GARE DU NORD : WORKS ON PAPER
The one distinct useful pastime that derives from a lengthy train journey is the opportunity to think. Apart from the all too numerous ticket checks en route, most the time is spent in a thought process that is synchronised to the stop/start rhythm of the trains engine. It is a journey that is made for contemplation. One could for instance contemplate that taking the train was for many years in the early part of the 20th century the only viable means of traveling between Paris and the northern lands of Europe namely Scandinavia. This was also the `route of culture´, the chief protagonist of cultural progress, commonly referred to as `the avant garde´ was assembled and created in Paris before wending its way to northern Europe at the early part of the twentieth century.
Naturally my interest are concentrated upon the evolution of modern art. I will be forward as to state that the majority of the art that has influenced my own personal work is as a result of the events and individual characters that resided or travelled to Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century and who began individually to influence and alter the course of art history.
from the text “Gare Du Nord” Galvin Harrison 2013.
