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IN A NARROW COBBLESTONE LANEWAY off 49 Rue du Montparnasse, in the 14th arrondissement, a long-load truck is taking up all the oxygen. Its cargo is the base of an 18-tonne, large-scale, early 20th-century poster printing press, found in working order in the south of France and being returned to Paris to join six other vintage presses at Idem, a print shop that artists the world over are having a love affair with. This is, declares Patrice Forest, manager of Idem and publisher of its adjacent Item Éditions, a special day for what is one of the country’s oldest printmaking workshops specialising in lithography. The team unloading the precious cargo – supervised by 75-year-old Francois Boulay, whose company delivered other presses here four decades ago – is treating the task with all the care awarded to a newborn baby. Idem was where artists such as Miró and Chagall came to work. The presses there also produced masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso and Giacometti. Now, artists are becoming enchanted with the process all over again. The week before, William Kentridge had been in the print shop drawing rooms, creating two new works to be printed on premium uncoated Japanese paper, and supervising the print run of a limited edition of 36. He rushed off before naming them. Australia’s Gracie Otto has popped in to explore the logistics of Idem printing the poster of her next film, The Last Impresario. Film director and producer David Lynch was, in 2007, steered towards a new career in art after being encouraged by Forest to try working with, first, zinc plates and then the German limestone slabs and tablets that line the workshop. Artists love the fact that the ghosts of artists past inhabit the stone, which is scrubbed clean after each print has been completed. There’s always the mystery of who has come before. Kentridge told QTAW, “The library of stones filling the shelves in the back room of the studio is enough to keep one there for several Carole Benzaken, lifetimes. Each single litho stone is full of all the possible images that still reside Golden Dream (detail), 2013 in it, with the imaginings of all the layers above that, since ground off. This sense is magnified in Idem’s studio. It is astonishing to work both on the old presses, ❯ PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY ITEM ÉDITIONS and with the marvellous expertise of the printing masters, who carry with them

NOVEMBER 2013 QANTAS 161 PRINTMAKING TALKABOUT PARIS ON THE SPOT

Idem Studio lithographs: William Kentridge, Stone Tree I, 2013 (right); David Lynch, The Paris Suite VII, 2007 (below)

Idem Studio: art by Jean- Michel Alberola (right)

Art by Dean Tavoularis and David Lynch; master printer Pierre Lancelin (far left)

a very French 19th-century tradition of preparing litho stones, different THE ORIGINAL IDEM STUDIO was built in 1880 for from the American style of Tamarind, which I’m more accustomed to.” lithographic presses by printer Emile Dufrenoy. Today, its surface French and international contemporary artists come to work here, area covers 1400sq m. On the ground floor, six Voirin and Marinoni among them Jean-Michel Alberola, Takeshi Kitano and Charwei flatbed machines are installed under a huge glass ceiling. Designed Tsai. Indeed, several prints by up-and-coming Japanese and Chinese in the 19th century and powered by a gas steam boiler, they are artists are hanging in an antechamber. driven by pulleys and belts. More recent is the Double Grand Monde Artists spend time drawing in one of two studios at Idem, then model, which David Lynch has dubbed “Moby Dick”, used first for transferring their works to stone tablets or metal plates, consulting large-scale printing, especially advertising, and later film posters. It with the printers, colour correcting and assessing proofs before was probably, says Forest, built around 1910, but conceived about 30 approving their limited editions. years prior. A big, newly-concreted pit was waiting to receive the base. Lithography, Lynch told Cartier Art magazine earlier this year, Idem’s second floor houses three hand presses that are used to “is more than just a beautiful technique, it’s something concrete, the make prototype prints, several small drawing studios and a photo- opposite of virtual. At a time when images are dematerialised, this graphy lab. Artists can work directly on the German limestone place offers a kind of cure; it fulfils a need.” tablets stacked against the walls or submit digital files. The studio Lithography is based on the mutual antipathy of oil and water. The is fabulously messy with art and industry. On the presses and being image is drawn directly onto a special stone or metal plate with a neatly stacked with perfectly sized tissue paper is a collaborative grease or fat-based medium, such as a wax crayon or an ink wash. work for the Salon d’Automne. Mathilde Roussel, an artist who works After chemical treatment, the stone or plate is dampened and then there part-time, explains the process. All working here are compelled inked with a roller. The ink adheres to the greasy surface of the image by what Lynch calls “the extraordinary ballet of printers dancing and can then be transferred to paper as a print. around the presses. Every gesture is incredibly precise. These men “Prints made are always a particular combination of the artist and have the ability to make artists’ dreams materialise.” the master printer in conversation with the stone, and the printer The Michard Printing Company occupied the studio from the [in conversation] with the press,” Kentridge says. “With Patrice 1930s to the 1970s; its specialty at the time was maps. In 1976, the ❯ Forest and his team, it is an extremely rich combination.” renowned Mourlot Printing Studio was established in the space. STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY IDEM PARIS; LITHOGRAPHS: COURTESY ITEM ÉDITIONS Art by JR (right): 28mm, Women Are Heroes – Eyes On 162 QANTAS NOVEMBER 2013 Bricks, New Delhi, India (2011) Parisian interlude The City of Light is full of spectacle and surprise. New last summer was a 2.3km stretch on the Left Bank, given over to cyclists, walkers and families. Foodies were talking about small, wine-focused neighbourhood restaurants: Bones, Septime, Le Verre Volé, Le Chateaubriand, Monsieur Bleu and L’Atelier Rodier. Artisanal shops were the icing on the gâteau.

