The Maeght Saga - The whole Maeght adventure told by Yoyo Maeght
Yoyo Maeght follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, this gifted visionary, gallery owner, publisher, patron who built an artistic empire and created the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. She delivers a series of unforgettable and amusing anecdotes about artistic communities and an informed look at contemporary art.
Aimé Maeght had a dazzling destiny. Orphan who became a friend of Bonnard, Matisse or Braque. Thanks to these decisive meetings, the Maeght gallery opened in Paris in 1945, where modern masters and emerging talents would be exhibited. Then Aimé forged other magnificent and solid friendships with Miró, Giacometti, Léger, Chagall, Calder, Tàpies, Chillida... but also with Malraux, Prévert, Aragon, Char, Reverdy, Sartre and Genet...
The book features an incredible gallery of portraits with a host of memories and testimonies revealing the fantasy and determination of artists, from the 1930s to today. In a whirlwind of openings, parties, exhibitions, Yoyo paints a colorful portrait of the art world and recounts with amusement the complicity that connects her to Miró, Chagall, Braque, Prévert, Montand who guided her steps from her childhood. Yoyo Maeght, born in 1959, perpetuates the Maeght spirit by devoting her life to art and architecture, as a gallery owner, editor or exhibition curator, for her story,
“Yoyo Maeght recounts this flamboyant era in a book which traces the incredible daily life of an extraordinary family. " The Parisian.
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Excerpt from The Maeght Saga - Chapter - Opening at Papy's
On opening nights, Grandpa's gallery is crowded. Lively conversations imprint themselves on us forever. Two critics are arguing in a corner:
“Have you seen this shit exhibition!” What does this artist mean by defleshing bodies?
- How dare you ? The guy is a genius! »
No lukewarmness, no consensus. At that time, official censorship was still in force and social life was very civilized, so in private, all excesses, all excesses were possible - one could even say what one thought. Flo and I sneak a little further. Here, we speak Italian and English alternately, as if they were one and the same language. There, a crowd gathers around Aragon and a twink who holds his hand. Although I attend a very strict Catholic school in the 7th arrondissement, seeing two men together seems like a banally natural thing to me, so much so that I will soon get into trouble in the canteen by explaining to a horrified classmate that, of course , two men can absolutely love each other. Joannet, the son of Pepito Artigas who was Miró's great ceramicist accomplice, has just arrived with his wife, the magnificent Mako. She wears a traditional Japanese kimono and wooden shoes, her impassive face is of hieratic beauty. We also hear local voices with rolling accents, rocky “r”s, and syncopated phrasing. I jump into Ubac's arms to kiss him, he chats with Frénaud who makes a face at me as a mark of affection, Chagall whispers in Russian with his wife and comments on the paintings, as I pass in front of him, he tells me affectionately caresses my head and gives me a sly wink; for me it's a sign that I'm being allowed to escape to play in the yard while waiting for dinner.
Ah, the opening dinners! These are real events organized to celebrate the artist. They bring together nearly one hundred and fifty people. Everyone rushes to take a seat at the strategic tables, that of the artist, that of Grandpa and Grandmy, that of the writer who wrote the texts of the catalog, or that of the director of the gallery... They meet there Prévert, the journalist and producer Pierre Dumayet, Aragon, Diego Giacometti - Alberto's brother - and almost all the other artists of the Maeght gallery, Yves Montand, André Malraux, Michel Guy, influential critics, very powerful men of businessmen, politicians, actors, eccentric women, elegant people, future talents in fashion or the artistic scene. No table for children, we are always among the adults. For these memorable dinners, Grandpa chooses offbeat places: a barge (this is still very rare), a typically Parisian bistro, a bal musette, a circus. There is often a jazz group but it could just as easily be a street orchestra. It's always an opportunity to dance. Calder waltzes with Nina Kandinsky, Grandpa invites each of us for a lap, Grandma is laughing in heaven, she loves these joyful atmospheres. However, she does not lose sight of the guests, trying to guess whether the exhibition will be a success.
