BAD HOURS

Montmartre no longer has a Roof for our Artists

On the Butte, which was their domain for so long, we are thinking, at least, of reserving a small place for them

Montmartre -- if we are not careful soon, will no longer be Montmartre. It is not, of course, a question of defending the noisy Montmartre of night cabarets, which, moreover, defends itself very well and on its own in the sparkling waves of expensive "obligatory" champagne, but of save the real Montmartre, the poor mound of artists, dedicated, today, to land dealers and demolitionists.

The latest Workshops

The last workshops, which I was able to easily count while pilgrimage from the famous “Consulat d'Auvergne” to the picturesque “Lapin Agile” and from Berlioz's house to the old Saint-Pierre church, threaten, in fact, to disappear soon.

Speculation, it seems, gets involved. Montmartre is becoming fashionable. The air is pure, the view is admirable. The profane, in turn, want to live on the sacred mound!

No more French!

And the few workshops that still remain are occupied - how sad! by strangers, only by strangers. Out of a hundred workshops, more than eighty were rented, at ultra-high prices, to snobs from both worlds, to neo-futurists from Chicago or extra-Dadaists from Hamburg...

The French, our artists, search in vain for a roof, a large window freely providing the great light essential to the creation of a work of art. They search, but they do not find...

Painters, sculptors, musicians are now outcasts driven from their favorite land.

The List of Artists

One hope, just one, still clings to the hearts of our dearly deprived people. Will the municipal council facilitate the construction of the “City of Artists”? It must be said, it must be shouted, this admirable project must be realized!

However, Mr. Pierre Godin, whose popularity is currently considerable on the Butte, has just invited the Municipal Council to transfer land to the company “Montmartre aux Artistes” to build the future city,

Ordener Street,

The free space in question is located in rue Ordener, a few steps from rue Damrémont. I wanted to visit it. It doesn't enchant me. It seems to me that we could have found something better, higher up, closer to the light. Finally, as it stands, it seems acceptable to a number of artists who have already developed very ingenious plans for it. I was shown, on paper, bright pavilions, excellent studios, beautiful exhibition rooms, a library, a vast restaurant where you will, finally, hear French spoken!

Montmartre is dying!

May the new Montmartre for Artists live, because the other is dying! Let's preserve the Butte's special character, its fertile role, let's preserve its inhabitants whose distress is extreme and who are on the verge of despair of Paris and art...

ROBERT BOUCARD.