In September 1986, Michèle Aittouarès founded the Berthet-Aittouarès Gallery at 29 Rue de Seine in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood. A few years earlier, she had begun her career as a gallery owner alongside her husband, Jean-François Aittouarès, first at the Flea Market and later on Rue de la Grange-Batelière. Her first exhibition, “Juin de l’abstraction,” featured works by Jean Bazaine, Elvire Jan, and Alfred Manessier. This was followed by exhibitions of artists from the École de Paris, then of art brut and art singulier... In 1999, her daughter Odile, after five years in Rome, joined her. In 2014, the gallery expanded just a stone’s throw away, to 14 Rue de Seine, taking over the space of Jean-François Aittouarès’s gallery, who had passed away that August. The gallery is celebrating forty years in business, as well as a close mother-daughter partnership.

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What led you, Michèle, to start your own gallery?

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I had a charming husband, but he was very controlling. He always thwarted my initiatives. So I decided to start my own gallery. My husband was worried, which is why we named it Berthet-Aittouarès to distinguish it from his own gallery. Berthet is my maiden name.

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Odile, why did you join your mother?

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Shortly after my return to Paris, Claire, my mother’s assistant, offered me the chance to take her place, even though my mother had always refused to work with her children. I had just returned from Rome, where I had written my thesis on Émile Othon Friesz. I hadn’t envisioned myself in the gallery business, even though talking about art around the dinner table when we were young came naturally and was a joy. M. A. The transition happened naturally. We’re lucky—we love the same artists.

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O. A. Yes, but we realized that as time went on. When I arrived, I listened; I came to help you. And above all, I was aware that the gallery was your story: you had made sacrifices to create it and keep it alive, so I wasn’t supposed to disrupt all that—on the contrary, I was supposed to help it flourish. Then, as time went on, I became more involved, and your story became mine as well—but also a mother-daughter story in which we realized we share the same driving forces: curiosity and freedom. We never confined ourselves to anything.

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M. A. Our freedom of choice is to work without financial backing.

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How did you want to celebrate the gallery’s 40th anniversary?​
 

O. A. Through three consecutive exhibitions, we aim to highlight the discoveries, friendships, and connections with the artists and writers who have supported their work. All of this forms a dynamic in which we live. We gave carte blanche to Pierre Wat, author, art historian, and loyal partner of the gallery, to curate the first exhibition. An exhibition of the artists who have accompanied the gallery for forty years, from Pierre Tal Coat to Jean Degottex, Hans Hartung, Vera Molnár, and Yann Bagot. And we asked writers who have walked alongside us to write down their thoughts on the gallery. In September–October, the exhibition “Henri Michaux and Zao Wou-Ki, China–West” will follow, then in November, as part of the “Bicentennial of Photography” and the “PhotoSaintGermain” festival, an exhibition of our photographers: Mario Giacomelli, Jean Dieuzaide, John Craven, Édouard Boubat, Daniel Frasnay, Letizia Battaglia, Malik Sidibé, Peter Knapp, and Antoine Schneck.

 

Over the course of these forty years, weren’t you ever tempted to give up?

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M. A. Never. Of course, there have been some major “lows.” For instance, during the Gulf War (editor’s note: in 1991), I lived in my gallery. It’s the joy of doing this work, the encounters, and the discoveries that kept me going. It’s a great privilege…

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What have you learned and discovered about each other while working together?

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M. A. That she is intelligent and courageous.

 

O. A. Michèle taught me how to listen, the importance of people, and to work, like her, with an open heart. When I started at the gallery, my daughter, who was little at the time, said to me, “You’re so lucky.” I asked her why. “Because you get to see your mom every day.” ” It’s true that it’s a privilege to work with the people you love.