Yvon Lambert, Paris. On artistic recurrences

Yvon Lambert’s return to the Marais is no longer a story of reinvention but one of continuity. «I want to do something more humanistic»

Closing of Galerie Lambert

On the thirty-first of December 2014, Le Figaro announced a shock for the art world: the closing of Galerie Lambert, 108 di Rue Vieille du Temple in Paris. It had been opened by the French art dealer Yvon Lambert in 1966 and found premises in Marais in 1986. The closure of Galerie Yvon Lambert at the end of 2014 marked the conclusion of nearly five decades of activity. Lambert himself described the decision as a personal and generational choice rather than a purely economic necessity. The international art market had changed, becoming increasingly concentrated around large global galleries and speculative dynamics. Lambert chose to step away from that system and focus on publishing, collecting and supporting artists through different formats. «It is not a political decision. But, the effect of time, the realization that the art world is different from the one I loved. I want to do something more humanistic, less focused on money and obsession with prices», commented Lambert back then.

Today, Yvon Lambert and his daughter Eve oversee Yvon Lambert Libraire Éditeur, a cultural space in the Marais that combines a specialist art bookshop, an independent publishing house and a venue for exhibitions and conversations. Alongside artists’ books and limited editions, the programme includes photography, design, critical writing and collaborations with contemporary artists.

Publishing remains one of the central activities of Yvon Lambert Libraire Éditeur. Rather than functioning as a conventional bookstore, the space produces and distributes artists’ books, exhibition catalogues and limited editions, often developed in close collaboration with photographers, visual artists and writers. The catalogue reflects Lambert’s long-standing interest in the book as an artistic medium and as an accessible way to collect contemporary art.

A showcase for established and up-and-coming artists

Yvon Lambert, publisher and bookseller, has not cut ties with the artists he has represented throughout his career. Today, the bookshop is also a showcase for established and up-and-coming artists, both French and international. Examples as Romain Laprade – featuring on Lampoon MECCANO cover.

The programme continues to alternate between established figures and emerging artists, maintaining the dialogue that characterised Lambert’s gallery career. Temporary exhibitions, installations, book launches and artist encounters transform the bookshop into an active cultural space rather than a traditional retail environment.

Yvon Lambert’s history and background

Rewind on Yvon Lambert. Born in Vence in 1936, Yvon Lambert entered the art world at a young age. Before establishing himself in Paris, he began dealing in artworks in the south of France, eventually opening his first gallery in the French capital in 1966. From the outset, he championed artists who would later become central figures in post-war and contemporary art. «Back then I loved geometric art. I exhibited the works of Jean Arp, Jean Hélion and Léon Arthur Tutundjian, an Armenian artist. At the time, Saint Germain was the trigger for a career».

In 1968 he set up a shop in a new space in Rue De l’Echaudé. It was not far from De Seine, where until 1972 he presented and sold a new generation of artists. His encounters with the Americans were the results of frequent trips to New York and the general desire among Parisian gallery owners to expand into other markets.

Lambert could appreciate the Americans, including also Carl Andre, Cy Twombly, Lawrence Weiner, the minimalists Robert Ryman and Brice Marden. For Cy Twombly – a painter from Virginia, who died in Rome in 2011 – Lambert involved Roland Barthes in the promotion. He knew he was a fan. «I had to fill my room and desk with photos of Twombly’s paintings, I begged him on my knees. In the end he accepted, and I wrote an essay about him».

**The Phaedrus case**

An anecdote that still links Lambert with Twombly is the Phaedrus case. On the nineteenth of July, 2007, the French police arrested a Cambodian artist, Rindy Sam, for kissing one of the panels of a triptych by Twombly, Phaedrus, on display at the Contemporary Art Museum in Avignon.

The panel was an all-white canvas worth two million euros, but stained by Rindy Sam’s lipstick. The Cambodian defended her gesture as an act of love inspired by the power of art. For this reason, she had to pay a fine of one-thousand euros to the owner of the artwork, Yvon Lambert, plus five-hundred as compensation to the museum in Avignon, and the nominal payment of one euro to Twombly.

The inauguration of Collection Lambert

In 2000, Yvon Lambert returned to the south of France and inaugurated Collection Lambert in Avignon, a personal collection presented in Hôtel de Caumont, an eighteenth-century building used for public events. The exhibition then expanded to the nearby Hôtel de Montfaucon, doubling its display area from one-hundred-and-seventy square meters to three-hundred-and-thirty. The collection opened with three-hundred-and-fifty works by contemporary artists for a total value of sixty-three million euros.

In 2010, Lambert threatened to withdraw the collection due to the lack of restoration work on Hôtel de Montfaucon. One year later he donated five-hundred-and-fifty-six of his artworks to France in exchange for the restoration. This represented the most generous donation to the French state since Picasso’s in 1974.

Today, Collection Lambert stands as one of France’s leading institutions for contemporary art. Spread across the Hôtel de Caumont and Hôtel de Montfaucon in Avignon, it houses works by artists including Cy Twombly, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer and Nan Goldin, while presenting an active programme of temporary exhibitions and public events.

Yvon Lambert Paris

14 Rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France
Yvon Lambert Libraire Éditeur is an independent Parisian bookshop, publishing house and exhibition space in the Marais. Founded by Yvon Lambert after the closure of his renowned gallery, it continues his commitment to contemporary art through books, editions and cultural programming.