Lévy Gorvy announced today that the gallery will open a beautiful new space in Paris in Fall 2020. Lévy Gorvy has had a longstanding relationship to the French capital, most notably through its representation of legendary French artists and estates who have played defining roles in the course of art since the postwar period – Yves Klein, Roman Opalka, Martial Raysse, and Pierre Soulages – and its regular participation at the Biennale des Antiquaires and at FIAC.
The gallery’s critically admired program of postwar and contemporary art will be presented in the heart of the Marais district, at 4 Passage Sainte-Avoye in the 3rd arrondissement. Sited in a typically intimate Parisian passage between rue du Temple and rue Rambuteau, Lévy Gorvy Paris sits within walking distance from the Centre Pompidou and in close proximity to other prominent international galleries, in an area known as the center of Parisian culture and historical locus of the city’s diversity.
The new Paris location is significant for its place in contemporary French cultural development. In 2008, acclaimed film director, producer, and passionate collector of art Claude Berri, founder of the artists’ right guild L’ARP (La Société civile des Auteurs Réalisateurs et Producteurs) and president of the Cinémathèque Française from 2003, obtained state subsidies to modernize buildings and present public exhibitions. Among the sites Berri created was a daring light-filled gallery at the address that will become Lévy Gorvy Paris. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Jean Nouvel, Espace Claude Berri hosted important curated exhibitions and presentations of works from Berri’s collections until his untimely death in 2009. Berri was a longtime mentor to Dominique Lévy, who cites his unique connoisseurship and sensibility as important influences in her professional and personal life.
Architect Luis Laplace of Laplace Studio, Paris, has been commissioned to remodel the site, respecting Jean Nouvel’s existing innovative design while maximizing the effects of its dramatic sloping skylights and enhancing the impressive rooms for exhibitions.
Dominique Lévy said:
“We are excited to be opening a space in Paris, in the Marais, in a site so deeply connected to the visual culture of this extraordinary city. The Paris gallery will complement our locations in New York, London, and Hong Kong, as we confirm our commitment to an international program that connects collectors, museums, and the public with the work of foremost artists whose work, ideas, and ideals transcend the limits of geography. We recognize that, in a moment when it is difficult for collectors to travel internationally to view art, it is even more critical for us to bring the art we love to our different locations – which will soon include Paris, a city that is so central to the gallery’s artistic heart, program, and network of relationships.”