This evening, we are at Train Bleu, the famous restaurant with magnificent gilding which overlooks the Gare de Lyon, privatized for the occasion. When we arrive, the tables are perfectly set and the waiters are at attention. Of course, the menu placed in front of each guest is decorated with an original lithograph by the artist exhibited this evening at the gallery. Conversations swirl, rustle, nothing is considered beyond our reach. I gorge myself on all this. These excesses, these passions are stored in me, in successive layers. Like intoxicating music, I don't lose anything, I don't want to lose anything, I fight against sleep. Miró draws a bird on the back of a menu and hands it to me. I fall asleep much later, on Flo's shoulder, in the Rolls which drives silently towards the house, through a deserted Paris. Of course, no school for us the next day.
One of my favorite photos of my grandfather, here he arrives in New York during the first transatlantic crossing of the liner France.
ARTE , The first “Galerie Maeght”, in Cannes.
In the back shop, Aimé sets up a printing press. He has a decisive meeting, Pierre Bonnard. In 1939, while Aimé Maeght was mobilized in Toulon, Marguerite ran the store alone and took initiatives by hanging up paintings and pictures to sell. In the middle of the war, in 1942, the couple Aimé and Marguerite Maeght had a second son, Bernard. As the supply of radio equipment became disorganized, the store soon only presented paintings which sold rather well. Cannes being in a free zone. Loved, through his sympathy and his enthusiasm attracts young talents who entrust him with their works: André Marchand, Geer van Velde, Jean-Gabriel Domergue, Dany Lartigue (the son of the photographer), Kees Van Dongen… Already, with prescience, he plays the discoverers. Aimé Maeght entered into a close relationship with Jean Moulin, with whom he opened a gallery in Nice on February 6, 1943. The Maeghts frequented, met and crossed paths with most of the reclusive painters on the Côte d'Azur. In 1943, the Maeghts were forced to leave Cannes because Aimé was printing identity cards and food tickets for a group of resistance fighters from Grenoble and Jean Moulin was arrested. They retreated to Vence in the Nice hinterland, above Henri Matisse's property.
Georges Braque and Aimé Maeght.
Georges Braque was my grandfather's mentor, he exhibited at the Galerie Maeght from 1945 and until his death in 1963.
Excerpt from the Maeght Saga "When Braque came to join me in Saint-Paul, a month after the death of my little boy, I was in the depths of despair. He said to me: “Since you so want to do something something which goes beyond the trade in the arts which you seem to despise, as I understand you, do something here, something which would not have a speculative aim, which would allow us artists to exhibit sculpture and painting in the best possible conditions of light and space. Do it, I will help you.
Aimé Maeght, Florence, Yoyo and Marguerite Maeght and André Malraux, 1964..
Speech by André Malraux for the inauguration of the Maeght Foundation
"(…) Madam Sir, I would like to try to make it clear beyond all the services you have rendered to the country throughout your entire life – because all this is the end of a life, not a kind of accident – I would like to try to clarify in what way this seems to me something quite other than a foundation and, if you allow me, in what way this evening perhaps has a historical character (…) You have just tried here, by the fact that you have tried to probably summarize the series of loves of a life, by the fact that the painters who are there all happen to be, to some degree, either poets or men who powerfully express the poetry of our time, you have attempted to make something which is in no way a palace, in no way a place of decoration and, let's say it right away, because the misunderstanding will grow and embellish, in no way a museum. not a museum.
When we were looking earlier at the piece of garden where the Mirós are, the same thing was happening as when we were looking at the room where the Chagalls were. These little horns that Miró reinvents with their incredible dreamlike power are creating in your garden with nature in the sense of trees, a relationship that has never been created.
When we talk about the most famous American foundation, that is to say Barnes, if it were here, it would have no connection with what you have done, it would be fifty years behind, because it is admirable as it is. is, she is a museum. But, here, something is attempted, with a result that we do not have to judge and which belongs to posterity, something that has never been attempted: to create the universe, to create instinctively and through love. the universe in which modern art could find both its place and this back world which was once called the supernatural.
This is barely over and we are in the silence which follows the last blow of the hammer. I think of Shakespeare: “It’s such a night, Jessica…” Good. It was on such a night that we listened to the silence which followed the last hammer which had made the Parthenon, it was on such a night that Michelangelo listened to the last hammers which built Saint-Pierre.
