The renowned Galerie Yves Gastou on Rue Bonaparte in Paris is marking a significant milestone as it celebrates four decades of groundbreaking discoveries in decorative arts and design. Victor Gastou, son of the gallery's late founder Yves Gastou, is honoring this anniversary with a comprehensive exhibition featuring more than twenty exceptional pieces that showcase the gallery's remarkable journey through different eras and artistic movements.
Forty years ago, Yves Gastou opened his gallery with an extraordinary passion for avant-garde art and design. This dedicated collector, who had previously scoured markets from Carcassonne to Nice, from Toulouse to the famous Saint-Ouen flea markets in Paris, possessed an unparalleled curiosity for decorative arts and contemporary design. He was ahead of his time in showcasing his discoveries when he established the gallery in 1985, creating a space that reflected his unique vision by commissioning the talented Italian designer Ettore Sottsass to design the interior – the same artist who became his first artistic obsession.
Following his father's death in 2020, Victor Gastou took over the gallery's legacy after working alongside his father for fifteen years. The gallery has consistently mixed different periods and styles, maintaining its innovative approach to contemporary design. Victor now pays tribute to his father's vision through both the anniversary exhibition and a comprehensive book that traces the gallery's path filled with passionate discoveries and meaningful encounters with artists, many of whom were not yet at the peak of their fame when first featured.
"What luck I've had to receive this limitless inheritance, never static, which has allowed me to express myself in my own way while keeping in memory what my father taught me," Victor Gastou reflects. "He was my mentor, I was the student, and I was trained in a demanding school. This attraction to creating dialogue between past and present, between iconic pieces and hidden treasures, I carry it within me very strongly. My guiding principle is also curiosity."
To retrace this history of styles and trends that he continues to write, the bearded forty-something carries forward the gallery's mission of associating Art Nouveau and Art Deco with Italian glasswork and creations from the 1950s through to Memphis designs, always maintaining their signature approach of being ahead of trends. For the anniversary exhibition, he had to recover emblematic pieces from each era, and seeing them again reveals just how innovative the Parisian establishment truly was.
The gallery was the first to exhibit the radical and colorful furniture of Ettore Sottsass in the 1980s, along with the sculptural transparent creations of Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata. During the 1990s, the gallery focused on the baroque furniture of André Dubreuil and the functional sculptures of Philippe Hiquily. Other major figures of the 20th century, including André Arbus, Gilbert Poillerat, Ado Chale, Paul Evans, and Jean Touret, as well as contemporary artists like Béatrice Serre, Emmanuel Jonckers, and Agnès Debizet, have animated these gallery years through exhibitions, participation in prestigious art fairs like PAD in Paris and London, and the Biennale des Antiquaires.
While less excessive than his father in approach, Victor has maintained the same capacity for enthusiasm and passion when he admires someone or something. His father constantly reminded him: "You must look at what others don't see." This philosophy continues to guide his work today as he applies this principle with remarkable talent. The anniversary exhibition runs until October 4th at the gallery's location at 12 Rue Bonaparte in Paris's 6th arrondissement, offering visitors a unique opportunity to witness four decades of design evolution and artistic discovery.