SHOP bequeathed by a godmother Point Plume encouraged a trip to a 12th 21 Rue Quentin Bauchart, 8ème. arrondissement atelier, which has (01) 4952 0989. pointplume.fr been hand-painting Limoges china A shrine to the craft of writing, since 1928. The shop showcases with the most intricate and plates, demitasse coffee cups, elaborate fountain pens and roller chemist jars, pill boxes, plates, and ball pens from the elegant and jewellery boxes (individual pieces heirloom to those looking like a are for sale, but you won’t find Lennart Jirlow, Hommage A Fernand Mourlot, 1990 carriage of the Orient Express or entire dinner services ready to go). a Cohuna cigar. There are pens named for literary figures: Dickens, EAT Hemingway, Fitzgerald. They are Bones filigreed, bejewelled, jet-sleek in 43 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac, metal and mesh, humble or heroic. Fernand Mourlot (1895-1988) and his brothers, says Forest, 11ème. (09) 8075 3208. influenced the renaissance of art lithography in Paris between bonesparis.com the two World Wars. They worked with Matisse, Picasso, Miró, Michel Chaudon An unassuming space, but queues Dubuffet, Braque, Chagall, Giacometti, Léger, Cocteau, Calder, 149 Rue de L’Universite, 7ème. keep the pressure on. The chef is and many other masters of 20th-century art, many of whose (01) 4753 7440. Australian James Henry. Amuse- works, somewhat past their glory days, are on the walls here. A little chocolatier with one bouches arrive: small perfect Mourlot’s son, Jacques, continued his father’s work until window cleverly depicting, in mussels; marinated mackerel with November 1997, when the Mourlot Company sold the chocolate, the rubble of the a dusting of nettle; a morsel that is company, but not the name. building site the shop grew from, probably a ball of duck liver; plus Forest likes to boast that he wanted to “preserve a magical and in the other, lifelike renderings sea bass carpaccio and place to avoid it becoming a gym club”. His contemporary in glossy or textured chocolate of mandolined slices of cured, dried and smoked duck breast; fabulous print publishing house is called Item, and the print workshop, handbags, horse heads, guns and beef fillet; and a sublime finale of a separate company, Idem, which means “the same”. maps, and an installation of all cherry sorbet with sauternes, A visit to Idem and the Cartier Art Foundation nearby is manner of chocolate moulds. Buy singly or have pretty packages grassy granita, strawberries and a part of a guided tour to Montparnasse art hot spots offered to made up. Pop next door to Les wave of soft meringue. those staying at Le Royal Monceau, the gleefully glam Raffles Vielles Vignes, a typical French hotel, which has two art concierges (they source paintings for bistro, for confit duck leg, sautéed keen buyers, customise art tours and advise on the best and herbed garlic potatoes and a La Cuisine exhibitions), a gallery space featuring a new artist each month, glass of Provençal rosé. 37 Avenue Hoche, 8ème. a 24-hour art bookshop, and bedrooms that indulge lovers of (01) 4299 9880. both art and arty hotel rooms (see breakout). Special studio www.leroyalmonceau.com tours are also available on request (email [email protected]). Atelier Le Tallec Laurent André received a Michelin As Lynch told Cartier Art: “This workshop is a time machine. 93-95 Avenue Daumesnil, 12ème. star for this establishment this It lets you travel back through the history of the 20th century, (01) 4340 6155. atelierletallec.com year (as did Le Royal Monceau’s ❯ but does not belong in the past. It opens to the future.” Two exquisite coffee cups Italian restaurant, Il Carpaccio). PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY IDEM PARIS

