Michel Sima

Michel Sima, a pseudonym for Michał Smajewski, born on 20 May 1912 in Slonim (Poland, now Belarus) was a Polish sculptor, photographer and ceramicist best known for his photographic portraits of Picasso^[1] and of almost all the artists of the School of Paris.^[2]

Biography

From his earliest years, he wanted to become a sculptor. Born in a liberal middle class Jewish family, he arrives in Paris in 1929, 17 years old, and is admitted into the "Acadèmie de la Grande Chaumière".

In 1933 he joins the group of the painter Francis Gruber. He works in the Brâncuși's and Ossip Zadkine's studios, among others, and earns a living taking photos of current events for various newspapers.

He socializes in Gertrude and Leo Stein's circle and makes friends with many famous people Jean Cocteau, Francis Picabia, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos and Youki Foujita, Max Ernst, Pierre Tal-Coat. In 1936 he meets Picasso. He takes part in many group exhibitions, in Paris and on the Riviera.

During the Worl War II he seeks refuge in the "Zone libre" but in 1942 he's arrested in Golfe Juan, as a Jewish foreigner. He's sent to Auschwitz then to Blechhammer (Judenlager), wihle an exhibition of his work together with Picabia's in Cannes is a great success.^[2]

Seriously ill, he's back in France in 1945, and spends months and months recovering in Cannes, at his friend's Dor de la Souchère and in Grasse. In 1946, in Golfe Juan, he meets with Picasso again, and obtains for him a large studio in the Grimaldi museum in Antibes, given by Dor de la Souchère.^[3] In this studio Picasso creates "La Joie de Vivre" and "Le Triptyque".

Following Picasso's advice, Sima turns to photography. He's too weak to work as a full-time sculptor, yet he keeps on creating small pieces, engravings and working on ceramic. He gives his personal opinions to Picasso about his works and provides him with documents. It resulted to the book : "Picasso à Antibes" published in 1948.

Michel Sima then specializes in artists portrait. He creates a very personal style, expressing his deep-rooted fondness for his model. And in the following years, he'll realizes photos of nearly all the artists, members of the School of Paris.

The first book is published in 1959 by editor Fernand Nathan "21 Visages d'artistes". Seeing the poor quality of the copies, Sima's deception is so great that he decides to stop publishing the photos.^[2]

In 1967, his old friend painter René Besset invites him Ardèche. Sima then decides to live there with his family, although he keeps his studio in "La Ruche" in Paris. From this time to 1987, when he died he keep on testing new materials and searching for new forms in his sculptures.

Books by Michel Sima

• (fr) Picasso à Antibes, photographies de Michel Sima, commentées par Paul Eluard, introduction par Jaime Sabartès, Paris, René Drouin, 1948.
• (fr) 21 visages d’artistes, photographies de Michel Sima, préface de Jean Cocteau, Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1959.
• Faces of modern art, photography by Michel Sima, preface by Jean Cocteau, translated by Gloria Levy,Tudor Publishing Co., New York, 1959

Public Collections

• Picasso museum in Antibes
• Picasso museum in Barcelona
• Picasso museum in Málaga
• Arp Foundation in Clamart
• Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in Paris
• Documentation center of the Matisse museum in Nice
• Würth collection

Bibliography

• (French) Erika Billeter, Michel Sima (Ateliers d'artiste), Gand, éditions Snoeck, 2008
• (French) Jean-Louis Andral, Michel Sima, Anne de Staël, L'atelier des combles, co-édition Musée Picasso, Antibes, éditions Hazan, Paris, 2008
• Jean-Louis Andral, Pierre Daix, Picasso : la Joie de Vivre (1946-1949), Skira, 2007
• (French) Maurice Fréchuret, Françoise Gilot, Michel Sima, 1946, Picasso et la Méditerranée retrouvée, Nice, Grégoire Garedette éditions, 1996
• Mark Haworth-Booth, « The artist as subject. The photographs of Michel Sima », in Paul Josefowitz (CM), Apollo (magazine), No 428, October 1997, London, monthly ISSN 0003-6536

Filmography

• Christian Tran, Picasso et Sima, le modeleur d'amitié, production Artis, Lyon TV, 2009, 58 mn, (English subtitles)^[4]

References

1. ↑ Jean-Louis Andral, Pierre Daix, Picasso : la Joie de Vivre (1946-1949), Skira, 2007 p.232 to p.271
2. 1 2 3
   • (French) Erika Billeter, Michel Sima (Ateliers d'artiste), Gand, éditions Snoeck, 2008 p.201 to p.203
3. ↑ Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso, McGraw-Hill, 1964; Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1989
4. ↑ Catalogue of the BPI

External links

• Official site
• Sima at the Picasso Museum in Antibes
• Michel Sima in : Picasso, La joie de vivre, 1945-1948, La collection François Pinault, Palazzograssi.