I decided to call my newest and latest sock project “Le Fauve” after the distinctive work of the school of painters of the same name. The Fauvists painted in strong colours, using simple and often crude brush strokes, not letting realism get in the way of the beauty of strident, clashing and sometimes shocking blocks of colour. At the time of its inception in the early twentieth century the work was seen as too shocking, garnering criticisms such as “A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public” from the critic Camille Mauclair, but the spirit of this body of work still germinates of a lot of today’s art.
The colours of the Kureyon sock wool I used for these socks are slightly shocking in their intensity and refusal to blend into a nice tonal array of like complementary colours, but that is what drew me to this yarn in the first place.
Later edit: I thought “fauve”also meant “wild beast”, and on consulting a French dictionary I read “wildcat”. So… Reaooooooow! (snarling accompanied by claw-slash)
Below: at left, Woman with a Hat, Henri Matisse; at right, Charing Cross Bridge, Andre Derain; below a work by Paul Gaugin
