Michel Sima

Michel Sima (actually: Michał Smajewski * May 20, 1912 in Slonim , Poland , today Belarus ; † April 1987 in Tauriers , Ardèche ) was a French photographer and sculptor .

life and work

Sima started drawing as a child and made her first small sculptures. In 1929 he traveled to Paris with the intention of becoming a sculptor. He studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière . In 1933 he joined the painter Francis Gruber's group, which included Moise Kisling and Pierre Tal-Coat .

From 1934 to 1935 Sima was a student of Ossip Zadkine . It was through him that he met Jean Cocteau . This in turn led him to Paul Éluard and Francis Picabia . He was now one of the friends who came to Picabia's Sunday literary meetings. This was the time when he started working with press agencies and doing photo reports on Paris and political events. He met Max Ernst and got to know Constantin Brâncuși . In 1936 he met Pablo Picasso and Gertrud Stein . In 1931 he worked briefly at Brâncuși.

In 1940, when the Germans marched into France in the Pyrenees, he went to see Pierre Petitjean in Aulus-les-Bains. At the end of October he went to Picabia in Gulf-Juan. He stayed in the free zone until his arrest and prepared a joint exhibition with Picabia. In 1942 he was arrested in Golf-Juan and after a stay in prison in Nice deported to the Blechhammer concentration camp. In 1945 he returned to France seriously ill and looked for accommodation with his friend Dor de la Souchère in Cannes, who was the castle's curator in Antibes .

In 1946 he met again in Golf-Juan Pablo Picasso, who immediately provided psychological and material help for him. A sculptural activity was out of the question. He asked Sima to draw the phallic Greco-Phoenician stone for him, which is on display in Antibes Castle. That was the first artistic work that Sima started again. Through Sima's mediation, Picasso received a room in the castle as a studio. On Picasso's advice, Sima began taking pictures again. He photographed his “ work in progress ” for Picasso and documented its progress. In particular, Sima accompanied the creation process of Picasso's “La joie de vivre” and not only documented - as initially intended - the various stages of artistic execution, but also understood his work as a holistic, personal representation of the artist and his work from the start. It was the beginning of a unique photographic documentation about artists and their work.

In 1947 the newspaper “Aux écoutes” published an article entitled “Dernière evolution de Picasso”, in which it was said about Sima that he was the only one who could photograph Pablo Picasso's last pictures and would not sell them at any price.

In 1948 Simas had a solo exhibition at the Lambert Gallery in Cannes with chased stones from the beach. In the same year Sima's first book was published by René Draoulin "Picassi in Atibes". In 1949 he took part in the group exhibition of "Palissy to Picasso" in Vallauris. In 1950 there was a joint exhibition with Picabia in the Colette Allendy gallery in Paris and in 1952 a solo exhibition in the H. Niepce gallery in Paris with new ceramic works and small enameled sculptures.

From 1951 to 1961 he devoted himself to the photographic artist portrait. He portrayed almost all artists of the École de Paris such as Henri Matisse , Francis Picabia , Ossip Zadkine , Alberto Giacometti , Jean Cocteau , Tal Coat , Jean Arp , Marie Laurencin , Fernand Léger , Max Ernst , Iliazd , Man Ray , Marcel Duchamp , André Derain , Kees van Dongen , Le Corbusier , Marc Chagall , Joan Miró , Alexander Calder . Sima's underlying friendship with those portrayed always shines through, not just in Pablo Picasso's photographs , but in all of these artist portraits. It expresses itself in an extremely sensitive recording of the personality and the work of the respective artist, whereby the created relation to the work and studio is cleverly used in the context of the staging so that the portrayed artist speaks about himself. The result is an independent style in the field of photographic (artist) portraits and a unique documentation of the artists of the Ecole de Paris that no other photographer has left behind in their closeness and sensitivity.

In 1959 Fernand Nathan published 21 of the portrayed artists in "21 visages d'artistes". However, the print did not meet Sima's quality expectations in any way. He decided never to publish more photos.

In 1967 Sima discovered the Ardèche in France. He moved to Tauriers with his wife Odette and son Pierre (* 1962) . He turned back to sculpture.

Michel Sima died in April 1987 at the age of 74.

Exhibitions

From December 7 to 22, 2007, a comprehensive sales exhibition with Sima's artist portraits by the artists of the École de Paris took place in the rooms of the Fischer Gallery.

Publications

• Picasso à Antibes . Photographies de Michel Sima. Comments by Paul Éluard , introduction by Jaime Sabartés . Paris, René Drouin, 1948.
• 21 visages d'artistes . Photographies de Michel Sim. Préface de Jean Cocteau . Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1959.

German edition: Jean and Michel Sima: 21 Parisian artists . Foreword by Jean Cocteau. Translated by Madeleine Jean. Berlin, Herbig [around 1960]

literature

• Erika Billeter: Michel Sima - artist in the studio. Zurich, Benteli, 2007. ISBN 3-71651431-4
• L'atelier des combles. Photographies de Michel Simon. Texts d'Anne de Stael, postface de Jean-Louis Andral. Antibes, Musée Picasso 2008.

Movies

• Picasso et Sima, le modeleur d'amitié . A film by Christian Tran. Production Artis, Lyon TV, 2009.

Web links

• Literature by and about Michel Sima in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official website of Michel Sima
• Images on artnet

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical data of Michel Sima in: Au gîte du regard: René Piniès, Joë Bousquet, Denise Bellon 2003, 205 pages
2. ↑ Michel Sima in: Picasso, la joie de vivre, 1945-1948 The François Pinault Collection, Palazzograssi ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 146 kB) 
3. ↑ Portrait of Michel Sima at Hampel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.