Madam, Sir, I raise my glass to the one who, later, when in the place that was Paris the murmuring and leaning people bow, having written "here the painting grew between the paving stones" will come here and say "this report which is now our relationship with life and which is born from painting, it was perhaps obscurely born this night. " And when this no longer exists, then the man to whom I raise my glass will make a little inscription "perhaps something of the spirit happened here."
Aimé responds by thanking his wife, Marguerite: “ She has always been my companion in good days and bad days. The relationships she had with the artists helped me a lot, she always supported me. I find it logical that the Foundation bears his name as much as mine."
The inauguration continues with a dinner in the central courtyard populated with sculptures by Giacometti. All the Maeght artists are present among the poets, filmmakers, actors, politicians and construction workers... TV and radios capture everyone's impressions. Chagall confides: I am very moved and I feel that something fantastic is happening tonight. It's not a museum, it's something else and only Maeght could do that. I am happy that my paintings appear here.
Yves Montand at the Maeght Foundation on July 28, 1964.
The evening, under the stars, ends with a round of singing where Yves Montand performs a song by Prévert, “Dans ma maison”. Ella Fitzgerald, in her chiffon dress, charms and seduces the audience. Already, Aimé Maeght mixes all artistic expressions. That night, the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation became the first place dedicated to Living Art.
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Le Figaro - by Bertrand de Saint Vincent:
When your name is “Yoyo” – aka Françoise – you should expect to experience some ups and downs. But at this point, it's dizzying. After her birth, in January 1959, her parents, Adrien and Raule, made her believe that she was a foundling; it will teach him to be so helpful. There are better beginnings in life. Yet she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. His grandfather, Aimé -papy -, an art dealer, is a successful gallery owner. Publisher, collector, from Matisse to Giacometti, from Bonnard to Chagall, this visionary made his fortune by exhibiting artists from the new world. In 1947, he brought together the enfant terribles of surrealism. “Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be,” says the catalog. Yoyo and his sisters, Isa and Flo, play miniature dishes at Braque's house, learn to watch birds with Miro. But we are not with the Countess of Ségur: they receive no education. Left to their own devices, abandoned by their parents like brushwood, they grow from Paris to Saint-Paul-de-Vence in a picture whose fantasy is only appearance. At odds with his father, Adrien collects beautiful cars. Aimé lost his other son, Bernard. To ease his grief, he created a foundation. He puts all his genius and his money into it. The prodigious place was inaugurated by Malraux in July 1964. That was fifty years ago. Sad birthday. The candles are dead. After the glory days, it's the dark period. The “transmitter of light” described by his dazzled granddaughter died in 1981. The war of succession was merciless. More torn than a canvas, Yoyo describes vultures, stabbings, jealousy. It's knife painting. In October 2009, receiving her Legion of Honor from Frédéric Mitterrand, the eldest Maeght paid tribute to “her beloved family: Aimé, Marguerite, Adrien, my super sisters, Flo and Yoyo, my brother, Julien”. The varnish exploded. The color of money is definitely not the color of happiness.
My eye on art - Jacques Bouzerand:
This intelligent book, teeming with anecdotes and tasty details, is devoured like a summer thriller. It is at first glance the fabulous story of a familiar, familial, intimate dive into this pantheon of artists constituting the friendly, considerate entourage of the founding grandfather: Aimé Maeght. Not cheap artists, Sunday painters or small-time daubers... No, these are the greatest artists of the century, the most inspired creators, icons of the history of art..."
Paris Match - It's Dallas at the Maeghts
Four years after leaving the famous foundation with a bang, Yoyo Maeght publishes a family saga in which she settles her scores.
Interview ELISABETH COUTURIER
Paris Match. Why reveal your family secrets?
Yoyo Maeght.
As soon as my grandfather, Aimé Maeght, died, I wanted to write his story. There were no books about him, his gallery or his foundation. Yet, what a fantastic epic! I wanted to know how an orphan kid becomes the greatest art dealer in the world and the friend of Matisse, Braque, Giacometti, Miró, Prévert, Chagall.
You also tell the terrible story behind the scenes of the “Maeght saga”.
