From Louise Bourgeois prints to Etel Adnan tapestries, editions take center stage at this Paris gallery

Clément Dirié: Can you tell us about the relationship between Galerie Lelong & Co. and Lelong Editions?

Patrice Cotensin: Established in 1981, now active in Paris and New York, Galerie Lelong & Co. has always had a dynamic publishing activity, simply because it is a tradition inherited from Aimé Maeght – Galerie Lelong was first Galerie Maeght Lelong in the 1980s, then Lelong from 1987, before becoming Galerie Lelong & Co. in 2017. Lelong Editions is continuing a story started in 1945. The publishing of catalogues, of books accompanied by etchings and engravings, of original lithographs of the gallery’s artists is inherent to what we do. In recent years we have formally established Lelong Editions to mark its uniqueness and make people understand that for us it is not a subcategory of the gallery. Our publishing activity is an important part of the gallery, both emotionally and commercially. I believe our artists are sensitive to this, and that it is a ‘plus’ for our relationship with them. It is not an obligation either. Some artists may have no desire to do printmaking, or may have wanted to do so at one point and no longer want to. 

We also work with artists represented in other countries by other galleries. Among the artists with whom we are currently working are David Nash, Jaume Plensa, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Barthélémy Toguo, Nalini Malani, Arnulf Rainer, and David Hockney – who is his own publisher, but entrusts us and three other galleries with the distribution of his iPad and photographic drawings. We have been participating in Art Basel with two stands for a long time now. Visitors can go from one stand to another in either direction and they really like it. 

CD: You dedicated last year's booth at Art Basel to Etel Adnan. Can you tell us about this collaboration?

PC: Etel is a very interesting case because she had never had the opportunity to approach engraving and multiples before we suggested it to her several years ago. She was delighted. It started through various conversations about tapestry. She has been passionate about it since the 1960s, but tapestry requires resources. A tapestry like the one we have here, made in Aubusson using the traditional low-warp weaving technique, requires two months of work by two craftsmen. We felt she had an intense desire to see these cartoons she had made more than 40 years ago being woven. Through that discussion, we addressed the question of printmaking. She hadn’t been able to do this for the same reasons: no access to specialized workshops, production costs, time constraints. So we started working on black and white engravings. There were mountains, fruit vessels, small forests, in which she was playing with different paper shades. Then we started talking about color and found a workshop where they are able to translate Etel’s colorful compositions into engravings. This is something she really likes doing: to select a composition, to simplify it, to reduce or enlarge it, to turn it upside-down to give birth to a new composition. Over the last four years, we have produced more than 40 engravings with her. We can say that she is perhaps one of the very few artists who started her engraved oeuvre after 90 years!

CD: Contrary to other exhibitors in the Edition sector, you do not have your own workshop. Why this?

PC: In the gallery’s history, there have been times when we have had a lithographic workshop, a ceramic workshop, but we realized that having our own studio, as a gallery which is also dealing on the primary market, became more of a burden. I would even say an artistic danger rather than an asset. In other words, having a permanent workshop implies providing permanent work to the craftsmen. It could lead to overproduction and too much pressure on the artists in order to use that facility. We prefer to have the freedom to work with various craftspeople, and try different workshops in order to learn and be surprised. In printmaking, craftsmen often play an important role, because they may take something that was invented with a certain artist that will inspire another artist.

CD: Can you recall some landmark examples of your publishing activity?

PC: We did some very beautiful illustrated books in the 1980s. I’m thinking of Eduardo Chillida’s La Mémoire et la main, of Miroir de la Tauromachie by Michel Leiris and Francis Bacon, or Antoni Tàpies’ Matière du souffle featuring poems by Jacques Dupin. Since the late 1970s we have had an intense collaboration with Pierre Alechinsky, one of the greatest engravers and lithographers. He started this activity in 1949 and is still active today. I also remember a beautiful portfolio we did with Louise Bourgeois. In 1989 she found some plates she had engraved in the late 1940s in New York, and she entrusted them to us. We cleaned the copper plates and published the ‘Quarantania’ series in 1990; they were printed by Piero Crommelynck. We showed them at Art Basel in 1991. I also remember spending hours at the Parisian Halle Saint-Pierre fabric market to find some material for Louise Bourgeois’ box. She wanted a particular padded, soft touch. She most likely had a memory of something she wanted to find again. At that time, collectors were not rushing to buy Bourgeois’ prints. The publishing of editioned works for a gallery is a real medium- to long-term investment.

This interview was first published in Art Basel | Year 49.

Top image: Installation view of Lelong Editions' booth at Art Basel in Basel 2019.