A selection of amazing early works by the artists of the gallery brought to you directly from their studio! From 1946 to the 2010s, these works represent very well in each case the artists' debut and prefigure their interest and style very early on. A unique opportunity to acquire artworks which will be soon very much sought after!

CATHERINE BALET

In 1989, with the first drawing software being released, Catherine Balet saw an opportunity to start working with a mouse just like she used to work with her brushes. This unique artwork, produced with this new technique, showcases an interior scene dear to Catherine’s practice. To reinforce the work and to counter-balance its digital nature, she then used oil pastels to drawn on the print itself, bringing back to her digital work an interesting texture. This artwork was only printed once in 1989, and since it was saved on a floppy disk which got lost, it could never be reproduced. As unique as it gets!

HAROLD FEINSTEIN

This is one of Harold Feinstein’s earliest photographs taken the year he started photographing with a Rolleiflex borrowed from his neighbor!  He was 15 years old! Coney Island, the place where he was born, was his first subject and continued to be his muse for over 65 years.  While he rarely used a tripod, this photo was an exception. He wrote about it in a 2013 blog post Available Light: Coney Island at Night, in which spoke of using a Rolleiflex Automat Model 3, with a 1-2 minute exposure and the aperture wide open "resulting in photographs that really give you an understanding of the thrill of being on these rides!”.  

HENRI FOUCAULT

This photograph is part of a series of 22 images which is of an upmost importance to Henri Foucault. When he stumbled upon these moulages, made in the 19th century, Henri felt the urge to photograph them as he was utterly impressed by the humanity of these sculptures. Who would not! He did not know then that these same moulages had been photographed in 1847 and shown in 2003 at the Musée d’Orsay in a Daguerrotype-focused exhibition curated by Quentin Bajac. Whereas the intention of the photographers back then was purely scientific, Henri’s main focus was to portray that humanity. These images have played an important role to the artist’s work then on, as they triggered his interest in figurative photography, as well as a need to work with living models. This photograph has been acquired by several high-end collectors, among who Francois Pinault. It can now be yours too!

Vittoria Gerardi

Back in 2016, in the development of the Pompeii project, Vittoria Gerardi went through a stage of experimentation with photographic collages. The collages are produced through a process of recomposing gelatin silver fragments cut from contemporary photographs she took in Pompeii, pursuing a surreal visual experience of the ruin. In this image, the columns of the Forum are repeated multiple times and composed in a cyclical movement towards the sky and down back to the earth to signify the undistinguishable relation between real and unreal. Later on, this interest was explored through the use of plaster on the photographic print, deepening the process of revelation rather than that of de-construction, leaving aside the exploration done with the collages. All of the 7 collages produced are part of the personal archive of the artist and therefore not for sale. Vittoria made an exception with this artwork just for you. Jump on the opportunity!

Ralph Gibson

Ralph Gibson is no doubt one of the most accomplished photographer of all time. A true master who invented a new language in photography back in the 1970s with The Somnambulist and his following best-selling series. An independent artist who decided early on, at a time when photojournalism was the norm, he would only create art, rather than documenting life. But what a few know is that during a short period (1963-1966) he actually was making documentary photography in Los Angeles, resulting in his very first book “The Strip”. This first series is outstanding in many ways and this photograph is part of it. Even though he was documenting the life on the famous L.A. boulevard, we can already see the premises of what is going to be his unique signature: a vertical photograph, a mastered composition, bursting grain and the subtracted elements of reality leading to this unique surreal feel. Add the eyes of the Master and you get hypnotized!

YANNIG HEDEL

This photograph was made by Yannig Hedel in 1982 on the Seine river bank in Paris. As early as 1982, Yannig Hedel was already very interested in capturing architecture as a central part of his cityscapes. The way he already cut the frame in two clearly also prefigured most of his soon-to-follow body of work, and especially his famous series “Heures Blanches”. This vintage print made by the master himself is stunning in every way and the last one available as all other prints of this photograph will be contemporary prints made under his supervision.

SABINE MIRLESSE

Sabine Mirlesse made this cyanotype from an ultrasound of her heart. It was a very strange thing for Sabine seeing her heart on the outside of her body of course, and resonated with her growing interest in alternative ways of seeing. Inspired by the technique of ultrasounds, she reflected on seeing through sound interacting with water. To see through to one’s core. But why a cyanotype? The artist chose this process because while blue is a color we commonly associate with the sea today, it was originally considered not a color but rather a quality of clarity or transparency. This diptych, negative and positive of her heart, side by side, on thick hand brushed cotton paper gently scored back and forth horizontally, was in many ways one of the beginnings of her return to abstraction as part of a search.

RÉMI NOËL

French photographer Rémi Noël, who recently joined the gallery, is a poet, a poet who uses images as his main language. His photographs, carrying a deep sense of freedom - that same freedom sought after by most travellers -, brilliantly mingles imagination with reality, with a touch of humour. Before embarking on his American road trips, Rémi Noël started working in his kitchen and made several still life photographs. This image was published in his very first book, Natures mortes mais pas trop, and like with all other images of the book Rémi managed to inject life and humour in his still life photographs. Don’t ask how the stem embraced the shape of the vase, it is a trade secret! 

THOMAS PAQUET

This tintype, made in 2017, is one of the earliest image made by the young French artist Thomas Paquet using wet collodion techniques. The pyrite he photographed is a truly amazing stone with multiple bezels which gold seekers mistook for gold all along the 1870s in the USA. Just like the stone, this photograph is full of certainty and uncertainty, making us to rethink what is real and what is abstract. All the ingredients of Thomas’s work were already in place  from the very beginning. An artist to collect now and follow for years to come.