“Foujita and Michel Sima:
crossed glances in the intimacy of a studio”.
In the heart of post-war artistic Paris, two key figures of the École de Paris met and bonded: Foujita and Michel Sima, a sculptor-turned-photographer whose lens captured the soul of artists.
A meeting in avant-garde circles
Michel Sima, whose real name was Michal Smajewski, was born on May 20, 1912 in Slonim, Poland (now in Belarus). When he arrived in Paris in the late 1920s, he quickly immersed himself in the intellectual and artistic effervescence of Montparnasse. He frequented the cafés and studios, and forged ties with the major artists of the day: Picasso, Cocteau, Giacometti, Picabia, Desnos… and of course Foujita.
The visual archives testify to this relationship: several portraits of Foujita taken by Sima in the 1950s have come down to us, revealing a real complicity between photographer and model. Far from a staid pose, the images reveal a Foujita in direct contact with his works, in the intimacy of creation.
The art of capturing the invisible
Michel Sima was not a commissioned photographer. His approach was intimate, almost brotherly. In his studio, or in those of his friends, he captured not only faces, but also the atmosphere of a place, the aura of a moment.
In his portraits of Foujita, Sima captures the gentle tension between Japanese rigor and Parisian freedom. Through the lens, he captures not just an artist, but a being – sensitive, meticulous, deeply human.
A precious visual memory
One of the most tangible traces of this relationship is Michel Sima’s 21 visages d’artistes (1959), with a preface by Jean Cocteau. Foujita appears among the major figures of modern art. This choice testifies to a relationship based on respect and friendship between the two artists. A drawing by Foujita illustrates the book’s flyleaf.
A silent dialogue
Contemplating these portraits, we can imagine a silent exchange between two artists with singular backgrounds, both marked by exile, war and a love of art. They are not just documentation, but veritable fragments of human and artistic history.
Many of Sima’s photographs of Foujita remain unknown today. Some will be unveiled at the sale Michel Sima, Dans l’atelier des maîtres, at Artcurial on June 5, 2025 at 7pm.
