by the Nazis - showed little if any development or maturity.

Perhaps that explains his petulance - his sad fate as an avant-gardist manqué. Maybe his disappointment and despair fed an already fragile ego, turning someone who by nature was merely disagreeable into a complete and total asshole.

Whatever the case, his legacy lives on in my comrade and colleague, Currado Malaspina.