Synopses & Reviews
France's greatest living artist is an aristocratic street scavenger named Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé, a spry 88-year-old who harvests torn posters to capture the ephemeral DNA of the Paris Street. After five decades, the French art world has, finally, taken notice, yet no one has documented Villeglé's life and work in English. Barnaby Conrad heads into the streets of Paris with Villeglé as he approaches his death to document how Villeglé's sharp eyes and blade carve startling images from French pop culture.
Synopsis
1) PART ART BOOK, PART NARRATIVE PORTRAIT: France's greatest living artist is an aristocratic street scavenger named Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé, a spry 88-year-old who harvests torn posters to capture the ephemeral DNA of the Paris Street. Conrad III documents his sharp eyes and blade carve startling images from French pop culture. 2) THE FRENCH WARHOL: No one has written properly about Villeglé in English. He's a true original, the last of great generation of artists who, like our Warhol, were also cultural chroniclers. 3) AMERICAN
About the Author
Barnaby Conrad is the author of 11 non-fiction books including Absinthe: History in a Bottle, The Martini, and Pan Am: An Aviation Legend, published in 2014 by Council Oak Books. He began his editing career at Art World in New York and was Senior Editor of Horizon in 1979-81. He wrote for Forbes Life for 20 years and served as Editor-At-Large for 5 years. From 2009-2012, he was Associate Editor at Council Oak Books of San Francisco.