164 QANTAS NOVEMBER 2013 PRINTMAKING TALKABOUT

From left: Bones, Le Royal Monceau, coffee cup from Atelier Le Tallec

STAY Hotels in the Mandarin Oriental Mandarin group tend to nod to their host Oriental Paris city: so this one has dove-grey 251 Rue Saint-Honoré, 1er. fabric friezes using Man Ray (01) 7098 7888. photographs; and, being in the mandarinoriental.com/Paris heart of the fashion district, In the heart of the Rue Saint- the motif is the very feminine Honoré and its credit-card burn butterfly. From €895 ($1292). The menu slants toward starters shopping, signature French labels – some 16 – that can be shared. Tower. The bar menu owes its from Christian Louboutin to Le Royal Monceau On offer in July: an ensemble punch to Alix Lacloche. Open Hermès, Chanel and Colette 37 Avenue Hoche, 8ème. of intense heirloom tomatoes; noon to 2am, booking has been are at the doorstep. It’s a short (01) 4299 8800. Parisian-style gnocchi with nigh impossible, but just turning walk from the Louvre, the Place www.leroyalmonceau.com Vendôme with its A-list jewellers, Burgundy snails; crab cakes with up and settling for a drink at the Its huge studio rooms have an and the Tuileries Garden. Then a tangy coleslaw; and slices of bar may yield a table. eclectic mix of photography, china there’s the green bubble of its pan-seared foie gras with fresh La Société collages, paintings and sketches, raspberries. The mains have either acclaimed terrace. A long, shallow 4 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, often spotlit in unexpected places; a traditional or modern treatment. designer water trough through 6ème. (01) 5363 6060. cool upholstery with wacky John Dory can be roasted with the trees separates Thierry restaurantlasociete.com stitching; raised, angled desk tops Marx’s one-Michelin-star Camélia artichokes and fricassee of that might feature under glass an A buzzing addition to the Costes restaurant (the langoustine ravioli potatoes or served with interpretive map of Paris. Even the group, near the legendary Les is a triumph and a fine fixed-price tapioca, pimientos and semi- lamp bases are works of art, while Deux Magots and Café de Flore. lunch menu is €48 ($69) and Bar 8, dried muscatels in a coconut and the lamps look like some organic The waitresses look like models which has fabric walls studded curry sauce. The fun continues form that has sprouted overnight. and the menu is more focused with black, green and clear glass with an ice-cream wheel. The hotel, revamped by Philippe on fresh pure produce (entree Lalique crystals, a curtain of Starck, has a cigar room, a cinema, options are exquisitely simple) Murano glass rods, and a bar of and the glass altar-like Bar Long. Monsieur Bleu than gastro-science. Mains up the caramel marble. There are eight ante with perfect crisp-skinned A former monastery, it was this 20 Avenue de New York, 16ème. Champagnes by the glass and duck and side options including year awarded “palace distinction” (01) 4720 9047. palaisdetokyo.com more by the bottle. The spa has steamed creamed spinach; sea by the French government, one Located in the new wing of the seven suites, expert masseurs bass is dressed with a Thai-style step above five stars in the Palais de Tokyo, Monsieur Bleu, and skin technicians, personal tom yam chilli sauce. The wine list company of Paris legends such as designed by the architect Joseph steam showers and king-sized is extensive and discerning and the Bristol, the Four Seasons Hotel Dirand, is the go-to eatery for the therapeutic jacuzzis tiled in there are wines by the glass and a George V, Le Meurice and Plaza foot-weary checking out the art at mosaic pink mother-of-pearl tiles. small selection of half-bottles. For Athénée. From €625 ($902). both the Palais de Tokyo and the diners closer to the 1st, the Hôtel  Musée d’Art Moderne next door, Costes on Rue Saint-Honoré has not least because it has a rare the same menu. For airfares and holiday packages to Paris call Qantas Holidays full-frontal view of the Eiffel

on 1300 735 542 or visit qantas.com/holidaysaustralianway BONES PHOTOGRAPHY: WILLIAM MEPPEM/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU; COFFEE CUP: RODNEY MACUJA

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