Press - Aimé Maeght liked to be “fascinated by artists”

His grandfather exhibited Miró, Braque, Chagall. Yoyo Maeght looks back on his family history.

Interview with Yoyo Maeght

It's little known, but part of your family's history is Gard... Yoyo Maeght
- Absolutely, my grandfather, Aimé Maeght, studied at the Beaux-Arts in Nîmes. He had a room facing the Maison Carrée.

You talk about the Maeght spirit. How would you define it?
- For him, the important thing was integrity. Grandpa had a passion for artists, he was interested in the work but he loved being fascinated by artists.

In “The Maeght saga”, you write that it was only at his burial that you became aware of his importance?
- Until then, I knew he had an aura. But I was not aware that he had left his mark on art history. I realized that he was also a model for anonymous people.

“Miró’s work was very attractive for a child”

Among the personalities who marked your childhood, there was Miró.
Yoyo Maeght
- First of all, he was someone who had an extraordinary French culture. He played with colors as well as words. He spoke little but always in a very incisive manner. Miró's work was very attractive for a child.

Braque, also…
- He died when I was little. I was fascinated by his gaze, he had blue eyes that I never found. One day, a dove came into our apartment, she stayed and we gave her to Braque. The bird is omnipresent in his work. I knew he mattered... My friends didn't know anyone who had painted a ceiling at the Louvre.

And Marc Chagall…
- His house was right next to my grandfather's. I was having lunch recently with his son, and he was telling me that one day he was in my grandfather's Buick. At the time, we could cross the grounds of the Palace of Versailles and, in the middle, my grandfather began to recite verses by Baudelaire. Chagall didn't say a word and his son still gets chills when he talks about it.

Do you remember the inauguration of the Maeght foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence?
- Yes. I was not marked by Malraux who often came to the house but I remember that I was afraid of the gendarmes. There were a lot of personalities. For me, the foundation was the extension of our house, I wondered what they were doing there…

You had a golden childhood and at the same time your parents lost interest in you. They make you believe that you have been found...
- My parents lived in carefree and freedom, I didn't have a bad experience. People ask me if I suffered when I found out that I wasn't adopted, but it's like when you learn that Santa Claus doesn't exist.

When you discover that you are really your parents' daughter, your mother tells you that you have to have a sense of humor...
- It was surreal. When we are used to seeing paintings by Chagall with goats flying above Paris while playing the violin, it was a world that had its logic.

Collected by STÉPHANE CERRI

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