“A crazy thing”, “something crazy”. When he remembers the beginnings of the Cartier Foundation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, Alain-Dominique Perrin, its creator, does not feign modesty. “What we did was unique,” boldly repeats the current co-chair of the strategic committee of the Richemont group, owner of the Place Vendôme jeweler. At 82, the man with the well-groomed beard is still outspoken and easy to use. Joining Cartier in 1969, he rose through the ranks, notably inventing the Must, these watches which democratized the brand.
Under his aegis, the luxury brand was the first to create a corporate foundation dedicated to contemporary art, nineteen years before Louis Vuitton in Paris, nine years before Prada in Milan. The first to bring disciplines together by exhibiting art as well as cars, design and trees. The first company also to make art a powerful vector of communication: without spending a penny on advertising, the jeweler changed its outdated image thanks to the media coverage of its exhibitions.
This UFO emerges at a turning point, in a decade of money and show-off that is redrawing the contours of art. Fashion shows look like pure entertainment, openings turn into shows. Alain-Dominique Perrin has not forgotten anything about the green laser games which electrified the night during the inauguration of the Cartier Foundation, on October 20, 1984, in Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines) – “a stunning production”, he blurted out with his hawkish cheekiness. “A joyful and friendly moment”, corroborates Jack Lang, then Minister of Culture, who that evening had swapped his usual Mao collar for a red tie.
Caesar was at the party with a large exhibition of his Fers. The same morning, the Marseille sculptor had grumbled when he discovered that he was sharing the spotlight with two very young artists that no one knew, the Anglo-Canadian Lisa Milroy, 25 years old, and the British Julian Opie, 26 years old. The latter, whose pop and stylized characters have since conquered the world, had never exhibited abroad: “At the time, the norm was to be shown in an art center, a gallery, a museum or something very established, with few resources. Exhibiting at a jeweler was unusual. »
Cultural policy, the preserve of the State
The Cartier Foundation emerges in the artistic landscape like a dog in a bowling game. Contemporary art, at the time, was a matter of initiates, chapels and dogmas. A matter of State too, which then poses itself as the sole driving force of cultural policy. Foundations are rare in France, and the administration, which takes a dim view of any private incursion into its territory, does everything to limit their number and circumscribe their scope.
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