La cité de Miami Beach défie les lois de la pesanteur
Texte en anglais par Jim Tommaney, écrivain :
Pierre Marcel's whimsical cascade of hotel castles in the air, joined by Miami Beach's old City Hall, suggests the end of the law of gravity in more ways than one.
The architectural beauty of the hotels is no less distinctive when viewed horizontally, soaring in mid-air to bewilder the astonished seagulls. The gorgeous Carlyle manages to maintain it's horizontal aplomb, but even here the umbrella tables are seen to be flying off, apparently in search of fresh costumers.
With Marcel's mysteries are revealed, but never explained. Does the inclusion of the yellow and beige Old City Hall indicate that government is less than earthbound? Does upending of architectural gems suggest that these may not be any safer than destroyed hotels such as The Senator, torn down for a parking lot? Does the Eastward flight to Europe suggest that Miami Beach's appeal to Europe works both ways?
One is left to speculate, but it seems most likely that the city commissioners, in an attempt to rule out gloom and doom, inadvertently repealed the law of "gravity". And it must be so, for surely the painting dispels depression and makes us wish to join the joyful mid-air dance.
The city commissioners may have passed a law wiser than they knew. For the paintings makes us wish to visit Miami Beach again, to savor the unlikely marvel here created, to be soothed by the cool blue of the seductive sea, to be dazzled by the imaginative architecture, and to be grateful to reside even temporarily in a world captured so well in the rich, extraordinary art of Pierre Marcel.

Image 3 : Pierre Marcel and artist Karen Schnell, on the cover of September 13, 1987 issue of Sunshine magazine. " New wave on South Beach, will it become Greenwich Village by the sea?"

Added Mar 28, 2016