François Pinault in Venice, ink on paper

When two brilliant art lovers unite their efforts, the result is magical. Hélène Tran is the most talented caricaturist and drawer I have ever met. She used to work for French Vogue and Vanity Fair, toured around the world with Jean Louis Dumas,  then President of Hermès, created fabrics for Yohji Yamamoto, designed the Seattle Nordstrom window. She now publishes a drawing every week in Point de Vue magazine on Royal families and other celebrities. Pierre Alain Challier who runs a versatile gallery in the Marais, commissioned portraits from her. They are drawn in ink and watercolour and cover pretty much the art and fashion worlds of today. Jeff Koons, Thaddaeus Ropac, François Pinault, Barry Flanagan. Hélène’s fantasy world.

Sculptor Barry Flanagan as one of his rabbits

We were at some point in our lives colleagues and she was the nicest of friends. In a world where journalists all try to squeeze the office neighbour, she always had a present or a smile for everyone.

Frank Lloyd Wright in the Guggenheim Museum

We became friends the day that I drove her to a wedding in Portugal and she was wearing the prettiest Azzedine Alaïa white cotton piqué dress. When we arrived at the dinner we realised that the bride was wearing the same dress ! we then quickly turned back and Hélène changed to a more ordinary outfit…

Marella Rossi in her gallery of place Beauvau with the Buren decor

Hélène Tran is the sort of artist who never stops drawing and her exhibition is both very constructed on the ground floor with large watercolors of famous artists hanging next to those of collectors. And deconstructed on the first floor, where hundreds of drawings are hung on the walls in a mosaic of taste and talent.

Pierre Alain Challier hanging the Peggy Guggenheim portrait with her famous glasses

I like her lack of pretentiousness and her love for games. She plays with her friends and her characters. Adélaïde de Clermont Tonnerre, editor in chief of Point de Vue, is featured with the Queen of England, Salvador Dali in Cadaques and Karl Lagerfeld. But the artist also plays with Marcel Duchamp’s bottle hanger in a lovely way. Louboutin of course, features with his famous red sole shoes and so does Peggy Guggenheim in front of her Venice palazzo.

Thaddaeus Ropac disguised as a Tony Cragg sculpture

This show, which lasts until January 14, is the perfect result of a galerist’s patient collaboration with his artist. Ideas and drawings were torn apart for a year in preparation for the show and the result is exhilarating ! (Prices range from 600€ to 6 000€ for the larger watercolors, 8 rue Debelleyme)