For 1998:
1995 - Nature morte aux pommes et aux raisins      65 x 81 cm (26 x 32 in.)
          Still Life with Apples and Grapes                   F 82 25 F

What encouraged MAX-AGOSTINI to stay in his studio to paint a still life? More than likely, bad weather. As he grew older, the wind and cold, as much as the heat and humidity of painting outside, represented a superhuman effort for someone constantly out of breath. The studio's small table with a drawer is back again, laden with an assortment of fruit that Pierrette brought back from the outdoor market. Frequently, Max insisted on choosing them himself. Fortunately, the fresh produce seller recognized Max, because before the painter had found the apples and pears to his taste (of his palette, and not palate!), he had turned all the fruit on the stand upside down. Even the bananas had to be yellow and green, with no brown marks! Yet Max always enjoyed finishing his meal with a piece of fruit, after the always compulsory cheese. But this anecdote is another revelation as to the gap between a true artist residing in his own world of colors and "values" (here:  light and shadow) and the common mortal who doesn't have access to it. A small bouquet interrupts the back wall's long stretch of yellow; an empty glass on the right counterbalances the large dish of grapes on the left. A composition which MAX-AGOSTINI called "a beautiful disarray" (like his fellow seventeenth century citizen, the writer, Nicolas Boileau). But, is it really a "by chance effect" (ditto, Boileau) this compensation which the artist offers us in our observer's status:  to feast in front of the finished painting?

Qu'est-ce qui incitait MAX-AGOSTINI � rester dans son atelier pour peindre une nature morte? Le mauvais temps s�rement, car en vieillissant, le froid et le vent, autant que la chaleur et l'humidit� de la peinture sur le motif, repr�sentaient un effort surhumain pour quelqu'un constamment essouffl�. On retrouve la petite table � tiroir de l'atelier, charg�e d'un assortiment de fruits que Pierrette avait ramen� du march�.  Fr�quemment, Max insistait pour les choisir lui-m�me. Heureusement, le marchand des quatre saisons le reconnaissait, car avant que le peintre ait trouv� sur l'�tal des pommes et poires teint�es � son go�t (de palette, et non de palais!), il avait remu� tous les fruits du stand. M�me les bananes devaient �tre jaunes et vertes, sans traces de marron! Et pourtant, Max a toujours appr�ci� un fruit en fin de repas, apr�s l'incontournable fromage. Mais cette anecdote nous r�v�le davantage, l'�cart entre un v�ritable artiste qui r�side dans son propre monde de couleurs et de "valeurs" (ici : lumi�res et ombres), et le commun des mortels, qui n'y a pas acc�s. Un petit bouquet interrompt le grand aplat jaune du mur du fond; un verre vide sur la droite contrebalance la grande assiette de raisins � gauche. Une composition que MAX-AGOSTINI, (comme son concitoyen du 17e si�cle, l'�crivain Nicolas Boileau) appelait "un beau d�sordre". Mais est-ce vraiment un "effet du hasard" (idem, Boileau), cette  compensation que l'artiste nous offre, malgr� notre statut d'observateur: de nous r�galer devant le tableau achev�?