Not for Sale

Art

/ Temporary Exhibitions

Created on Saturday, 03 September 2011 23:00

Published on Saturday, 03 September 2011 23:00

Written by Heidi Ellison

Anne Brunet's "Olympia Forever," an update of the famed painting "Olympia," brings tears to the eyes of Manet's proud courtesan.

Many art dealers have personal art collections, but, being salespeople, they often have a hard time resisting an offer to buy even one of their favorite works if the price is ...

Anne Brunet's "Olympia Forever," an update of the famed painting "Olympia," brings tears to the eyes of Manet's proud courtesan.

Many art dealers have personal art collections, but, being salespeople, they often have a hard time resisting an offer to buy even one of their favorite works if the price is right. “Not for Sale,” the current exhibition at the Passage de Retz in the Marais, both belies and confirms the image of dealers as retailers who just can’t say no to a good offer.

For this show, Jacklyn Frydman, director of the Passage de Retz, had the original idea of contacting all the art galleries belonging to the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art and asking them to loan one work they owned that they refused to sell.

Some 90 galleries responded by sending a work to the exhibition, along with, in most cases, an explanation for why they were keeping it off the market. For many, the reasons were personal: they just love the piece too much, for example, or it was a gift from the artist, who has become a friend. Galerie Alain Blondel refuses to sell “Maurice et Boulon,” a large-scale portrait of two marginal characters sitting in a shack outside of Paris, painted in 1968 by Jürg Kreienbühl, until a museum expresses interest in it, so strong is the owners’ belief that this work, a sort of modern-day Old Master painting, belongs in one. In other words, they would sell it, but only to the right buyer.

Photo dealers Françoise and Alain Paviot claim that they are now absolutely determined to keep “Images de la Vie et de la Mort, 124 Images d’une Seconde du Film” by Dieter Appelt, which they bought “on the occasion of their marriage,” even though they have already sold it twice before, the first time after an exhibition. They then bought it back at an auction, but before they even had a chance to hang it, a collector begged to buy it and they gave in. Now they have bought it back again and swear they will never sell it again…

Most of the dealers exhibiting in the show, however, seem sincere in their refusal to sell a beloved work. Not surprisingly, French artists loom large here, among them Pierre et Gilles (their portrait of the owners of dealers Jérôme and Emmanuelle de Noirmont), Gérard Garouste, Claude Lévêque, Ben, Raymond Hains and Niki de Saint-Phalle (represented by a model for a monumental sculpture that was never made).

Most of the works are contemporary or modern, but there are a few older pieces, including an Impressionist painting by Paul Signac. Some artists may be discoveries to many visitors, among them Félix Del Marle, the only French Futurist, who is represented by a moody painting, more Surrealist than Futurist, called “La Yelouge” (1931), featuring a bold prostitute standing in a shadowy street surrounded by blank-faced dark figures.

Among my favorite pieces are a huge drawing by Wu Xiaohai depicting three small personages acting strangely on an enormous bed; Alexis Poliakoff’s “Dîner,” an installation involving paintings of six diners placed around a real table with painted-on table settings; Alfred Marquet’s simple and somber rendering of Notre Dame and the Seine in “Paris,” all in shades of black and gray; a handsome piece of kinetic sculpture by Jesus Rafael Soto; and “Yoke” by Jim Coverly, a piece made from a flesh-colored woman’s slip, whose center has been cut out and resewn into pin-pierced stuffed “organs” worthy of Louise Bourgeois.

There are many other works worth seeing in this intelligently hung show in a marvelous setting. The Passage de Retz, with its glass ceilings and exhibition spaces arranged around several interior garden courtyards, is located in a 17th-century building once owned by Cardinal de Retz and later inhabited by letter writer extraordinaire Madame de Sévigné and other notable Parisians. Rebuilt after a fire in 1839, the complex of buildings became a workshop for making Frydman toys in 1950. After inheriting it, Frydman restored it and turned part of it into a contemporary art space.

While the price of admission seems a bit steep (€10), I can recommend this show for its originality and the quality of much of the work, as well as for the possibility it offers to discover artists whose work you may never have seen before. You may also gain some insight into what certain art dealers really care about when commercial considerations are not a factor – unless, that is, they are secretly hoping to find a buyer by loaning a work to this show.

Heidi Ellison

Passage de Retz: 9, rue Charlot, 75003 Paris. Métro: Filles du Calvaire. Tel.: 01 48 04 37 99. Open Tuesday-Monday, 10am-7pm. Closed Monday. Admission: €10. Through September 18.

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