What Is the Secret to Matchavariani's Timeless Art?

The world of art is exceptionally beautiful as it points our attention to essential details we miss around us. The strength of artistes’ world over are quite different from one another and the reason for this is tied to their varying influences and fuel for their passion. We caught up with Henri Matchavariani, a Georgian artist by descent who has made quite a name for himself in Paris and around the world. His incredible story did share appreciable insights into his artistic journey and the factors that shapes an artist’s perspective.

You were born in Paris, but you are of Georgian descent, please tell us your story.

My story is naturally simple and beautiful. In 1924, after the uprising of Georgians against the Bolshevik oppression, for the invasion of their country and attempt to bring down the young Georgian republic born just three years earlier in 1921, my Father who had been imprisoned for rebellion escaped successfully alongside 10 of his companions of misfortune. They passed into Turkey to flee the terrible repression. There, the French Consul - France, which at the time of the creation of the Young Georgian Republic had recognized its independence and sovereignty - gave them a safe passage into France, which then turned out to be a place of political asylum for them in the meantime. They started to hope for better days in France.

It was there, in Paris, that he met my mother, who had come from Kishinev, which was the city of Romania at that time to live in Paris.

They liked each other, loved each other, and got married. I was born after in 1939.

From the fertile bubbling of these Georgian and Romanian origins, and enriched by their cultures, I later understood this beautiful Italian saying and personalized it for its real beauty and its deep truth. “The tree grows where its roots have been planted!” If, I was the tree my parents planted with them in this beautiful land of France, my roots plunged deeply here and went to feed there, very far, in the country of each of them. Then, the fruits, the beautiful fruits of this tree are my art, my drawings, and my tastes for the things of the world. It is right here, in France that they came alive and gained expressions that left them as the most beautiful.

What made you want to become an illustrator or an artist?

I have been asked many times - at what age, did I start drawing? To that, I always replied with an amiable joke, “I was born with a pencil in my hand!”

The drawing, the pleasure of the drawing, I discovered it alone, absolutely alone. At a very young period in my life. From there, and in fact, I have never stopped drawing; there has been no breaks even until today. From yesterday to today, my passion has remained the same. Did you undergo any art studies or were you self-taught all through?

My Father had been a doctor but he was unable to practice this beautiful profession in his country, because of the exile situation, and as it was impossible for him to practice it in France either, my father would have loved that I practice medicine. This is not because he had not been able to practice it, but rather for me to have a good, beautiful and noble profession. However, I had other ideas in mind, I wanted to draw and become an artist even when I did not know what really laid in wait for me.

I enrolled at the L’Ecole des arts Appliqués Dupetit-Thouars, in Paris, where I found in the teaching of the magnificent teachers all the techniques that have enriched me forever. The rest came from all the artistic discoveries that I made thereafter.

Which of your projects has been most important for the development of your personal style?

I was barely older than 22, when I returned from my military service, then, I discovered the mime in the beautiful film “The Children of Paradise” which came to me as a shock, that I never recovered from. This Art of gesture and silence fascinated me, I went on to discover Marcel Marceau, attended all his shows and, thanks to the meeting that I made with the great Canadian Mime -Claude Saint-Denis- it-appeared that Mr Etienne Decroux, the great Master of Mime, was still alive. The next day, I ran to find him in his studio installed in a cellar somewhere in Boulogne, where young people handpicked from around the world, were taught the supreme art of Mime and Pantomime.

He had been the teacher of Marcel Marceau, Jean-Louis Barrault and so many other actors. He was going to become mine because he accepted me in his class. I stayed there for more than three years, attending four classes a week. I knew “yes” I knew I would never be a Mime, but I wanted this art of gesture, this discipline that shaped the bodies in space, would serve me for my art and that I will use in my drawings. Which, of course, happened. Similar to this great moment in my life, I discovered “Japonism” through incredible films, works of art, the abundant work

Hokusai, literature, theater, samurai, epic battles, traditions, etc. I culminated all of this and started to “dream” in my own way, about this imaginary Japan and its description to infinity.

The contribution of these two great fundamental artistic currents then became part of my creative process and guided all my research on space, silence, calligraphy, the mystery of forms, and size of bodies.

