For Frieze Masters 2022 Tristan Hoare is delighted to present Early Works 1960s — 1990s, a selection of drawings by Pierre Le-Tan. This is the first exhibition the gallery will be presenting since Le-Tan's death in 2019, in collaboration with the family of Le-Tan. The aim is to continue the artist's legacy and tell his story. With this in mind, we are presenting a group of his private drawings as well as his commercial work, including a rare group of studies for The New Yorker magazine, carefully curated by Le-Tan's family.
One of Paris's most celebrated illustrators, Pierre Le-Tan created remarkable illustrations of nostalgic and timeless characters and interiors, quietly capturing snippets of everyday still lives—a desk of unfinished letters, an open door and a fallen boot, a lit match, an aeroplane apparent through an apartment window. During his lifetime Le-Tan drew tirelessly, creating a closely observed universe spiced with humour with a hint of surrealism. His precise, meticulous scratchings of India ink and macaron palette of watercolours, which he developed from an early age, became his signature style. Le-Tan was an avid art collector, an activity which was inseparable from his drawing, often becoming interested in areas well before the market caught on. He began from an early age and frequented the Puces de Saint Ouen in Paris as well as art galleries around the world. Talking about his love of art and drawing he said, 'I knew very early on that this was it for me and nothing else: drawing and my art collection.'
The drawings presented at Frieze Masters are all exhibited for the first time and fall into three categories. The first is a wonderful group of studies for The New Yorker. This was an important relationship for Le-Tan and in total he designed 18 covers for the magazine. Le-Tan first came to New York in July 1968 and was encouraged by a friend of his mother's to send some of his drawings to the renowned magazine. The response was swift and the magazine bought several of Le-Tan's early pieces that ended up as vignettes used to enliven the text pages of the publication. Following a meeting with Jim Geraghty, the art editor of The New Yorker, Le-Tan managed to sell two front covers in a single go. We are lucky to present these rare studies of covers for the magazine.
The second group is a series of book covers that Le-Tan designed in the 1980s and 90s. His close friendship with Patrick Modiano resulted in a number of collaborative works, with Modiano's melancholic prose serving as the perfect subtext to Le-Tan's reflections of a forgotten Paris, full of strange and endearing characters. On show will be one study for the cover of Modiano's Fleurs de Ruin (1992), as well as covers for novels by Nigel Williams, Pierre Herbart, Peter Carey, Garrison Keillor, Bernice Rubens, Deborah Eisenberg and Sam Shepard, among others.
The third category is a group of black and white drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s. These are all personal drawings, varying in size and subject matter. Some are more like sketches or doodles while other are grander, more complete works with his signature black border and text. They are presented in antique frames, a way in which Le-Tan often showed his works. He was always on the look-out for interesting antique frames for which he would specially draw a work, and the combination elegantly encapsulates the artist and the collector.
The booth will also present an antique display case containing books Le-Tan designed covers for, as well as sketches, letters, stamps and other treasures from the universe of Pierre Le Tan.
Le-Tan's artwork has appeared in museum exhibitions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, D Museum in Seoul and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, as well as in books authored by his daughter Cleo Le-Tan. Tristan Hoare had the honour of hosting Le-Tan's last major exhibition in the autumn of 2018 at the gallery in Fitzroy Square. We are delighted to be able to showcase Le-Tan's works at Frieze Masters 2022, thus continuing his legacy and introducing wider audiences to his work.
Tristan Hoare Gallery represents these artists:
