ERIK SATIE
French pianist and composer
for the piano, theater, and
ballet. Satie collaborated with
his friends Jean Cocteau and
Picasso. His witty, minimalist
scores scandalized audiences
with orchestrations for the
foghorn and typewriter.
He performed in cabarets,
dressed eccentrically, lived
alone, and founded his own
church, of which he was the
sole member
Parcel paper Satie has drawn
this fantasy hotel using a ruler,
a conventional dip or fountain
pen, and ink on a fragment of
folded brown paper—a scrap
of everyday material that
happened to be at hand.Eastern influence The upright
pictorial space and subject of this
image is reminiscent of Middle
Eastern and medieval European
drawing. Compare the even and
elegantly stylized order of the
many windows and the shape
of the perimeter wall to the
arrangement of details and the
shape of the wall in Babur's
Garden of Fidelity on p.50.Composition Look how well this
drawing fits and resonates with the
upright, narrow shape of its paper.
On pp. 56—57 we discussed how
important the shape, orientation,
and four edges of the paper are
to the composition and impact of
an image. Edges are effectively
additional lines in a work. They
define space and pictorial balance.Hotel de la Suzonnieres
c. 1893
77 / 8 x 51 / 2 in (200 x 140 mm)
ERIK SATIE