Press - IT’S DALLAS AT THE MAEGHT’S
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 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, 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.
“The Maeght saga”, by Yoyo Maeght, ed Robert Laffont, 336 pages, 21.50 euros
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