In 1953, a meeting with Pablo Picasso, who gave him his first Rolleiflex, changed the trajectory of his career. This meeting became the starting point for a unique collaboration between the two artists.
André Villers, born in 1930 in Beaucourt, near Belfort, is a photographer and visual artist whose work has marked the history of contemporary photography. At the age of 22, he was diagnosed with bone tuberculosis and spent eight years in the sanatorium at Vallauris, a stay that would prove decisive for his artistic career. It was during this period that he developed a passion for photography, taking his first images of the town and its inhabitants in 1952.
In 1953, a meeting with Pablo Picasso, who gave him his first Rolleiflex, changed the trajectory of his career. This meeting became the starting point for a unique collaboration between the two artists. Villers photographed Picasso in a number of portraits, and together they produced a four-handed work consisting of hundreds of experimental photographs. Thirty of these images were published in 1962 under the title Diurnes (Paris, Berggruen), accompanied by a text by Jacques Prévert. This work marked a turning point in Villers' career, and he became one of the most sought-after photographers of his time, taking portraits of famous artists such as Fernand Léger, Alexander Calder, Hans Hartung and César, as well as Luis Buñuel, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Prévert and many others. He was appreciated by these fellow artists for his gentle and sensitive personality; they were easily charmed by his camera and his sympathy.
In the 1970s, André Villers introduced an innovative approach to his photographic practice by creating his own negatives from pieces of tracing paper, experimenting with new ways of capturing light and shadow. This search for transparency and depth became the core of his work. Over the years, he has continued to explore various techniques, notably through a series of paper cut-outs from 2000 onwards, which complement his aesthetic research.
In the 1970s, André Villers introduced an innovative approach to his photographic practice by creating his own negatives from pieces of tracing paper, experimenting with new ways of capturing light and shadow. This search for transparency and depth became the core of his work. Over the years, he has continued to explore various techniques, notably through a series of paper cut-outs from 2000 onwards, which complement his aesthetic research.
In addition to his photographic work, André Villers has also made a name for himself in the visual arts. He is particularly renowned for his collages, shadow folds and cut-outs, as well as for his series of brightly painted cardboard ‘photographers’, a work that oscillates between photography and visual art.
To mark its grand opening, PM GALLERY organized an exhibition dedicated to André Villers and Pablo Picasso, envisioned through a rare dialogue between photography, drawing, and ceramics. The exhibition brought together iconic photographs by André Villers, two drawings and a collection of ceramics by Picasso, offering a cross-disciplinary reading of the artist's work and creative process. Far from a strictly monographic approach, this exhibition explores Picasso through the depth of his presence: the artist at work, the artist observed, the artist shaping the medium. André Villers’ photographs, captured within the intimacy of the studio, do more than just document a creator: they participate in the visual construction of the Picasso myth. Villers does not photograph the finished artwork, but rather the fragile moment of its inception, when the artist himself becomes an image.