The Maeght Saga - The book

Editions Robert Laffont
60 photo documents
Price: €21.50

Order The Maeght Saga with dedication here

Yoyo Maeght, granddaughter of Marguerite and Aimé Maeght, looks at the life of a community where artists, writers, patrons, filmmakers, musicians and all lovers of the arts come together. She details the epic tale of her grandparents whose names are now inseparable from the history of 20th century art.

Yoyo Maeght follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, this gifted visionary, gallery owner, publisher, patron who built an artistic empire and created the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. She delivers a series of unforgettable and amusing anecdotes about artistic communities and an informed look at contemporary art.

Aimé Maeght had a dazzling destiny. Orphan who became a friend of Bonnard, Matisse or Braque. Thanks to these decisive meetings, the Maeght gallery opened in Paris in 1945, where modern masters and emerging talents would be exhibited. Then Aimé forged other magnificent and solid friendships with Miró, Giacometti, Léger, Chagall, Calder, Tàpies, Chillida... but also with Malraux, Prévert, Aragon, Char, Reverdy, Sartre and Genet...

The book features an incredible gallery of portraits with a host of memories and testimonies revealing the fantasy and determination of artists, from the 1930s to today. In a whirlwind of openings, parties, exhibitions, Yoyo paints a colorful portrait of the art world and recounts with amusement the complicity that connects her to Miró, Chagall, Braque, Prévert, Montand who guided her steps from her childhood. Yoyo Maeght, born in 1959, perpetuates the Maeght spirit by devoting her life to art and architecture, as a gallery owner, editor or exhibition curator, for her story,

“Yoyo Maeght recounts this flamboyant era in a book which traces the incredible daily life of an extraordinary family. " The Parisian.

The Maeght Saga in the Press:

My eye on art - Jacques Bouzerand:
This intelligent book, teeming with anecdotes and tasty details, is devoured like a summer thriller. It is at first glance the fabulous story of a familiar, familial, intimate dive into this pantheon of artists constituting the friendly, considerate entourage of the founding grandfather: Aimé Maeght. Not cheap artists, Sunday painters or small-time daubers... No, these are the greatest artists of the century, the most inspired creators, icons of the history of art..."

Le Figaro - Bertrand de Saint Vincent:
“When your name is Yoyo, you should expect to experience ups and downs, but this one makes you dizzy… Yoyo describes vultures, backstabs, jealousy…”

Literary Salon - Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret:
"Yoyo Maeght's book is like a bouquet of anemones on a tablecloth. Where so many piss-vinegars would settle their scores, the one who becomes a memoirist of her family saga offers a modest book. It is full of more information than anecdotes. Starting from his grandfather's adventure, Yoyo traces history back to us..."

Paris Match – Elisabeth Couturier:
"Why reveal your family secrets? As soon as my grandfather, Aimé Maeght, died, I wanted to write his story. There was no book on him, on his gallery or on his foundation. However, what a fantastic epic 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 tell the whole Maeght story through my own eyes. . The fact of having broken with my family explains this freedom..."

Fine Arts - Thierry Taittinger:
"Sad epilogue for the one who will not have the most undeserved among the Maeght heirs. Self-taught with an unalterable good humor, Yoyo Maeght had learned on the job, tirelessly surveying fairs, openings and biennials across the planet for thirty years. had it been more listened to, the Maeght companies, once at the forefront of the avant-garde, would undoubtedly not have missed the turning point in contemporary art at the beginning of the 1980s..."

Le Télégramme - Comments collected by Éliane Faucon-Dumont:
Pleasant or painful to write this book? "I'm talking about people I loved madly. Grandpa is still alive for me, just like Miró, Tzara, Prévert... Malraux and the others. I searched the archives a lot to write. It was like a game track with my grandfather..."

The Flâneur des deux monts:
"The book is fascinating. We discover this extraordinary family, original, a little crazy... and wildly free. Three generations of taste, flair, adventures..."

The Colors of Life:
"A magnificent book of love for her grandfather. No hatred towards those who rejected her. Quite simply an observation to fully live one's freedom. To love, to laugh, two words which agree so well with each other and a smile by Yoyo is so beautiful. Thank you Yoyo for this joy of reading..."

