The Grande Chaumière painting academy, the cafes of the Dome, La Rotonde and La Coupole, the artist studios, the jazz clubs on the Boulevard Edgar Quinet—this is the Montparnasse where Emile Savitry started out as a painter and photographer, spending time with sculptors, painters, poets and musicians, and where Savitry lived his whole life. His body of work brings back to life the warm Montparnasse nights, an artistic hotbed that took root in the cafes along the Carrefour Vavin. There’s Alberto Giacometti, Victor Brauner and Anton Prinner in their studios, Samuel Granowski at the bar of La Rotonde, Jacques and Pierre Prévert on their return from a long trip to Polynesia. Savitry met Django Reinhardt at the Port of Toulon, offering the unknown gypsy jazz musician a place to stay and playing Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong records for him. The Reinhardt family soon joined Savitry in Paris, staying with him at his apartment on the Boulevard Edgar Quinet. This exhibition captures the atmosphere of Paris in the 1930s and ‘50s, along with the journey of a photographer with close ties to the surrealists. The streets of the capital could be movie sets.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil.
EXHIBITION
Emile Savitry (1903-1967), un photographe de Montparnasse
Through December 20th, 2015
Musée Géo-Charles
1, rue Géo-Charles
38130 Échirolles
T 04 76 22 58 63
France
