Déjeunons sur l’herbe

The Boghossian Foundation invites you to an evening with Guillaume Durand for a talk about Edouard Manet. In conversation with Aurore Vaucelle, a journalist at La Libre Belgique, Guillaume Durand will discuss his latest work Déjeunons sur l’herbe, for which he won the Prix Renaudot Essai, and the modernity of the prominent painter, the brutality with which his work was received, and his heritage.

Since he was a child, Guillaume Durand has been fascinated by Manet’s genius, his blacks, his ivories, his enigmas. Now he devotes a book to him, exploring his work in conversations with contemporary artists in the likes of Koons, Barceló, Longo, Condo, Tabouret, Lavier and Yan Pei-Ming. Throughout the book he calls upon Picasso, Warhol, Hockney, Visconti, César, La Casa de Papel, Laurence des Cars, Bourdieu, and talks of brutal illness, journalism, and of his parents, gallery owners ahead of their day…

“I propose to take you on a personal and intimate stroll through his life. Our Hitchcock of painting invented modern art for the rest of the planet. He loved life, ending his days, near-paralysed, painting heart-breaking flowers. Having passed at the edge of the precipice to join my father, I’ve allowed myself to write this true novel with magnificent reproductions.” Guillaume Durand.