EXHIBITION André OSTIER "portraits of artists"
Matisse, Bonnard, Maillol, Picasso, Miró, Calder, bacon, Hockney...

June 13 – September 1^st 2019

Musée Matisse
164, Avenue des Arenes de Cimiez – nice

André Ostier, Henri Matisse, Le Régina, nice, may 1942
Silver print special collection © indivision A. and A. Ostier

For the summer season, from June 13th to September 1st, the Musée Matisse de Nice presents an exhibition around a great photographer whose work has not been shown since 2006 (Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris). Famous for his fashion photographs, notably those of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent or Coco Chanel, as well as for his reports around the major Parisian festivals of the fifties, André Ostier (1906-1994) was also a master of photography of artists in the same way as Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Michel SIMA, Lucien Hervé, David Douglas Duncan, Edward Quinn, Lucien Clergue...

André Ostier was among those privileged witnesses of the intimate space of the workshop and of the laying session. With Pierre Bonnard and Aristide Maillol, Matisse was, in 1942, one of the first artists he photographed. Other great figures of the twentieth century will follow that reveals the exhibition André Ostier – portraits of artists imagined by Claudine Grammont, Director of the Musée Matisse de Nice: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti, Bernard buffet, Louise Nevelson, Niki de Saint Phalle, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Andy Warhol... These portraits testify to the relationship of friendship that the photographer had been able to weave with each of these artists and the profound understanding of these personalities so diverse.

Like a gallery of portraits of illustrious men, the course of the exhibition brings together, with more than one hundred photographs, these major figures of the twentieth century. A focus was made on the meeting of André Ostier with Henri Matisse in 1942, while the artist works in his atelier of Regina to his designs themes and variations. André Ostier enjoys friendly relations with most of the artists he photographs, which is evidenced by the exceptional set of dedications gathered and shown for the first time on the occasion of the exhibition.

Henri Matisse has always been concerned about his public image. Therefore, according to various stages, he readily lends himself to the photographer's session, which reveals a man of meticulous appearance often presented in his Studio, in Paris, in Nice or in Vence. Matisse's photographers have been numerous throughout the twentieth century, from Edward Steichen to Alvin Langdon Coburn, through Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alexander Liberman, Lucien Hervé or Hélène Adant, to name but a few. Rich in more than three hundred draws, the collection of the Musée Matisse de Nice brings together many of these portraits which are today precious testimonies of the artist and the man.

The exhibition André Ostier – portraits of artists will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue of 96 pages including contributions by Claudine Grammont, Director of the Musée Matisse de Nice, and Camille paysant, art historian specializing in the photography.

List of artists photographed:

Francis BACON, Émile BERNARD, Pierre BONNARD, Georges BRAQUE, André BRETON, Bernard BUFFET, Alexander CALDER, CÉSAR, Marc CHAGALL, Giorgio de CHIRICO, Jean COCTEAU, Salvador DALÍ, Max ERNST, Jean FAUTRIER, Leonor FINI, Alberto GIACOMETTI, David HOCKNEY, Félix LABISSE, André LANSKOY, Fernand LÉGER, Jean LURÇAT, Aristide MAILLOL, MAN RAY, Étienne MARTIN, Henri MATISSE, Joan MIRÓ, Zoran MUŠIČ, Louise NEVELSON, Pablo PICASSO, Niki de SAINT PHALLE, Gino SEVERINI, Pierre TAL COAT, Antoni TÀPIES, Maria Helena VIEIRA DA SILVA , Jacques VILLON, Andy WARHOL.

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