Christian Zervos

Christian Zervos ( born January 1, 1889 in Argostoli, † September 12, 1970 in Paris) was an art collector, critic and publisher of the literary and art magazine Cahiers d'Art. As one of the first art critic, he wrote about Pablo Picasso and later became his publisher. Zervos created today as fundamentally respected catalog raisonné of Picasso's work, which was published in the Éditions Cahiers d'Art from 1932.

Life

Christian Zervos was born in Argostoli on Kefalonia. His parents emigrated later to Alexandria, and from there to Marseille. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and started for the art magazine L'Art d' aujourd ' hui to write. In 1926 he founded with Tériade the art and literary magazine Cahiers d'Art ( 1926-1960 ) for which he won Will Grohmann ( as a correspondent in Germany ), among others, the architect Jean Badovici and his friend. Zervos opened with his wife Yvonne Marion gallery, which later was called May Gallery, and an important institution of French art in the interwar years was. She was also one of only two galleries in France performed the works of Vasily Kandinsky.

When the Nazis in Germany began to rage against "degenerate art", Zervos was among the few that are critical in the public to expressed and wrote polemical articles. The exhibition " Exhibition of 20th Century German Art" in London, he printed an article by Grohmann without their consent and knowledge. Grohmann got into trouble and was even briefly arrested. 1947, reconciled Zervos and Grohmann and sat down hard for a Franco-German cooperation in the cultural sector a.

In addition to his commitment to the Modern Christian Zervos interested in the Cycladic and prehistoric art. He wrote numerous monographs, as Henri Rousseau and Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 2006, the Musée Zervos opened in the former house of the writer Romain Rolland in Vezelay.

Works (selection)

  • Michel Psellos, Un philosophe néoplatonicien you XIe siècle. Paris 1920 ( Reprint 1974)
  • Catalogue raisonné of the œuvres de Pablo Picasso. Paris, éditions Cahiers d'art, 1932-1978
  • The Art of Crete
  • The Art of the Cyclades
  • L'art de l' époque du Renne en France
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