Germanopratins:
"The free electron of this family, it is Yoyo who seems to have retained all the spirit of her grandfather: this unwavering energy, this joy of living and this curiosity which always pushes her further. She leaves us for the first time enter into the intimacy of the Maeght family and shares with us the memories of three generations who lived together, loved each other and tore each other apart. A family story where joys and dramas mingle.

La Libre Belgique - Guy Duplat:
"Out comes an explosive book by Yoyo Maeght, the granddaughter of the founder of the dynasty, Aimé Maeght. In "The Maeght saga", she pays both a magnificent, moving and personal tribute to her grandfather, recounts the life dream that she had as a child and takes us into the intimacy of the artists, but in the second part of the book, she describes the rifts of the clan and reveals her version of fratricidal fights around a financial and artistic heritage..."

The Journal des Arts - Jean-Christophe Castelain:
"The portrait of Aimé Maeght that his granddaughter Yoyo paints is particularly laudable. In just a few years “papy” raised the small gallery created during the war in Cannes to an international level, drawing thousands of original lithographs and designing a unique place for exhibiting modern and contemporary art in Saint-Paul-de-Vence with the help of the architect Sert and the artists Giacometti, Miró, Calder, who would like to appear as the only intellectual heiress of his great one. -father, never ceases to magnify his generous, visionary, entrepreneurial, avant-garde personality, to praise his complicity with “grandma”..."

Myriam Thibault's Notebook:
"This book, which had considerable success this summer, should fall into the hands of all art lovers, and all painting enthusiasts, and all these great artists who founded 20th century art century…"

Unidivers - Eric Rubert:
"It is a part of the history of art from the beginning of the mid-20th century that we are discovering, a period where Yoyo nostalgically recalls how Paris was the center of the world in this area. The speeches of Bonnard who open the way to a reflection on the Painting and its permanent state of incompleteness, the assurance of Giacometti, still unknown, who demands Aimé to choose it exclusively, the late recognition of Calder, all these privileged moments make the main interest of this book..."

Textes.net - Françoise Neveu:
"It is first of all a book on art as a vital necessity in a part specific to all being. And by its existence, it is a book on the necessity of writing to evoke all the other arts, in extract from oneself all the lessons, return to others, to the grandfather all that we owe him for what he gave, certainly, almost especially for what we took from him - what he gave us learned.

The Griotte:
"Yoyo also takes us to the 1960s and 1970s in the streets of Saint Paul de Vence, the legendary art village, revealing behind the scenes of the Colombe d'Or restaurant where the stars met in the summer...A cobblestone (in the pond) fascinating to devour without delay at a time when the famous foundation of Saint-Paul de Vence has just celebrated its 50th anniversary and its ten millionth visitor..."

Vox Patrimonia - Julie Schweitzer:
"In a poignant and controversial book, halfway between biography and testimony, guardian of family memory, Yoyo takes the opportunity to settle scores with a father, Adrien, less concerned than she is with the spirit, so original that original, Maeght's grandparents brought the divinity down to the temple of art. She ensures that it is not entrusted only to merchants. Foundation exhibitions…”

Growing seasons - Mylène Vignon:
"From childhood, she felt the need to save, like a precious possession, each moment, each encounter; so many nuggets that she already sensed were exceptional. She shared her daily life with Miro, Picasso, Prévert, Braque , Giacometti, Malraux, Calder, Chagall, Tapiès... Today, through this book - a testimony of more than 330 pages, she offers us very great moments in the history of Art, from the sixties to the present day... "

The Future - Michel Paquot -
"If the Saint-Paul-de-Vence Foundation bears the name of his grandparents, Yoyo Maeght believes, in a shocking book, that their soul no longer lives there. The Maeght saga will make noise in the world of French art. Its author forcefully denounces the way in which the Foundation created by her grandparents is managed today..."

Nova Planet - Jean Rouzaud
“Yoyo has decided to tell a new version of the saga, from a “backstage” angle. Yoyo, in his fifties, suddenly lifts the veil on the dark side of his family, what Graham Green called the “human factor », and this, in a book of 333 pages, a stone in the swimming pool of the foundation... It is ultra-rare in France, the story of a family fortune revealed then dismantled so crudely, especially by one of his members.

