Description

Matisse au portrait accoudé

On the occasion of the exhibition "Matisse - Invitation to a Journey", the Fondation Beyeler has added limited edition photographs by Michel Sima to its Art Editions portfolio.

Michel Sima's photographic work in the field of artist portraiture began as early as 1946. In that year, Sima accompanied the creation process of Pablo Picasso's La joie de vivre and not only documented - as initially intended - the various stages of artistic realisation, but also understood his work from the outset as a holistic, personal representation of the artist and his work.

In the following years, he portrayed almost all the artists of the École de Paris, such as Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Alexander Calder. Sima's way of photographing succeeds in capturing the personality and work of the respective artists in an extremely sensitive manner, whereby the reference created in the context of this staging is skilfully used to make the artist portrayed ‘talk about himself’. The result is an independent style in the field of photographic (artist) portraits.