Out of college I moved to the East Village with an Art Education degree to pursue a teaching job and my masters in Art History. I had no job and no money. While I tried to piece together nanny positions and register for grad courses, a good friend hired me part time to help in his paper restoration studio. George Athias cleaned, restored, and mounted crumbling ad posters from Europe to sell at auctions or to private clients. I learned so much from him about the restoration process and resiliency of paper.
George's enormous loft studio environment in the heart of the garment district was the cool-artsy version of today's tech-geek Google offices. Edith Piaf or French techno music blasted, George bought us lunch everyday, and the atmosphere was so much fun, instead of leaving at the end of the day, you stayed and your envious friends would come and meet you there for a little taste of the experience. For a first job out of art college, it was a dream.
There were a few times when money was tied up, for whatever reasons, so George offered to pay me in posters. Sometimes he gave me what was available and a few times, he let me choose. I obviously knew the rare Toulouse Lautrec's were off limits. I chose several Villemot's from his ad campaigns for Bally shoes and Orangina, and my prized pick: a Lu Lu Biscuit ad by Fermin Bouisset. I recently saw this poster framed and hanging on the wall of a very chic upscale store in Westport. I hadn't seen it in years. I'm in LOVE with the image of this little french school boy nibbling on a biscuit.
Here it is in the store:
Here it is in the house. Looks so small here, but it's really big, and desperately needs to be framed:
I ran home and unrolled the rest of my posters. I am hanging them temporarily to enjoy them, but not entirely sold on them being permanent fixtures since they don't necessarily go with the rest of the decor.
This Bally one I think actually works in this spot:
Not sure where to put this one- it is HUGE. Almost billboard size:
This one is a more manageable size - maybe for Beckett's room since he's into orange like his mama:
The one that got away. I remember working to restore a few of these. I wish I had acquired this one to round out the Villemot collection. I'm obsessed with her. I dream of her and her little pink shoes:
Will post more pics once I find spots for the others.