A Few Collectors

(Hardback)

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Description

"Funny and whimsical. There are wonderful asides ... It is also poignant."
The New York Times

An utterly charming book by beloved Parisian artist Pierre Le-Tan, filled with dazzling illustrations and intriguing tales about often eccentric art collectors. Le-Tan, known for designing New Yorker magazine covers and collaborations with fashion houses, summons up memories of inveterate collectors in this lavishly illustrated volume. He evokes fascinating, sometimes troubled figures through insightful and curious portraits. With seventy of his distinctive pen and ink drawingsin vibrant color with meticulous cross-hatchingA Few Collectors opens a window onto the vast or minuscule world created by collectors out of a mix of extravagance and obstinacy. It recounts encounters in Paris, the Cte dAzur, North Africa, London and New York, where Le-Tans subjects have amassed a range of treasures. Some involve famed figures like former Louvre Museum director Pierre Rosenberg. Others are insolvent aristocrats, princes of film and fashion, expatriate dandies, and flat-out obsessive eccentrics. Le-Tan devotes perhaps his finest chapter to himself.

Reviews

Pierre Le-Tan reminds us that once upon a time works of art reflected the deepest feelings of their owners. I longed to stay in his charmed and delightfully wicked world of eccentric collectors intent on finding beauty in both the humblest and grandest of objects. --Michael Findlay, author of The Value of Art: Money, Power, Beauty Pierre Le-Tan was an indefatigable collector who in these pages--as in life--created a dazzling world, profoundly personal, that combined surrealism, romanticism, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the decorative arts. --Reed and Delphine Krakoff, Tiffany & Co. chief artistic officer and interior designer An enthralling testament to the passionate pursuits of true collectors--an entertaining, colorful study of the psychology of collecting and an irresistible peek into a compendium of fascinating lives." --Mary Rozell, author of The Art Collector's Handbook I savored A Few Collectors with unmitigated pleasure ... Calm narration, soothing atmosphere. Le-Tan's writing has the same throwback sensibility as his immediately recognizable line drawings ... He manages to casually reveal to us that the madness of accumulation, of ownership and of exhibiting can sometimes conceal grace. --Pierre Assouline, author of An Artful Life: A Biography of D. H. Kahnweiler "Pierre Le-Tan's delightful book provides charming impressions of different collections. His very definition of collecting as 'essential and completely useless' captures the insouciant spirit in which this volume is written as well as wonderfully illustrated. The book is a collection in itself--of objects amassed by a variety of fascinating people, of intriguing memories, and of the author's rambles through Paris. --Victoria Newhouse, author of Art and the Power of Placement and Parks of the 21st Century

Author Bio

Pierre Le-Tan was an internationally renowned French illustrator who designed whimsical and stylish covers for The New Yorker and many other magazines including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, as well as book covers for works by his friend Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. Le-Tan died in 2019 at age sixty-nine. A year and a half later, over four hundred objects that filled his Paris apartment, a high-ceilinged cabinet of curiosities on the Place du Palais-Bourbon, were auctioned off to passionate admirers of his taste. Michael Z. Wise is the publisher of New Vessel Press.