in camera gallery presents around twenty artist portraits by Michel Sima until November 23. Among them Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, Dora Maar, among others.
Born in 1912 in Poland, Michel Smajewski, known as Michel Sima,was a photographer and sculptor. In 1929, aged 17, he moved to Paris to become a sculptor and was admitted to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where he took drawing lessons and studied sculpture. A student of Ossip Zadkine, he met Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard and Francis Picabia. The latter invited him to the literary meetings he gave at his home. At the same time, Michel Sima began working for press agencies, producing photographic essays and portraits, such as that of Antonin Artaud. At the same time, he frequented the literary circle of Gertrude Stein and became friends with Robert and Youki Desnos, thanks to whom he met Pablo Picasso. Dividing his time between Paris and Vallauris, Michel Sima participated in group exhibitions, and exhibited in 1942 with his friend Picabia at La Lounge Library in Cannes. This exhibition earned him real critical success. That same year, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. He remained there until 1945 and was one of the few survivors. After his release, he took refuge with his friend, Professor Romuald Dor de la Souchère in Cannes. A year later, in 1946, Sima found Picasso in Golfe-Juan. The latter encouraged him to take up photography again. Then began a long and fruitful collaboration between the two artists, during which Sima documented the painter’s work. From this work his first book “Picasso à Antibes” was born, published in 1948 by René Drouin. From the 1950s, Michel Sima devoted himself to his portraits of artists, which have since earned him his fame. In 1967, he settled in Ardèche with his family, where he began sculpting again with olive wood. Michel Sima died in 1987.
Michel Sima
Until November 23, 2024
in camera galerie
21 rue Las Cases
75007 Paris
Tuesday – Friday 1 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.
T: +33 (0)1 47 05 51 77
[email protected]
www.incamera.fr
