Alexis Wagner - insights into the mind of an artist

In the case of the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv, artists’ estates are the product of artists’ creations and associated activities, such as exhibitions, sales and source material, amongst others. When these archives enter our collection, it’s important to understand the context in which the artists worked and created or collected those documents. Applying the so-called ‘provenance principle’, meaning preserving the artist’s initial organisation of their documents, gives us crucial information on and valuable insight into the artist’s work and daily life.

A collection of 215 notebooks

In 2023, the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv received the estate of Alexis Wagner (1929-1989), a Luxembourg painter. This archive contains a lot of documents relating to the artist’s own research, as well as exhibition documents, sketches, photographs, correspondence and newspaper articles.

The largest part of the estate is a collection of 215 notebooks of various sizes containing thousands of pages of notes and drawings. One of our main tasks was to organise these notebooks in order to facilitate future research. The first step was to understand the different types of notebooks and see how, when and why they were used by Wagner. It quickly became clear that there were three ways in which the artist was engaging with them.

Wagner used small notebooks to jot down and/or draw any idea he had throughout the day. He probably always carried them around with him, as the shape of his back pocket is still imprinted on some of them. Studying these notebooks is like travelling through the painter’s daily life.

The artist used bigger notebooks to write down more complex thoughts on art, artistic creation and their deeper meaning. These notes give us profound insight into the painter’s psychology and how he saw his art and himself as an artist.

The third type of notebook contains Wagner’s research notes on specific topics such as human anatomy, art history, philosophy, poetry, physics of light and music, among others. In addition to personal notes on these topics, Wagner copied entire volumes of publications by hand, which he borrowed from the Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg. Those documents bear witness to the time and effort the artist put into his work.

Wagner did not only detail his artistic development in notebooks. He also used old envelopes, blank letter heads from his grandfather’s shop or his wife’s workplace - the ministry of agriculture – as well as forms from meetings of the artist’s local parish for drawings and notes, which eventually became part of his archives.

Letters and correspondence

Studying other documents from Wagner’s archives – correspondence, photographs and press reviews – sheds light on the complexity of his life, his work and his character as an artist, and paints a picture of the contemporary context. One of the earliest documents in the archives, a stylised drawing of a monkey, already hints at Wagner’s interest in anatomy as a young boy of around seven.

In the second half of the 1940s, Wagner returned to Luxembourg without his parents, who stayed in Liège, and was tutored by Lucien Wercollier. The sculptor thought the aspiring young painter had “a thorough understanding of form”, as Wagner mentions in one of his many letters to his parents from this period (freely translated by authors). The family would exchange several letters a week to keep in touch. Besides everyday thoughts, young “Lexy” also shared his intention to make a living as an artist and many reflections on the nature of art with his parents. In one of his letters, he calls for a synaesthetic quality of the arts, lamenting how paintings were not really “listened to” or “read” and noting how he believes that grand ideas can be conveyed in very few lines, both in music and in sculpture or painting.

Wagner’s father’s letters from the same year show a different side of his son’s personality. Camille Wagner wanted to obtain exemption from military service for his son, describing him as hypersensitive and mentally as well as physically unfit to serve. This condition is attributed to Alexis Wagner’s traumatic experience of spending extended periods of time starving in the bomb shelter of his residential building in Liège as a young boy during the Second World War. His application for military exemption was eventually approved in 1958.

Contemporary press reviews

Another aspect of the estate is the diverse collection of press reviews from Wagner’s early career, which sheds light on how his work was received at the time. They are also milestones in the artist’s biography. These reviews show how personal and individual art criticism can be. Generally favourably reviewed, Wagner is described as very modest by Pol R. Schneider while L.K. notes his utter determination to maintain his very own, refined style. However, Belgian critic Jean Parisse described Wagner’s solo show at a gallery in Liège as “without finesse” and “aggressive.”

Furthermore, Wagner’s lifelong determination to make a living as an artist against all odds is clear from his correspondence from 1966. An exchange between the artist, the tax administration and the Ministry of Arts and Sciences gives insight into the financial struggles Wagner was facing. He sought protection from the ministry against the taxation of his work as opposed to a joint taxation with his wife, Irma Wagner-Laschette. She was named the sole source of income of the household, whereas “Alexis-Wagner-Laschette”, as he signed this letter, only contributed a “meagre revenue from rare sales” (translation by authors). His appeal to the tax administration complains that “any Sunday painter can sell paintings easier than an authentic artist. The state should take pride in protecting and supporting its artists” (translations …). The ensuing letter by Pierre Grégoire, then Minister of Cultural Affairs, shows that the minister did indeed appeal to Pierre Werner, his counterpart at the Ministry of Finances, to exempt the artist from taxation.

A decade later, one of Wagner’s notebook entries reads: “Life is hard. Particularly the life of an artist, and particularly these days. My working conditions are far from good. At least, I save myself by the best discipline and organisation possible.” (translated by authors).

Despite his lack of commercial success as an artist, which has led to Wagner not occupying a significant place in Luxembourg’s art historiography, his rich estate sheds light on the local art scene and society in the second half of 20th century. Above all, it provides valuable insight into an artist’s psychological and creative process. As such, the estate offers new perspectives on Luxembourg’s art history and holds great potential for further interdisciplinary research.

Authors: Camille Pierre and Julia Wack - Images: LKA

Source: MuseoMag N°III 2024

Alexis Wagner’s biography is available on www.konschtlexikon.lu.

His archives can be consulted at the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv on request. Selected documents from Wagner’s estate are currently on display in the exhibition Memory Movers by Berlin-based artist duo Böhler & Orendt at the Neues Museum Nürnberg, which features a hundred items from over fifty archives. The exhibition is on view until 6 October 2024.