I was in a bar a while ago, just standing there, somewhere near the bar. There was music in the background, lots of people talking, a pleasant atmosphere. Then I approached the bar for a drink. I ordered an orange juice. This seemed to require repeating but I got it. Around this time I started to have these lucid flashbacks of Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. Since then I have not been able to get the painting out of my head. I found an old print somewhere on my bookshelf and took some time to look at it.
There are a few memories in it for me. I first studied it in art class at high school, then at university. I’ve been so close to the original so many times, but not yet seen it. It’s fairly large so I imagine that it would be quite something to see in the flesh.
A funny touch for me is the Bass Ale bottle with striking red triangle logo. I spent a few months doing some fun interactive design work on this brand some years back. It’s amusing to see a classic contemporary advertising product shot in a painting from 1882.
There is some mystery and openness to interpretation that adds interesting layers to the painting. Some see it as a modern reworking of the almost immortal Las Meninas by Velázquez. It certainly plays with similar theatrics around the nature of illusion and how the viewer relates to the image and its’ characters. Others consider the whole thing a reflection in a mirror with a little licence: is there a mirror behind the bar reflecting the bar maid and her client. Or does the bar simply face in two directions and employ more than one person.