These are 226 photographs which tell the story of a long friendship between three families - Sam, Lilette and Sébastien Szafran; Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck - Cartier-Bresson; Léonard and Annette Gianadda. Just recall the Henri Cartier-Bresson "drawings and photographs" exhibition in 1989, that of Sam Szafran in 1999, the portraits of Léonard by Henri (1994), the deposit of the Franck Collection by Evelyn Franck, the mother of Martine Franck - Cartier-Bresson (1998), and finally the order placed with Sam Szafran and Joan Gardy-Artigas for two monumental ceramics Staircase and Foliage for the two external walls of the Foundation’s Sculpture Park. Finally the permanent depositing by the Szafran family with the Foundation Pierre Gianadda of this exceptional collection of photographs, undoubtedly the most beautiful collection in private hands.
All these black and white prints were offered to Sam, Lilette and Sébastien by Henri Cartier-Bresson during a thirty-year friendship which flourished on impassioned discussions, shared meals, strolls in Paris, and the odd falling out… In an astonishing way, this collection is a rather faithful reflection of the whole of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. It will be found to include photographs of youth, great meetings, historical moments, local landscapes, remote countries, beloved faces and also of the artists, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Richard Lindner and Lap Sze-To…; writers, James Lord, René Char, Gerard Régnier, known as Jean Clair, Louis-René des Forêts (along with a few signed stereotypes of mutual friends: Man Ray and Robert Doisneau, not forgetting Martine Franck)… Many of the photographs are dedicated. Plays on words, puns or schoolboy rhymes are all inscriptions which evoke a fraternal conversation which stopped on the demise of Henri.
After the inauguration of the Chagall Court in 2003, the Pierre Gianadda Foundation is today being enriched by the Szafran Pavilion.
Staircase and Foliage
Two monumental ceramics by Sam Szafran and J. Gardy-Artigas will be added to the Foundation’s Sculpture Park thereby conferring an exceptional chromatic range, in horizontal, emblematic compositions, of the talent of Sam Szafran on the external walls of the Szafran Pavilion. The first, Staircase, was inaugurated on 19 November 2005, the second, Foliage, currently under development, will be installed in Spring 2006. Each comprises 220 hand-painted 33x33 cm squares forming a 3.50 x 7.50 m decoration.
For his first experiment in monumental ceramics, Sam Szafran chose to work with Joan Gardy-Artigas who, following her father Josep Llorens-Artigas, was also the ceramist of Joan Miró and created a ceramics workshop in memory of her father. The Fundació Tallers Josep Llorens-Artigas in Gallifa in the province of Barcelona, is recognised throughout the world.
Let us recall that the Pierre Gianadda Foundation presents a permanent collection of sculptures in its gardens, covering the major artists of the 20th century: Arman, Arp, Bourdelle, Brancusi, Calder, César, Chagall, Chillida, De Saint Phalle, Dubach, Dubuffet, Elisheva, Erni, Ernst, Lalanne, Maillol, Marini, Miró, Moore, Penalba, Poncet, Richier, Rodin, Rouiller, Segal, Tommasini and Venet. The works are set out along the winding paths of the large tree-covered park, punctuated by archaeological remains in the spectacular panorama of the Valais mountains.
The exhibition is organised by Mr. Daniel Marchesseau, General Curator of the Inheritance.
The catalogue of the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition (320 pages) reproduces all the exposed photographs in two-colours, with texts by Martine Franck, Sam Szafran, Jean Clair and Daniel Marchesseau. Selling price CHF 45. - - (approx. € 30.-).
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