Michel Sima
| Michel Sima | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Michał Smajewski 20 May 1912 Slonim, Poland (present-day Belarus) |
| Died | 12 April 1987 (aged 74) Largentière, France |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Education | Acadèmie de la Grande Chaumière |
| Known for | Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics |
| Notable work |
Picasso à Antibes |
Picasso à Antibes
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 and of almost all the artists of the School of Paris.
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), while an exhibition of his work together with Picabia's in Cannes is a great success.
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. In this studio Picasso creates "La Joie de Vivre" and "Le Triptyque".
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Wikipedia