Initially, I wanted to tell everything that was visible: the exhibitions, the direct relationships with the artists. Finally, I deliver the whole Maeght story through my own eyes. The fact of having broken with my family explains this freedom. What was the origin of the conflict between your father and your grandfather?
I asked my grandfather this question many times. When I was 18, he finally vaguely answered me: there is no real anger, just disappointment. We, the granddaughters, had a hard time with this situation. We were at all the openings, all the events, but without our parents.
You seem to hold your father responsible for a decline of the Maeght empire. For what ?
I always thought that you don't have to wear your family's image. No need to want to take on the challenge! We can say to ourselves: "My father was a genius", which my father, Adrien, seems not to have succeeded in doing, often speaking harshly of his own, Aimé. It's not bad to say: "I just want to try to be happy and make my children happy." Of course, we have to pass on the family heritage but, if I had to choose, for me, happiness would be priority.
Does your father hold his children with his money, like his father did?
No not at all. Grandpa allowed him to be independent, it's very different. he offered him the opportunity to have his own activities, a trade and a printing press with a hundred workers who worked almost exclusively with the artists of the Maeght Gallery.
Wasn’t it the printing business that made the Maeghts’ fortune?
The Gallery published more than 12,000 engravings, but also sold many paintings. The works of Chagall, Bonnard and Braque were worth a lot of money; Calder was starting to be worth a little; Kandinsky sold poorly. Let's say that my father, Adrien, knew how to make publishing profitable, he was undeniably gifted for that.
You say he can be unfair and heartless.
He is an intelligent and humorous man, but he wants to control everything. I escape from him after having served House Maeght for years, without being his enemy. He has his four children well in hand. If they are docile, he unclenches his fingers, if they do something that pleases him, then he squeezes.
You are not charitable, either, with your sister, Isabelle.
Or is it she who is not with me? Dad should have stopped him. We alerted him. But nothing worked. Today, she controls almost all family companies and private assets, without sharing with us, her sisters. And four years ago, an event changed a lot of things.
What happened ?
In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, I saw seven gendarmes arrive at my house. My sister Isabelle's computer had allegedly disappeared. I let the search take place, because I have nothing to hide. Then I am entitled to a nocturnal interrogation at the gendarmerie on the pretext of flagrant theft, with genetic fingerprinting. It was at that moment that I told myself that it took a total absence of family love to put your sister or daughter through this.
What did you do next?
I filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation. And I went to court to demand accountability.
And you left the family?
Instead, I was thrown out!
Reading you, we have the impression of an immense waste as the Galerie Maeght was an empire.
It's a huge mess, a broken family. As for the Maeght Gallery, the art world will judge. But, as René Char wrote: “The world of art is not the world of forgiveness.”
How will they react to your vision of things?
I don't know. They have more imagination than me! This book, for me, closes a story. I like to build, not destroy. I'm free now ; I can start a new life.
Nice Matin - Yoyo Maeght: My grandfather, this giant
COMMENTS COLLECTED BY FRANCK LECLERC
In the book she devotes to The Maeght Saga, Yoyo recounts the luminous journey of her grandparents, at the origin of a foundation which celebrates fifty years of living art in Saint-Paul.
In La Saga Maeght, Françoise, alias Yoyo, granddaughter of the creators of the foundation whose name she bears, settles scores with part of her family. But above all it traces the fascinating destiny of Aimé Maeght, this orphan of a railway worker from the North, who became the merchant and friend of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
You grew up in limitless luxury. Thanks to your grandparents, Aimé and Marguerite Maeght...
I was born in 1959. When I was seven or eight years old, my grandparents had already had their gallery for around twenty years. Their financial means allow them to live in magnificent luxury. They live on avenue Foch, then in a huge apartment in the 7th arrondissement. They have a Rolls with a driver, my grandmother dresses by famous designers. This is the environment in which we operate.
A happy childhood ?
Isabelle, Florence and I are very bored at school. We don't have much to tell kids our age. In our neighborhood, all the little girls are dressed in navy blue while we wear the jeans that our grandparents or Calder brought back from their trips to the United States. The discrepancy is obvious. Probably a little less for our little brother Jules, ten years my junior.
How do you see him, this grandfather who surrounds himself with the greatest artists of his time ?
