- Friday, March 25, 2011, at 6 PM at Galerie Sapone
25 Victor Hugo Boulevard – Nice
-Opening Reception
Galerie Sapone is dedicating an exhibition to the half-century of collaboration that united three generations of the Sapone family with the famous art photographer André Villers.
André Villers, now over 80 years old, devoted his life to the artistic scene of the French Riviera. As such, he was a privileged witness and friend of the greatest artists of this period: Pablo Picasso, Jacques Prévert, Louis Aragon, Brassaï, Hans Hartung, Max Ernst, Alberto Magnelli, and later Antoni Clavé, César, and Ben.
There are no chance encounters; André Villers and Michel Sapone were destined to meet. They were both chosen by Pablo Picasso for their respective talents, one in photography and the other in tailoring; the former became his photographer, the latter his tailor.
The meeting took place in 1956 in Michel Sapone’s workshop in Nice, during a photographic portrait session of his daughter Aïka Sapone. From then on, a lively and vibrant friendship was forged, quickly shared by another Sapone, Antonio, Aïka’s husband and founder of the Gallery. This relationship continued with the third generation of Sapone, as Paola Sapone was also photographed by André Villers.
Through a hundred black and white photographs, this exhibition testifies to this half-century of collaboration between André Villers and the Sapone family. Thanks to André Villers’ talent, everyone can relive moments of intimacy shared by the Sapone family with the greatest artists of the 20th century; moments of life, dialogues, exchanges at the dawn of new creations, staged and immortalized through photographic snapshots of high artistic quality.
