Common people know him as one of the greatest fashion photographers. The most divine ambassadors have posed, posed for her objective, internationally. If he launched several, he cannot take credit for them. Modesty requires. He liked it. Sublimated them all. By this unique look: sparkling and sensitive. His inspiration includes more than four decades of portraits. Black and white, colors, Gilles Bensimon will have been the eye of all the catwalks, of all the passing seasons. But also that of other galaxies: cinema, television, sport, music. So far, only those close to him are following, through morning Whatsapp notifications (New York time). And they know it, with a heart in love with another mode of expression than photography: drawing.
Gilles Bensimon reveals his good papers (but not all), as the inspired student would hand in his copy. Driven by a great surge of enthusiasm, tempered by fear... Some of his works, which had long remained confidential, are on display: “fifty, precisely,” smiles gallery owner Edouard Larock, 4e from a lineage of art enthusiasts.
From today, its doors and picture rails open to this exhibition event, Workonpaper, to be explored until October 15.
Meeting-interview, from confidences to mystical confessions:
Drawing, a long-time passion over which photography has taken over?
My great-grandparents and grandparents were antique dealers, my mother is a painter, my father undoubtedly had various activities, there was an atmosphere of art in the family... I started drawing very early. I started before I was five. My mother, not knowing what to do for his dyslexia, thought maybe it would be good for him to take drawing lessons. I did several things for a while, even painted on large areas, thinking it would be therapeutic…
But did you enjoy practicing drawing at that time?
I do not remember. But since there wasn't an overwhelming family presence, we were very independent. We spent time with our grandparents, the strictness came when we went to their house. So a sort of bourgeoisie turned towards the arts, a whole era where I also went to museums with my grandfather or I went alone. There was no one there, the museums were empty. We went there often. The guard told me, you're all alone this week. I was very passionate about the paintings of Gustave Doré. I have very little memory of childhood.
Did the passion for art come naturally?
At first I didn't want to be an artist, especially not. My father was not very present, we were not close to him. He was very worldly.
The visual arts have therefore allowed you to create your own universe…
With my brothers, yes. And with our father, we had discussions about the painter Nicolas de Staël. I didn't find it interesting.
Have you changed your mind since then?
No. I find that it is a painting which is not… which does not touch me very much. But I'm curious about everything and I'm not looking to have an opinion. When I go to see exhibitions in New York, of contemporary art and I don't like it, I come back to see it, there is what touches me, whether the artist is known, or not known...
For the public, this exhibition is a major event, because you were not known to be a designer. We know you as a photographer but why not a designer too?
Because I didn't show it.
Why did you keep this talent a secret?
Not in a secret way, no. I have always drawn, but often I did not keep the drawings in the notebooks that I threw away, through moves and then, I live alone in New York, which I love very much, I am American too, and I draw all day. When I have the time. Usually from seven in the morning.
Why did photography take over then, given your production?
I don’t know because I didn’t want to do anything…(smiles). I think I don't have a photographic style. There are very great fashion photographers such as Helmut Newton, people who use, who construct an image, who create characters, an atmosphere. Not at all for me, I think all women are beautiful and I'm trying to catch something. Recently I photographed Laura Smet. The location wasn't ideal but eventually we took photos of her and she was happy I guess. I also photographed Sarah Poniatowski.
Are you considering giving a future part to this exhibition? Workonpaper, thanks to all your other unexhibited drawings?
I have a friend in Bordeaux, who would like me to exhibit there but who will come if not for the wine?
What does this exhibition represent in your life?
This exhibition is therapy to avoid suicide. Suicide one way or another. Suicide means stopping all activity. Today I have to do around ten covers anyway, three to four hundred photos per year. But it's interesting because we have relatively few resources, like when I started. When I paint I don't put on music, I see the sun coming in in the morning. I start, I put it aside, I take it again, I put it in a box as soon as it is dry.
Every year I go to Biarritz in the summer. At my friends' house, I draw, part of the summer and someone told me "I'm going to buy twenty"... I said to myself that's not a good idea... He said to me "here I am I'll be the first,” it was two years ago. I like to keep my drawings in boxes. Or give them away...A lot of people have said to me why did you sell to him, and not to me?
Do you have any idea how many drawings and collages you have already made?
I did an exhibition called Gri-gri in the United States. In total I have made thousands. There is one at Carla Bruni. It is not framed. I gave it to her, she had to take it (laughs). I don't sign them.
How important is art to your life?
For me it starts with prehistoric objects, African art, Oceanian art, where no one has signed but it is signed in essence, it's there, we see the details of things. They are the same drawings that say the same things. In Iceland you see barns in the countryside, which have the perfect proportion, but there is no architect. So I think that art comes from someone who cannot express something in writing or in words. Writing is something I will never do...
Drawing is more mystical, the idea of death, the MET in New York, where I like to travel through all eras. I can start with Antiquity, then move on to Oceanian art…
Your state of mind, before welcoming the public?
A little anxious. I send my friends a drawing every day. I hear things like “it’s Klein blue”. So I say no, there is the blue of the sky, the sea, blue eyes. Or even say things like “I don’t like Picasso”, so I answer “it’s a shame because if he had known that, he would have painted differently” (Laughs). I like discovering painters.
Do you have Whatsapp? I will send you a drawing.
Do not miss, Workonpaper, at the Larock-Granoff gallery,
from September 14 to October 15.
13, quai de Conti 75006 Paris
Interview conducted by LUCILE GELEBART
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