PARIS.- Galleria Continua Paris Matignon presents an exhibition dedicated to Christian Bérard, curated by Carlo Falciani in collaboration with Bruno Botticelli (Botticelli Antichità). True to its mission of creating resonances between ancient, modern, and contemporary art, the gallery celebrates the figure of Christian Bérard, a pivotal presence in the French artistic scene of the 1930s and 1940s.

This project, organized in collaboration with Botticelli Antichità, was born from the rediscovery of an important Baroque sculpture admired by Bérard, which he viewed as almost his double. Iconic photographs by Herbert List bear witness to this fascination, showing the artist embracing the monumental marble figure as if facing a mirror reflecting his own face and posture.

Christian Bérard (Paris, 1902–1949) occupies a unique place in the Parisian art world thanks to the diversity of his talents and the breadth of his collaborations across multiple disciplines. Painter, theater and film designer, scenographer, and fashion illustrator, he left an indelible mark on two of the most refined and sophisticated decades of French and European art with an innovative style that combined rare elegance with a distinctly nonconformist spirit. In 1926, his painting caught the attention of Jean Cocteau, who, according to Boris Kochno, described him as a “revolutionary artist whose humanist paintings heralded the end of the Cubist period, which had become purely decorative.” Yet, Bérard’s creative expression extended far beyond painting : he collaborated on the sets and productions of the Ballets Russes, designed the sets and costumes for Cocteau’s La Voix humaine in 1930, and continued this work in 1948 for Roberto Rossellini’s film L’Amore, an adaptation of the same play starring Anna Magnani. Among his many stage designs, his work for Jean Giraudoux’s La Folle de Chaillot remains particularly striking. In cinema, Cocteau entrusted him with the artistic direction of La Belle et la Bête (1946), in which the surreal sensibility of Bérard’s universe found full expression. There is no need to recount his biography here, already well documented in key monographs, particularly the one edited by Boris Kochno with contributions from Jean Clair and Edmond Charles-Roux, and highlighted by the major exhibition Christian Bérard, au théâtre de la vie presented in Évian in 2022.

In dialogue with Bérard’s work and the projects he inspired, this exhibition brings together, around the marble bust he once owned, a constellation of contemporary artists. Their practices explore diverse themes - individual freedom, identity (whether noble, grotesque, or monstrous), sensuality, dance, and ecology - transforming the gallery space into an immersive environment where emotion, humanity, and formal refinement converge in a utopian vision. At the gallery at 108 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, the historic sculpture once belonging to Bérard will be shown alongside two other expressive sculptures, one from the 16th century and one from the early 15th century, each embodying a facet of humanity and reflecting the fractures of time.

Bérard’s drawings will engage in dialogue with new works by Juan Araujo created especially for the exhibition, while a piece by Jean Cocteau will resonate with the sculptures of Jonathas de Andrade and the visual world of JR. Finally, Bérard’s stage models will echo the works of Eva Jospin, underscoring the contemporaneity of his vision and the enduring influence of his work on today’s artistic practices.

Carlo Falciani teaches art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and works as an independent curator. A graduate of the University of Florence, he has been a researcher at Villa I Tatti (Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) and at C.A.S.V.A., the National Gallery of Washington. He has published monographs on Rosso Fiorentino and Pontormo, as well as numerous essays on Renaissance and contemporary art. Falciani has curated exhibitions at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris (Florence, Portraits at the Medici Court), at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (the trilogy Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court [2010–2011], Pontormo and Rosso, Divergent Paths of Style [2014], The 16th Century in Florence [2017–2018]), and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 2021).

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Botticelli Antichità. With special thanks to the Comédie Française and Dominique Bert.