The creative power of these two artistic currents has never been denied.

What is your favorite illustration that you have worked on and why? Can you also tell us how your commercial work differs from your personal work?

I became an Artistic Director in 1969 and received multiple awards for the creation of commercials: Lion d’Argent in Cannes in 1974, a Clio d’Or in New York in 1977.

I did many advertising campaigns for Lancôme, Citroën, BNP bank, Bourjois perfumes, etc., despite that, I had other ideas in mind - draw, draw.

In 1984, I chose to become an illustrator, I got the best advertising agent for illustrators in Paris and with him, I quickly became very sought after for the concise, direct, powerful and airy style that I brought to all subjects.

This Art of the essential served me immediately because they registered immediately after the wave of hyperrealism which then on the walls of Paris and France.

In 1984 I was awarded the Silver Marker for best Illustrator, I was ranked among the TOP 10 of French illustration, and I was recognized for two years in a row among the 100 greatest French creators by the great fashion show PARIS-MODE.

The advertising work of command is, in a way, Art brought to the greatest number, descended in the street, placarded on the walls of the cities; the artist serves his expression, his brevity, his style, and sell it by the seduction of his theme. Advertising art is above all “the art of selling” On the other hand, personal work does not care about aesthetic or immediately decipherable contingencies. It allows me the greatest freedom in the representations, the themes, their treatise, and the graphic language thematic.

Drawing for me is the total freedom I have to imagine, and to create shapes as I hear. I am my only teacher and I go where I want. Restraint or excess; I am ME, totally.

In addition to hard work and talent, what other traits have contributed to your success and longevity in the industry?

First of all, I think it is having to understand that the illustration of a poster or of any other publicity - while being Art brought to the greatest number, descended in the street, has to be seductive to have an immediate impact on its readability by the passers-by, the reader flipping through a magazine stuffed with various advertisements. To distinguish oneself from others, one must be strong but subtle at the same time. The “message must be clear, legible, seductive and captivating,” on all audiences.

To have understood this is what made me last in the trade, because I was always purifying my line, going to the essential, giving to “see” what the text suggests. Howbeit in counterpoint.

That’s why my style has been able to adapt to international topics and garner a lot of success: Air France, Sony, Melsa Department Stores in Japan, French Federation of Ready-to-Wear, Federation of French Lingerie, BMW, Montedison, Campari in Italy, the Turin International Motor Show, Fashion Vogue Newspapers, Fashion, Elle, Marie-Claire, Joyce, etc.

My longevity is tied to my understanding imposed on me by the original style of my drawings.

You have worked with exceptional clients and have had great success in the industry. What are you doing to stay current, and what distinguishes you from young illustrators just coming onto the scene?

As the writer and poet, Jean COCTEAU said: “The principle of Fashion is to get out of fashion” Indeed, a fashion that comes chases the other who had also chased another. My art lasted, what it had to last and, as time passed, the tastes, the techniques, the look, the expectations, everything changed incredibly. Clearly, we can no longer show today what was shown yesterday.

Other generations of talented young illustrators have formed, developed, and spread out, bringing with them mutations, appreciations and various expectations. The younger generation is “naturally” pushing back the one I represented. I observe this lucidly. Today is no longer yesterday. There are many new talents. Life goes on.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your career?

That would be to never stop creating, never stop working, being curious about what comes, what is, what was. With this, I am in a constant and renewed search purifying, resuming, seeking, following in this way, the teaching of the great HOKUSAI, the Crazy Old Man of Drawing.

This is what made me write and define my profession of artistic faith with these words:

“Drawing like breathing. A breath, a line. Drawing is my most spontaneous, the most immediate, the most brutal way that I can and want to express. I try all the papers, all the pencils, all the pastels, I try everything on everything because, precisely, everything is always possible. Certainty or by accident, the trait that comes is the sum of all that I have traced so far.

A thousand features following each other like a single trait. As a clear trace of this towards which I end unconsciously pruning in time what, from now on, seems superfluous to me. Just a few traits, such as an economy, as a strict necessity at the sign. Just a few strokes like a pastel quiver in the silence of my leaves white. Just a few traits and nothing more than that. “