Whenever friends and I sit around and talk, and conversation idly turns to one of those questions like "If you could live in any time but the one you're in, what would it be?" my answer is always immediate-- Paris in the 20s.
To me, the thought of rubbing elbows in cafes with the likes of Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hemingway while downing glasses of marc would have to be the realization of the ultimate dream.
Kiki's Paris is a wonderful substitute for time travel. I was working at a used bookstore about 4 years ago when it came in as a buy from a customer. It's sort of a medium coffee table book size, and the cover features a black & white photo of Kiki herself seated at a cafe table. I knew I had to buy it the minute I flipped it open.
The entire book is essentially a collection of photographs from the years at the very close of the 19th century to around 1930. Each double page spread contains between 7 and 8 photos, and the left margin of the left page contains an overview of these pictures.
Anyone who was anyone in Paris is featured in the pictures. And the studios and places they lived, and the cafes where they drank are also featured. There are fascinating maps of the city, and photographs of different views of Paris from year to year, so you can see the changes made to the buildings and streets.
You are taken through many of the artists' lives and careers in the course of the book, including their many controversial or torrid love affairs. Many of the pictures are candids of groups at the Dome or the Jockey, or any of their numerous artists' balls.
Kiki herself needed no last name. She was born Alice Ernestine Prin in Chatillon-sur-Seine in 1901. She was illegitimate, and raised by her grandmother. And after suffering through the stigma of being illegitimate in a small French town, she was sent to Paris at 12 to get an education. She became one of the most famous artists' models ever.
Some of the mini-stories featured through pictures include those of: Amadeo Modigliani and his love Jeanne Hebuterne, Moise Kisling and his love Renee Gros, Tsuguharu Foujita and several of his loves, the effect of World War I on the community, Man Ray and his travels to Paris and affair with Kiki, Bronia and Tylia Perlmutter the sister models from Holland, the writers working at the time (Ezra Pound, Hemingway, James Joyce, etc), the visit of Dr. Albert Barnes, Chaim Soutine and his paintings of dead sides of beef, an exhibition of Kiki's own art, the dealers working at the time, La Coupole the famous brasserie, Alexander Calder (the American who created mobiles as "kinetic sculpture"), the publishing of Kiki's memoirs, the death of Lena Amsel in a car wreck, Lee Miller the model who taunted Man Ray with her beauty, the life and death of the artist Jules Pacsin, and so many more innumerable topics.
If you enjoy art at all, and especially if you enjoy this era of art in Paris, I would highly recommend this book. I was an art major in college, but learned so much more about the people I studied in this book. I learned more about their personalities and lives than I had ever known before. And these photos are simply unbelievable. So many of them are candids of people who are now household words.
You feel as if you are there in the cafes with them, laughing at a joke someone has just told, or scavenging the last of the change in your pocket for another glass of red wine. Meanwhile, next to you, Braque and Picasso trade ideas about analytic cubism, and Chaim Soutine's body odor is becoming too close for comfort. Chagall is doing caricatures of the proprietor of the restaurant, while Modi chats up another unsuspecting young lady. The cigarette smoke from too many other drunk artists is beginning to bother your eyes, so you say it's time to head home so you can finish your masterpiece. If only you had enough coins for a new tube of burnt umber or some linseed oil.
There are also lots of drawings & program covers featured for balls, art exhibits, and other social events of the time. I have begun scanning them and framing them for art, because they are so original and different. They really make a statement on a blank wall.
I would recommend the book to all but those with children, unless yours is a liberal household. Keep in mind that many artists' models posed in the nude, and many of the candid shots here feature some nudity. It is tasteful and can be considered art, but some could still be offended.
This book was originally $39.95. But it is worth every penny you pay for it.
Recommended:
