ANNE SOPHIE DUVAL Gallery celebrates its 50th anniversary
IN TOWN - In TOWN
Julie Blum, DISCREET ACTION!
by Véronique Dupard-Mandel
©estheteplace
The story of the ANNE-SOPHIE DUVAL gallery is told in a feminine way, and in 3 stages: that of the grandmother, Yvette Barran the pioneer. She settled in the 60s at 11 rue Bonaparte (not far from a certain Madeleine Castaing) and specialized in new art. The shop, its American-style bar (and its culinary talents), quickly made it the HQ of a merry Germanopratine band. The witty and delicious Jacques Chazot at the head of the line, followed very quickly by a clientele of passionate collectors. As a child, Julie remembers leaving school, doing her homework "watching these people drinking shots around this bar with funny conversations that I didn' t understand at all".
A few years later, in 1972, Yvette's daughter, Anne-Sophie Duval opened the eponymous gallery at 5 quai Malaquais dedicated, change of era requires, to Art Deco. From her first Biennial, aged only 27, she called on Karl Lagerfeld for the decoration of the stand which still echoes today: black rubber floor, Dunand screen, Eileen Gray table, Ruhlmann coffee table… Very quickly all of Paris fashion and decoration flock to the gallery. It was not uncommon to see Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent, Angelo Tarlazzi, Micheline Mauss…
Anne-Sophie Duval, portrait
Today, it is Julie Blum, daughter and granddaughter, who officiates. In the family, antiquities are a women story. Even Julie, who had preferred to take a step aside by choosing architecture and settling in London, was overtaken by this family destiny in 2008, when she lost her mother, Anne- Sophie Duval, prematurely.
1972-2022 Julie Blum has chosen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the gallery with a book entitled "Galerie Anne Sophie Duval, 50 ans de Modernité" published by Éditions Gourcuff Gradenigo, in which she pays homage to her predecessors.
It is a joyful, rich, instructive book and by reading it one feels the pleasure that she took in " the parts dialogue in a fruitful rapprochement that makes sense".
Julie has a passion for ceramics which she supports by presenting numerous artists and multiplying exhibitions.
“Mithé Espelt (1923-2020) “A modern alchemist”, “Nothing comes by chance” by Ernest Chaplet (1835-1909), one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau ceramics. And currently, a new exhibition with an exceptional set of a hundred pieces by the Bulgarian ceramist Vassil Ivanoff (1897-1973). Pieces dated from the 1950s-60s as well as paintings by the artist. A catalog will accompany the exhibition Vassil Ivanoff, "Un soleil de 1300°C", Editions Gourcuff-Gradenigo.
A passion that echoes the family adage: “My mother transmitted to me this intuition which in fact is based on great experience and from which my freedom stems. I grew up in rigor, requirement and aesthetics. »
Vassil Ivanov, portrait