Miro spends all his summers in Saint-Paul. We are dropped off every Thursday, or almost, at Monsieur Braque's, at lunchtime. We are at all the openings, the artists call us by our first names. We are not aware, in our childhood, of their notoriety. It is only on the occasion of the opening of the Maeght Foundation that we realize how important they are.
What memory do you have of the inauguration?
I clearly remember André Malraux, who was close to my grandparents. My grandmother even considered him one of the three men in her life, with her husband, of course, and Alberto Giacometti. I also remember the extraordinary attention that the guests that evening paid to Ella Fitzgerald. And I am surprised that we applaud Yves Montand so much. To me, he's just kind of an "uncle". The one who teaches me to swim in the Colombe d'Or swimming pool.
Among all the artists present, who impresses you?
Calder, a lot. With his big voice, his strong accent and his mirrored build. In a poem, Prévert describes him as a bear. That's exactly it. Yet his works are so delicate! You also had to see him dance... Suddenly, Calder turned into a little opera rat!
And Giacometti? Does he scare you?
His sculpture, not at all. He, on the other hand, is a more closed man, who does not approach children. It must be said that when he died, I was little, only five years old. I got to know his brother Diego better, whom I adored.
Yoyo in the Giacometti courtyard, at the Maeght Foundation
Aimé Maeght is at the forefront of modernity. Does this seem natural to you?
Modern, he will be all his life. With a pronounced taste for beautiful things. In his first gallery in Cannes, he showcased furniture that he designed himself. In Paris, he lives with furniture by Charlotte Perriand or André Arbus. Or wear a Mao collar before his time...
Le Corbusier, you say, is convinced of being entrusted with his project.
Absolutely. Because he is very close to Fernand Léger, grandpa knows him very well. In this artistic community, where everyone connects, Le Corbusier, who is the most prominent architect, cannot even imagine that this foundation project would not fall to him. But my grandfather, faithful to his principles, chose Josep Lluis Sert, convinced that he would be better able to serve artists.
In conclusion, what do Aimé Maeght's work and stature inspire you?
Huge respect. I admire his incredible tenacity. His journey proves that nothing can resist work, once you set yourself goals, even if they are dreams or utopias. But if the Foundation is the most visible element of his personality, for me, my grandfather is above all the publisher of L'Art vivant. This review is a real revolution.
You have left the Foundation. The quarrel is over?
A legal expert is responsible for making the accounts of the joint ownership after the donation-sharing decided by my father. We are talking about millions of euros. To this day, I don't even have the catalogs signed by the artists during my childhood. But I'm in no hurry. I'm not complaining about anything. I live in a wonderful loft in the suburbs of Paris, with a few lithographs by Miro or Giacometti on the walls which, in fact, have been requested of me. I am accused of being proud? Since my resignation, no one has seen me in Saint-Paul. I don't suffer from it. With this book, I turn a page.
Literary Salon - Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret:
"Yoyo Maeght's book is like a bouquet of anemones on a tablecloth. Where so many piss-vinegars would settle their scores, the one who becomes a memoirist of her family saga offers a modest book. It is full of more information than anecdotes. Starting from his grandfather's adventure, Yoyo traces history back to us..."
Fine Arts - Thierry Taittinger:
"Sad epilogue for the one who will not have the most undeserved among the Maeght heirs. Self-taught with an unalterable good humor, Yoyo Maeght had learned on the job, tirelessly surveying fairs, openings and biennials across the planet for thirty years. had it been more listened to, the Maeght companies, once at the forefront of the avant-garde, would undoubtedly not have missed the turning point in contemporary art at the beginning of the 1980s..."
Le Télégramme - Comments collected by Éliane Faucon-Dumont:
Pleasant or painful to write this book? "I'm talking about people I loved madly. Grandpa is still alive for me, just like Miró, Tzara, Prévert... Malraux and the others. I searched the archives a lot to write. It was like a game track with my grandfather..."
The Flâneur des deux monts:
"The book is fascinating. We discover this extraordinary family, original, a little crazy... and wildly free. Three generations of taste, flair, adventures..."
