Book Launch: André Lhote and His International Students

Friday, October 16, 2020, from 6 to 7 p.m.
Online con­fer­ence with: Dominique Bermann Martin,
Fanny Drugeon, Zeynep Kuban and Simone Wille.

Con­ver­sa­tion about the book André Lhote and His International Students, on the occa­­sion of its pub­­li­­ca­­tion by inns­bruck uni­ver­sity press, with its two edi­­tors, Zeynep Kuban and Simone Wille, and Fanny Drugeon, art his­­to­rian and spe­­cialist in 20th cen­­tury cos­­mopolitan Paris and Dominique Bermann-Martin, expert and niece of André Lhote.

Book for sale at Villa Vassilieff for 36,90€ (check or cash).

The book focuses on the legacy of the painter André Lhote (1885-1962) and his art school which was set in the Montparnasse dis­trict. Lhote was active in sev­eral art academies across Paris in the 1910s and he founded Académie André Lhote in 1925. His academy attracted an unprece­dented number of inter­na­tional stu­dents. Notably drawing on his archives, the book closely exam­ines the artist, teacher and the­o­rist Lhote and looks at how artists from all over the world have dis­sem­i­nated and rein­ter­preted his teach­ings.

André Lhote and His International Students

Amongst the numerous art academies that existed in Paris between the 1920s and the 1950s, both the lib­eral as well as the more con­ser­va­tive, the academy of André Lhote (1885-1962), run between 1925 and 1962, was much sought after and attracted an unprece­dented number of inter­na­tional stu­dents. Due to the excel­lent state of its archive, it is pos­sible today to acknowl­edge that almost 1600 stu­dents studied with André Lhote at 18, rue d’Odessa in Montparnasse over the period of four decades, as well as at the field academies that he set up in Mirmande (1926), Gordes (1938) and in Cadière d’Azur (1948). André Lhote and His International Students is a col­lec­tion of 13 essays that illu­mi­nate the sig­nif­i­cant way in which André Lhote, through his teaching, his art prac­tice and writing, was respon­sible for dis­tributing a specific set of formal and the­o­ret­ical mod­ernist trends. This book thus not only pays tribute to an unjustly neglected artist, the­o­reti­cian and teacher, but also exam­ines how artists from around the world con­tributed to and rein­ter­preted mod­ernist move­ments that took place in Paris during this period. André Lhote and His International Students is an account of a micro­cosmic ver­sion of the cos­mopolitan Paris that was shaped by the flow and cir­cu­la­tion of thou­sands of single artists from around the world.

The Academy around 1948: standing in the background, Solveig Olson; in front of Lhote, Olle Baertling (moustache and white handkerchief); to his left Günnel Heineman. In the centre (striped tie) Salah Yousry. In the background, right, Sabri Berkel and Eren Eyüboglu, and at the top left, near the stove, Hasan Kavruk. Photo © Archives André Lhote © ADAGP. Photo : Studio Rosie Rey 56 Fg Montmartre