Memories - Picasso and Chagall - César and Baldwin - Aimé Maeght - Prévert, Picasso and Yoyo



Frankly unheard of this photo: The writer James Baldwin and the sculptor Caesar.
Jimmy had chosen Saint Paul de Vence to live and work. He spent every day at the Colombe d'Or, talking with Yvonne Roux. His laughter still echoes in my mind.

James Baldwin was born in 1924 in a segregated America. A gifted child, he chose, among all his talents, to devote himself to writing. Very quickly, his writings deal with homosexuality, bisexuality but also identity and racism. A great educator, he debates relentlessly on television to explain to whites the consequences of racism. On July 2, 1964, thanks to the work of civil rights activists, the American president Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a law prohibiting racial discrimination and segregation. A few days later, on July 28, 1964, Jimmy was present at the inauguration of the Fondation Maeght, honored by my grandfather, along with the great artists of the 20th century. And César remains one of the artists who have registered Saint Paul definitively in the adventure of art.

Here are two geniuses reunited in the ceramic workshop of Madoura, in Vallauris. Picasso and Chagall. The happiness of creating, without competition, in friendship, almost "as neighbors", Marc Chagall living in the hills of Vence and Pablo Picasso, in Mougins. Chagall's smile is overwhelming, his freshness and childlike joy.

My grandfather, Aimé Maeght, in one of the rooms of his Fondation Maeght, installing Alberto Giacometti's " Le Nez ". This is the original plaster cast that has since been donated to the Centre Pompidou by my family..

This photo brings back so many memories. Here I am, at 3 1/2 years old, under the amused eyes of Jacques Prévert and Pablo Picasso, already curious and daring, I WANT TO KNOW ! To know, to learn, to understand... I question the Ogre (that's what I called Prévert) because on a collage, a man, unlike the others, doesn't have his head stuck backwards! So, it makes these two giants of surrealism smile.
It was Prévert who gave me my first name, so I wanted this photo to be the cover of my book La Saga Maeght. Photo by Edward Quinn