About the author: Zoé Manset is an art historian, actor and writer from France based between Paris and London. She holds a BA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MFA in professional acting and production from Drama Studio London. Read more about Zoé.
CollectivistX is neither affiliated with nor sponsored by Delamour Gallery.
The walk down the Rue de Seine is always replete with collector sightings and jumping gazes trying to take in the displays of the many galleries that line the street. After I have reached my goal, which lies hidden in an arrière-cour away from the hustle and bustle of the street, I quickly learn that the Rue de Seine houses one of the largest number of galleries than any other street in Europe. Delamour Gallery, which I am discovering today after its recent April 2024 opening, has found the ideal cradle for its nascent business. Tucked away to the right side of an early 20th Century building’s interior court, it sits where the storage room of the Jeanne Bucher gallery used to be. The gallery opened in the quietly flamboyant way that the city of Paris knows all too well, placing itself next to the original spot of a giant of art dealership and presenting an exciting variety of contemporary artists.
Delamour Gallery. Photo courtesy of the gallery.
Photographer Albert Delamour and gallerist Isabelle Fabre Chabrat joined forces to open this Parisian space more than twenty years after their meeting in New York City. A sister to the Michele Mariaud Gallery, named after Delamour’s late wife, Delamour Gallery is a living, breathing testament to Michele Mariaud’s vision of art as a part of life rather than fixed objects to keep in the same corner of the flat. Isabelle Fabre Chabrat presents the gallery with a galvanising passion and supports the idea of living, mobile art of which the meaning and the place in one’s collection can and should evolve with time. We speak of this concept, so important to the late Michele Mariaud, the affordability that goes with it (works at Delamour Gallery start at 400 euros for small drawings and go up to 25 000 euros with a main price point at 5 000 euros), and how it informs the relationship between a gallery and an artist.
However varied the creative process and medium used by an artist, the relationship they have with their gallery is one based on mutual respect and organisation, as well as transparency. The specificity of Delamour gallery, other than the fact that it is one of the few contemporary galleries on the Rue de Seine, is that it has a truly French American DNA, and the works that appeal to the New York market are not necessarily those that will find their way to French hearts. This is where transparency becomes essential: a gallery needs to know both its artists and its target audience. A lot of the artists represented by Delamour gallery exhibit both in New York and France and have works of varying sizes, themes, and sometimes even mediums. With her expertise and knowledge of both sides of the Atlantic, a lot of Isabelle’s work is to advise her artists in their creation processes and their applicability from the art market standpoint.
On the question of the particularities of each market, we enter a sociological realm which raises interesting points in the way in which the French and the American apprehend art (and, more specifically, contemporary art works). Isabelle’s observations tend to suggest that there is a link between the historical breadth of each country and their behavioural patterns in art consumption. In America, the land of dreams and the “can-do” spirit attached to its relative historical youth, people are not afraid of buying art along with subscribing to a whole social apparatus. Buying art is as important a part of life as having a car, a house, or going out regularly. The art comes along with a new house and new furniture. Choosing it thus reflects a true need for emotional connection, even if it is done with the advice of an interior designer.
In France, however, a lot of collectors have a deep understanding and knowledge of a variety of art works, their stories, and their sociological weight. Often that knowledge is lived, much like the relationship between a museum-goer and an antique piece. The work is admired, understood and discussed, but rarely bought. The fact that a lot of French streets are open air museums perhaps influences this idea that frequent buying isn’t an option, despite financial possibilities and artistic affinity.
Another element observed by Isabelle is the fact that French collections seem more static and historically rooted than American ones (which is yet another reflection of their respective relationship to history). Whilst there is more mobility in the collections of Americans, a lot of French buyers often express the fact that they don’t have room to keep or exhibit their art, often having had the same pieces in the same place for decades. With its mixed identity, Delamour Gallery strives to encourage evolution and true enjoyment in the way in which people interact with their art, choosing to work with passionate artists who inspire them and bring mutual admiration and pride to the relationship of representation.
Delamour Gallery. Photo courtesy of the gallery.
The space of the gallery in itself has clearly been designed to breathe and inspire. The place is separated into a main room in which solo exhibitions are held and a smaller, albeit bright space in which other artists are shown. No matter the subject of the works which span drawings, prints, wood sculpture, photography, and oil paintings, the uplifting and light atmosphere of the gallery allows for adequate space for each work. When asked about the goals of the gallery as a newcomer on the French scene, Isabelle evokes the wish to imbue this historically charged place with a new artistic breath and to create a platform where different art forms can interact. It can be clearly observed by the current solo exhibition, Time Lapse of photographer and musician Xan Padron. An enlightening article written by an anthropologist in relation to Padron’s work evidences the fact that the gallery is already on its way to various multi-art collaborations.
Xan Padron, Time Lapse. Hudson Square, NYC. Photo courtesy of the gallery.
The exhibition centres around Padron’s static work, which was inspired precisely by his mobility. At the age of 18, the musician, son of a journalist and grand-child of a photographer, left Galicia to wander about the world. The fact of often being a stranger in incredibly busy cities, notably New York, where he ended up settling, put Padron on the path of liminal space contemplation. For this series of time lapses, he chooses a graphically striking wall in a space where people pass by without ever stopping. He sets up a camera, makes himself invisible in order not to disturb the life of the space and creates a time lapse of a few hours. These urban spaces which we all inhabit without recognising them as pivotal social realms tell their own story, as Padron picks the people he witnessed chronologically and places them in what could almost be called a timeline. Although somewhat redundant in their colour scheme and juxtaposition, these works set the stage for contemplation. Does observing a non-space render it more potent? Padron’s work certainly invites the question and perhaps encourages a more reflective approach to unstructured interactions.
Wandering through the gallery I discover works of different mediums and genres which span formats and inspirations with a common thread grounded in almost oneiric elements. Isabelle introduces me to the witty and suggestive drawings of Serge Bloch and here, again, underlines just how much a relationship with galleries can change an artist’s trajectory. Bloch’s work, which is grounded in illustrations with literary or journalistic elements, never had a world for itself before meeting Albert Delamour. It solely existed on commissions for publishing companies or magazines. The eye of the artist and the gallery owner in Delamour encouraged Bloch to take a step in artistic creation and thus, for the past fifteen years his drawings and collages, both reminiscent of romantic literature and child picture books, have graced the walls of both Michele Mariaud and Delamour Gallery.
Serge Bloch, Visite amusante. Photo courtesy of the gallery.
On the opposite wall to where Bloch’s drawings lie stocked in a drawer, a large pastel self-portrait, reminiscent of a Modigliani painting in its moonlit tones and extended lines, stares at me. It is the work of Diogo Barros Pires, a Portuguese painter whose work is inspired both by himself, his daily life, and the world of childhood dreams. I am shown another large pastel drawing on dark paper where pink and red meet gracefully. It is an Arlequin doing calculus, and I feel that the absurdity of the painter’s universe touches something profound. It is the kind of format that would make one start the day right were it to grace the walls of a home. Barros Pires works extremely fast and the conception of his expressive drawings evokes the world of dreams drawn by Fellini: a few colourful strokes to create a whole world.
Self Portrait, Diogo Barros Pires. Photo courtesy of the gallery.
The tour reaches a natural end after I have travelled through the gallery and encountered the different works that permeate its two rooms. It is a thing of beauty when one is able to travel miles and miles without leaving their corner of the earth and this is precisely the feeling created by a moment at Delamour Gallery. There is no doubt that this new kid on the block of the Paris gallery scene will continue to trace its own strong path in the contemporary art world.