The Colors of Life:
"A magnificent book of love for her grandfather. No hatred towards those who rejected her. Quite simply an observation to fully live one's freedom. To love, to laugh, two words which agree so well with each other and a smile by Yoyo is so beautiful. Thank you Yoyo for this joy of reading..."
Germanopratins:
"The free electron of this family, it is Yoyo who seems to have retained all the spirit of her grandfather: this unwavering energy, this joy of living and this curiosity which always pushes her further. She leaves us for the first time enter into the intimacy of the Maeght family and shares with us the memories of three generations who lived together, loved each other and tore each other apart. A family story where joys and dramas mingle.
La Libre Belgique - Guy Duplat:
"Out comes an explosive book by Yoyo Maeght, the granddaughter of the founder of the dynasty, Aimé Maeght. In "The Maeght saga", she pays both a magnificent, moving and personal tribute to her grandfather, recounts the life dream that she had as a child and takes us into the intimacy of the artists, but in the second part of the book, she describes the rifts of the clan and reveals her version of fratricidal fights around a financial and artistic heritage..."
The Journal des Arts - Jean-Christophe Castelain:
"The portrait of Aimé Maeght that his granddaughter Yoyo paints is particularly laudable. In just a few years “papy” raised the small gallery created during the war in Cannes to an international level, drawing thousands of original lithographs and designing a unique place for exhibiting modern and contemporary art in Saint-Paul-de-Vence with the help of the architect Sert and the artists Giacometti, Miró, Calder, who would like to appear as the only intellectual heiress of his great one. -father, never ceases to magnify his generous, visionary, entrepreneurial, avant-garde personality, to praise his complicity with “grandma”..."
Myriam Thibault's Notebook:
"This book, which had considerable success this summer, should fall into the hands of all art lovers, and all painting enthusiasts, and all these great artists who founded 20th century art century…"
Unidivers - Eric Rubert:
"It is a part of the history of art from the beginning of the mid-20th century that we are discovering, a period where Yoyo nostalgically recalls how Paris was the center of the world in this area. The speeches of Bonnard who open the way to a reflection on the Painting and its permanent state of incompleteness, the assurance of Giacometti, still unknown, who demands Aimé to choose it exclusively, the late recognition of Calder, all these privileged moments make the main interest of this book..."
Textes.net - Françoise Neveu:
"It is first of all a book on art as a vital necessity in a part specific to all being. And by its existence, it is a book on the necessity of writing to evoke all the other arts, in extract from oneself all the lessons, return to others, to the grandfather all that we owe him for what he gave, certainly, almost especially for what we took from him - what he gave us learned.
The Griotte:
"Yoyo also takes us to the 1960s and 1970s in the streets of Saint Paul de Vence, the legendary art village, revealing behind the scenes of the Colombe d'Or restaurant where the stars met in the summer...A cobblestone (in the pond) fascinating to devour without delay at a time when the famous foundation of Saint-Paul de Vence has just celebrated its 50th anniversary and its ten millionth visitor..."
Vox Patrimonia - Julie Schweitzer:
"In a poignant and controversial book, halfway between biography and testimony, guardian of family memory, Yoyo takes the opportunity to settle scores with a father, Adrien, less concerned than she is with the spirit, so original that original, Maeght's grandparents brought the divinity down to the temple of art. She ensures that it is not entrusted only to merchants. Foundation exhibitions…”
Growing seasons - Mylène Vignon:
"From childhood, she felt the need to save, like a precious possession, each moment, each encounter; so many nuggets that she already sensed were exceptional. She shared her daily life with Miro, Picasso, Prévert, Braque , Giacometti, Malraux, Calder, Chagall, Tapiès... Today, through this book - a testimony of more than 330 pages, she offers us very great moments in the history of Art, from the sixties to the present day... "
The Future - Michel Paquot -
"If the Saint-Paul-de-Vence Foundation bears the name of his grandparents, Yoyo Maeght believes, in a shocking book, that their soul no longer lives there. The Maeght saga will make noise in the world of French art. Its author forcefully denounces the way in which the Foundation created by her grandparents is managed today..."
Nova Planet - Jean Rouzaud
“Yoyo has decided to tell a new version of the saga, from a “backstage” angle. Yoyo, in his fifties, suddenly lifts the veil on the dark side of his family, what Graham Green called the “human factor », and this, in a book of 333 pages, a stone in the pool of the foundation... It is ultra-rare in France, the story of a family fortune revealed then dismantled so crudely, especially by one of his members.
