“You’ll end up in the gallery whether you like it or not!” ». Behind this sentence tinged with a threatening shadow hides a fascinating story, that of a family sitting at the forefront of modernity. The art historian Clotilde Scordia retraces, in a fascinating fresco, the meteoric rise of Larock-Granoff within the very closed circle of Parisian galleries, revealing over the course of the chapters, a century of ruptures, revolutions and daring discoveries.
The saga begins in 1924 in heart of the Roaring Twenties. Katia Granoff, a young Ukrainian who fled the Russian revolution, took her first steps in Paris as a secretary at the Tuileries salon. There she met young artists who, seeing in her a freed spiritencouraged him to open his own gallery. Their names? Chagall, Foujita, Friesz, Bouche and La Patellière. Poet, muse and patron, Katia became one of the rare female art dealers of her time, building a veritable empire with those close to her. Its biggest burst of brilliance : its audacious acquisition of Water lilies by Claude Monet, deemed unsaleable and neglected by everyone! A century later, the oldest art gallery still operating in Paris still reigns on the Quai de Conti.
More than a simple artistic chronicle, this book tells the story of a connection between Katia, her descendants and their artists. From generation to generation, we follow this family adventure which spans the century and brings us together famous names of modern art – Simon Hantaï, Hans Hartung, Paul Rebeyrolle and Jean Messagier – before opening up to today's contemporary artists. A saga which, obviously, has not said its last word…
Larock-Granoff, History of a gallery
Author: Clotilde Scordia
Éditions Mare Et Martin Arts
Prix : 45 €
Available on fnac.com
Published on November 14, 2024 at 2:28 p.m., updated at 7:08 p.m. by Pauline Chevellereau – Carla Delpoio
