To commemorate the 100th birthday of the photographer André Ostier
(1906-1994), the Foundation presents a selection of his best pictures,
which celebrate creativity and la vie parisienne.
A
Parisian by birth and by conviction, André Ostier was perceptive
chronicler whose photographs captured the creative spirit and
environment of painters (Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso,
Francis Bacon, David Hockney, etc.), writers (such as Simone de
Beauvoir, Truman Capote, Jean Genet, Paul Valéry and Tennessee
Williams) and fashion designers (e.g. Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and
Yves Saint Laurent).
In a similar fashion, André Ostier
immortalized the ephemeral elegance of the grand parties of the 1950s
and 1960s, where masks and costumes frequently heightened the festive
atmosphere. As in the past, legendary characters of the vie parisienne
(such as the Duke and the Duchess of Windsor, Marie-Laure de Noailles,
Carlos de Beistegui, Jacqueline de Ribes, Barbara Hutton and Alexis de
Redé) come together again to celebrate this event.
With his
Rolleiflex slung across his shoulder, André Ostier photographed his
times. This year would have marked his hundredth birthday. From Matisse
to Picasso, from the Noailles to the Lopezes, he ensnared artists and
high society alike in his photographic trap. His view of them was
attentive, curious and benign. Cruelty was not in his nature. He knew
that it was a failing to which certain photographers are prone. The
empathy between him and his models was self-evident.
Better
than any other he knew how to catch an artist’s fleeting uncertainty,
just as he knew how to show all the irony and grace of a lost world.
His photographs are nothing less than precious documents that tell a
story of a carefree world where art and life seemed to go hand in hand.
But let us not be mistaken, like that of every creator, André Ostier’s
work conceals turmoil and doubts. Jean Cocteau said that nothing is
less objective than a camera lens. André Ostier was not objective. He
talks to us about himself, revealing his own admirations, tastes and
passions. His work tells the tale of his life and secrets of a man who
knew how to hunt down time and observe it with an insatiable greed.
I
will not speak to the friend I knew well, of the joys we shared. I
remember a man who was distant, discreet and meticulous. His memory,
his culture and his intelligence. Those years that flashed by. May this
exhibition do full justice to his rare talent and show him for what he
was: a witness to his times.
© Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent | Mentions légales | Conception 2exVia avec MasterEdit®