Arts Blog:
"Make up your own mind by reading this astonishing work which definitively undermines a myth carved in marble, of our history and our artistic heritage..."
The evening :
"Yoyo plunges into the heart of the family saga. And it is far from being a long, quiet river. By paying homage to his grandfather, Yoyo Maeght also reveals the most detestable sides of his heirs. His book thus becomes an astonishing testimony to the formidable career of his grandfather and artistic life in the 20th century as much as the description of the slow disintegration of a family..."
Last Hour DH Belgium - Isabelle Monnart
In the crazy carefreeness of the 50s and 70s, we come across all the important people in the art world... To serious things, Yoyo contrasts a radiant smile, which says, in essence, that all of that, deep down, has so little importance in terms of life... Hers was sweet, she doesn't hide it.
Nice-Matin – Franck Leclerc:
"In the book she dedicates to The Maeght Saga, Yoyo recounts the luminous journey of her grandparents. In conclusion, what do the work and stature of Aimé Maeght inspire in you? An immense respect. I admire her incredible tenacity proves that nothing resists work, as long as we set goals, even if they are dreams, utopias..."
Antique dealer's bulletin:
"In The Maeght Saga Yoyo Maeght brings to life this wonderful history of art and literature of the second half of the 20th century in which the gallery, the editions and the Maeght foundation were and remain essential actors. As she knows so well doing it Yoyo Maeght makes each work, each story, each character come alive by illuminating them with fundamental details that allow them to appear to the reader in all their complexity and all their strength..."
L’Echo Belgique:
"A real saga that the fascinating book that she has just published and which, far from the feeling of serenity that the Riviera museum provides, delivers, from the Maeght Foundation, a contrasting picture. Yoyo, granddaughter of the founders Aimé and Marguerite, publishes a book that is both admiring for the founders and assassinating for certain heirs..."
The Point - Judith Guidicelli:
"“A wonderful adventure”, this is how Aimé Maeght, an orphan who became one of the greatest art dealers of the 20th century, described his life. Yoyo has just published The Maeght saga : she speaks her truth with a tone which should still fan the embers of the hearth..."
Le Parisien Magazine: Mathias Galante:
“Yoyo Maeght, granddaughter of Aimé and Marguerite, recounts this flamboyant era in a book which traces the incredible daily life of an extraordinary family…”
Free Midday:
"Yoyo Maeght retraces this Maeght Saga which includes Marguerite, Aimé's wife, and their son Adrien, with their lights and their shadows. The legacy of the Maeghts was also a heavy burden to assume, moments of exaltation and of heartbreak…”
West France
"Yoyo Maeght, Aimé's granddaughter, recounts the daily life of her extended family, where artists and writers rub shoulders and work. She delivers her memories of a life spent in a whirlwind of openings, parties, exhibitions, projects, failures and successes, dramas and joys, between Paris and Saint-Paul-de-Vence..."
Var Morning:
“Art enthusiasts and this magical place that is the foundation, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, will flock to this book which will reveal many secrets to them about the beautiful story of a family like no other… "
Le Figaro :
"Among the beautiful surprises of this summer we will remember the book by Yoyo Maeght. It is a completely different family that Yoyo Maeght introduces us to in his fascinating book of memories. The granddaughter of Aimé Maeght, gallery owner, collector of art, publisher and patron, friend of artists, evokes these great figures that she encountered..."
Arts Magazine:
“In my first two books, I retraced the story of the Maeghts on the public side… This time, I bring it to life on the private side. I tell my memories. And those collected through confidences, from those who knew him. To find out, and as I am rather picky, I spent hours studying pre-war newspapers, listening to sound documents or watching videos found from collectors..."
My Boox:
"Why we love The Maeght Saga: This book of subjective testimony, as the author specifies, is a mixture of admiration, family piety but also settling of scores. We follow the destiny of the Maeght through which is also revealed an exciting and intimate part of the history of modern art with, among others, Bonnard, Matisse, Miró and even Chagall and Giacometti, friends of Aimé Maeght..."