Arts Blog:
"Make up your own mind by reading this astonishing work which definitively undermines a myth carved in marble, of our history and our artistic heritage..."

The evening :
"Yoyo plunges into the heart of the family saga. And it is far from being a long, quiet river. By paying homage to his grandfather, Yoyo Maeght also reveals the most detestable sides of his heirs. His book thus becomes an astonishing testimony to the formidable career of his grandfather and artistic life in the 20th century as much as the description of the slow disintegration of a family..."

Last Hour DH Belgium - Isabelle Monnart
In the crazy carefreeness of the 50s and 70s, we come across all the important people in the art world... To serious things, Yoyo contrasts a radiant smile, which says, in essence, that all of that, deep down, has so little importance in terms of life... Hers was sweet, she doesn't hide it.

Nice-Matin – Franck Leclerc:
"In the book she dedicates to The Maeght Saga, Yoyo recounts the luminous journey of her grandparents. In conclusion, what do the work and stature of Aimé Maeght inspire in you? An immense respect. I admire her incredible tenacity proves that nothing resists work, as long as we set goals, even if they are dreams, utopias..."

Antique dealer's bulletin:
"In The Maeght Saga Yoyo Maeght brings to life this wonderful history of art and literature of the second half of the 20th century in which the gallery, the editions and the Maeght foundation were and remain essential actors. As she knows so well doing it Yoyo Maeght makes each work, each story, each character come alive by illuminating them with fundamental details that allow them to appear to the reader in all their complexity and all their strength..."

L’Echo Belgique:
"A real saga that the fascinating book that she has just published and which, far from the feeling of serenity that the Riviera museum provides, delivers, from the Maeght Foundation, a contrasting picture. Yoyo, granddaughter of the founders Aimé and Marguerite, publishes a book that is both admiring for the founders and assassinating for certain heirs..."

The Point - Judith Guidicelli:
"“A wonderful adventure”, this is how Aimé Maeght, an orphan who became one of the greatest art dealers of the 20th century, described his life. Yoyo has just published The Maeght saga : she speaks her truth with a tone which should still fan the embers of the hearth..."

Le Parisien Magazine: Mathias Galante:
“Yoyo Maeght, granddaughter of Aimé and Marguerite, recounts this flamboyant era in a book which traces the incredible daily life of an extraordinary family…”

Free Midday:
"Yoyo Maeght retraces this Maeght Saga which includes Marguerite, Aimé's wife, and their son Adrien, with their lights and their shadows. The legacy of the Maeghts was also a heavy burden to assume, moments of exaltation and of heartbreak…”

West France
"Yoyo Maeght, Aimé's granddaughter, recounts the daily life of her extended family, where artists and writers rub shoulders and work. She delivers her memories of a life spent in a whirlwind of openings, parties, exhibitions, projects, failures and successes, dramas and joys, between Paris and Saint-Paul-de-Vence..."

Var Morning:
“Art enthusiasts and this magical place that is the foundation, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, will flock to this book which will reveal many secrets to them about the beautiful story of a family like no other… "

Le Figaro :
"Among the beautiful surprises of this summer we will remember the book by Yoyo Maeght. It is a completely different family that Yoyo Maeght introduces us to in his fascinating book of memories. The granddaughter of Aimé Maeght, gallery owner, collector of art, publisher and patron, friend of artists, evokes these great figures that she encountered..."

Arts Magazine:
“In my first two books, I retraced the story of the Maeghts on the public side… This time, I bring it to life on the private side. I tell my memories. And those collected through confidences, from those who knew him. To find out, and as I am rather picky, I spent hours studying pre-war newspapers, listening to sound documents or watching videos found from collectors..."

My Boox:
"Why we love The Maeght Saga: This book of subjective testimony, as the author specifies, is a mixture of admiration, family piety but also settling of scores. We follow the destiny of the Maeght through which is also revealed an exciting and intimate part of the history of modern art with, among others, Bonnard, Matisse, Miró and even Chagall and Giacometti, friends of Aimé Maeght..."

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