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Miro, Calder star in intimate London tribute to Maeght
2008-10-01
LONDON (AFP) - Works by Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti and Georges Braque will go on show in London Saturday, some for the first time, in an exhibition celebrating the dealer who brought them together. More than 140 paintings, sculptures, ceramics and prints will be displayed at the Royal Academy as part of a tribute to the Galerie Maeght, the Parisian gallery set up in 1945 by Aime Maeght and his wife Marguerite. Some of the works included are personal items that have never before been shown in public, but reflect "the freshness, optimism and inventiveness of the art that took post-war Paris by storm", the museum said. "There are a lot of things here that are very personal, very special to the family," said Isabelle, 53, a granddaughter of the Maeghts who visited London with her father Adrien for the exhibition. Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse both feature -- they were friends with Maeght when they lived in the south of France during World War II, and Isabelle said Bonnard was "like another grandfather" to her and her brothers. The pair were instrumental in persuading Maeght to open an art gallery after the war, acting almost like mentors to a collection that became one of the most influential and creative of the 20th century. The exhibition also offers a glimpse of the Maeght family's own works, including a film made by Adrien Maeght, aged just 14, which shows Matisse painting a portrait of Marguerite Maeght. "You get the sense that they are happy and that my grandmother was posing not for an artist, but a friend," said Adrien's son Jules Maeght. "Aime Maeght and His Artists" runs from October 4 until January 2.
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