On the trail of contemporary art: Galerie St.Père

Published: 5 March 2005 by Andre Veloux 605

The trail of contemporary art continues with a trip to the Left Bank and the St.Germain area of Paris. Here on rue des Saints Pères, the aptly named Galerie St.Père is situated. A small gallery consisting of a single but expansive exhibition space, where you can spend an inspirational and enjoyable half hour or more amongst the sophisticated modern art that regularly shows here.

The gallery is one of those spaces where you have a good feeling about it before you have even stepped inside. At first sight of the verdant courtyard in front of the gallery, you just know that you have found another one of the hidden treasures of Paris. The gallery is a typically tucked-away kind of Parisian gallery. As you walk up rue des Saints Pères northwards, count the numbers down on the right-hand side of the road, look for the pink banner outside, and you will eventually find number 19 with the large, green double doors just after the mini-jardinerie.

Push the door open – with a bit of luck it will be ever so slightly ajar. Yes, this is the place; step inside and cross the picturesque, petite courtyard. The gallery is to the right, at the end of the yard; another dark green door, with a small, pink plaque alongside that reads “St.Père”. You enter a small hallway, painted in the most luminous pink imaginable. Follow the stairs down to the exhibition space. White walls and white panelling are interspersed by iron columns and girders, also white. Light floods into this spacious room, giving you the comfort and the pleasure to take your time and enjoy the exhibition.

Make sure you peek around the corner, by the desk. An ever so small and cosy library/bookshop is tucked away here, with a circular table and matching curved benches, to sit at and peruse the varied selection of art and art exhibition related books and posters.

Exhibitions come and go fairly rapidly in this commercial gallery, but whatever is showing will be worth the visit. A quick note about the current, wonderful show by Tiina Itkonen, entitled “Inughuit” that runs until the 5th March. The show is comprised of a series of large format photographs of life and the landscapes of Thule in North West Greenland. Real people are leading real lives in this majestic, white landscape. Take in the photos of the white snow scenes, the houses, the faces and the everyday activities of the people who live there. The photos are majestic. And if you have a couple of thousand euros to spare, you can purchase one for yourself. I know I would if I could. For those of you with a thinner wallet, you could purchase a poster in the bookshop for just a few euros.

When you exit the gallery, you will notice that you are just a few minutes walk from St.Germain-des-Prés, the heart of the central tourist area of Paris. So for your café, why not follow in the footsteps of Sartre and Hemingway and try le café littéraire: Les Deux Magots just across the rue from the St.Germain-des-Prés Metro station. Everyone who visits Paris seems to takes a break there at sometime or another. While you take your coffee, tea, or their famous chocolat chaud, you can spend a bit of time reflecting on the art that you have seen and the countless artists and writers who have sat at the same café as you now sit. Afterwards, be sure to pick up one of the café’s postcards and write home to tell someone about your beautiful day in Paris.

Galerie St. Père
19 rue des Saints Pères
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 1pm, 2pm to 7pm or by appointment
www.stpere.com
Métro: St. Germain-des-prés

Les Deux Magots
6 place St Germain des prés
http://www.lesdeuxmagots.fr/

Andre Veloux
www.veloux.com