"For me, in front of a painting or a sculpture, the right criterion is... goosebumps"

Laurent Fabius, known as the pillar of the Socialist Party or the President of the Constitutional Council, less as the passionate about art. Son of an antique dealer, friend of Pierre Soulages and Yan Pei-Ming, he has been handling the brush himself for several years. This prompted him to write on the material and spiritual character of polyptychs, the theme of his latest book to be published on October 20 by Gallimard. “Personally, I didn't experience like others this sudden changeover, this vision-click in front of a sculpture or a specific painting. My life with works of art has gone through several stages. The first, until I was thirty, was marked by complete rejection. My father, from a family of antique dealers and an antique dealer himself, took us, still children, almost every week, to visit a museum for hours. It was the overdose. In a second phase, I relearned, as an autodidact, to frequent galleries, artists, specialists, sales rooms, with growing pleasure. In 2007–2008, I was struck by a Standing Woman by Alberto Giacometti, then on view at the Center Pompidou. In front of this figure, of a strength and a touching fragility, I understood better that, to enrich and transmit an emotion, I had to write. In 2010, my first book Le Cabinet des Douze: views on the paintings that make France appeared . Final (?) step: a few years ago, I started painting myself. This allowed me both to better understand the designer's point of view, tempted me to paint large formats and led me to juxtapose panels, often for lack of space. This is the starting point for my research on multiple-panel works and for my forthcoming new book Tableaux pluriels – Journey among the polyptychs of yesterday and today . Through these stages, art has become an essential part of my life. If I were asked, today, what I need to appreciate a work, I would gladly answer, beyond all useful analyses, that for me, in front of a painting or a sculpture, the right criterion is is… goosebumps. » Beaux Arts magazine Sarah Belmont Art expert: https://www.vwart.com/