Olivier Boissiere (born 1939, date of death unknown) was a French writer and commentator of contemporary art and architecture. His profiles, comments, features and interviews had been published in international magazines such as

Domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ma ...

Abitare ''Abitare'', published monthly in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's best known design magazines. It was first published in 1961. History and profile ''Abitare'' was launched in Milan in 1961 by Piera Peroni. The magazine was published monthly. ...

Vogue Paris The French edition of ''Vogue'' magazine, formerly called ''Vogue Paris'', is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1920. History 1920–54 The French edition of ''Vogue'' was first issued on 15 June 1920, the first editor-in-chief ...

. Boissiere was the author of several books about the works of

Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and ''Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has ob ...

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

, Ron Arad and

Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. Life Starck was born on ...

. He was on

's team for more than ten years and served as an advisor and consultant to different architecture projects such as the winning entry of the team

Sou Fujimoto is a Japanese architect. Born in Hokkaido in 1971, he graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1994, and established his own office, Sou Fujimoto Architects, in 2000. Noted for delicate light structures and permeable enclosures, Fujimoto desig ...

+Manal Rachdi for the "Reinventer Paris" competition. As an assistant and neophyte of art critic

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (24 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

, Boissière witnessed the emerging of the avant-garde in the Sixties with

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

Raymond Hains Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a prominent French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeg ...

Cy Twombly Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (; April 25, 1928July 5, 2011) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Twombly is said to have influenced you ...

Christo Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific art, site-specific environmental art, environmental art i ...

and others, who held their exhibitions in Galerie J in Paris. Later his interests shifted to modern European and American architecture. He was close to the early

and familiar with the Californian art scene in the Seventies, privileged to encounter great artists such as

Ed Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

, Larry Bell and

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

. A close friend of

Lewis Baltz Lewis "Duke" Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s.

, he kept strong bonds with the French art scene as a familiar of

Sophie Calle Sophie Calle (born 9 October 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement known as Oulipo. ...

, Jean Charles Blais,

Daniel Buren Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French conceptual artist, painter, and sculptor. He has won numerous awards including the Golden Lion for best pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1986), the International Award for ...

, Bertrand Lavier,

Olivier Mosset Olivier Mosset (born 1944 in Bern, Switzerland) is a Swiss visual artist.

and Bernard Frize. A modest art collector himself, Boissiere gathered his collection along with some new discoveries in his Un Cabinet d'Amateur in Sofia, devoted to Bulgarian and foreign contemporary art.

1960s – Nouveaux Réalistes, Pop and Minimal art

Boissiere's introduction to the arts started from Gallerie J in Paris, where he worked as an assistant to Jeanine de Goldschmidt and art critic

. It was the home of the Nouveaux Réalistes - an artistic movement, founded by Restany together with

Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') to ...

and others. The gallery did present the first exhibition of

in Paris, the famous

Daniel Spoerri Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...

dinners and the oil barrels of

on Rue Visconti. During this period Boissiere witnessed the opening of the first

Ileana Sonnabend Ileana Sonnabend (née Schapira, October 29, 1914 – October 21, 2007) was a Romanian-American art dealer of 20th-century art. The Sonnabend Gallery opened in Paris in 1962 and was instrumental in making American art of the 1960s known in Europe, ...

gallery in Paris, where American Pop art artists such as

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

and

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

were introduced in Europe for the first time.

1970s – Young Americans and Frank Gehry

After being a partner in Atelier A, a short lived venture where artists like

and Robert Malaval designed objects and artefacts, Boissiere was cooped in a small institution under the French ministry of industry to take part in a program promoting French design. He did attend and reported about international design congresses in Moscow, Kyoto, Vancouver, Aspen and Berlin. Soon he was appointed an editor of Architecture Intérieure Cree Magazine, where he introduced the young lions challenging the International style who were at that time

Archigram Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s ⁠that was neofuturistic, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical ...

Cedric Price Cedric Price FRIBA (11 September 1934 – 10 August 2003) was an English architect and influential teacher and writer on architecture. The son of an architect (A.G. Price, who worked with Harry Weedon), Price was born in Stone, Staffordshire ...

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, the Radical architecture in Italy, the American “Post-moderns” after the provoking

Learning from Las Vegas ''Learning from Las Vegas'' is a 1972 book by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Translated into 18 languages, the book helped foster the development of postmodern architecture. Compilation In March 1968, Robert Venturi and ...

, the architectural theories of

Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He was one of the leading exponen ...

Lucien Kroll Lucien Kroll (13 March 1927 – 1 August 2022) was a Belgian architect. With his wife, Simone Kroll, he founded the Atelier de Architecture Simone & Lucien Kroll. They are considered to be the founders—as early as 1960—of participatory archi ...

, the works of

Gordon Matta Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

. In the US Olivier Boissière did multiple coast to coast trips, documenting the works of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

or following the steps of art historian

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...

, who had visited the world of the Hopis in Arizona at beginning of the century. At the eve of his journalistic career, he had encounters with

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...

, still a student of the Architectural Association, Tomas Maldonado,

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

Jonas Salk Jonas Edward Salk (; born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New Y ...

and

. Back in Europe he was fortunate to attend the first great exhibitions by curator

Harald Szeemann '' Harald Szeemann (11 June 1933 – 18 February 2005) was a Swiss curator, artist, and art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped redefine the r ...

, the Bachelors Machines at UCAD in Paris and dokumenta V in Kassel with works by

Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mo ...

, Kienholz and

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

1980s – travelling with art and architecture, Lewis Baltz

Spanning his life between Paris, Milan and Los Angeles, Olivier Boissiere became a regular culture and architecture writer for

, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui,

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

and some

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

magazines such as

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

, where he collaborated with photographer Donatella Brun. His journalistic travels ranged from accompanying

to the reception of his Gerit Rietweld Award in Utrecht through meeting

Luis Barragán Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (March 9, 1902 – November 22, 1988) was a Mexican architect and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international ...

in Mexico, from paying visits to the buildings of Ralph Erskine in Stockholm to doing a series of interviews with

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

in the Netherlands and photographing the

's HSBC Building just opened in Hong Kong. During this period he interviewed

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

and

Coosje van Bruggen Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic.Kino, Carol. January 13, 2009 ''The New York Times''. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg. Biography ...

in New York after meeting them in Utrecht and visited the studio of

in Los Angeles. His encounter with great artist and photographer

was the beginning of a long friendship, marked by a common interest both in art history and

The Great Game The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...

. Boissiere wrote texts for some of Baltz's projects, such as Fos Secteur 80 at

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, La Ronde de Nuit, shown at

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

and later Piazza Arnolfo in Tuscany. His first meeting with

had happened during this time.

1990s – working with Jean Nouvel, book publishing

The competition for the

Kansai International Airport Kansai International Airport ( ja, 関西国際空港, Kansai Kokusai Kūkō) commonly known as is the primary international airport in the Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and K ...

in Japan in the late 80's did mark the beginning of an ongoing episodic collaboration with

, according to projects, competitions and circumstances. Olivier Boissière acted as a researcher, commentator, advisor and publication editor on different projects in real time, which was full-time with Nouvel, the motto of his office being "If you don't come on Saturday, forget to come back on Sunday!" In the intervals he worked both as author and director of the architectural collections for two publishing houses in Paris and did extensive trips in Europe and India, doing a close survey on the legacy of

along with Dominique Lyon and photographer Anriet Denis. The most significant ХХ century houses in Europe ranging from the Art Nouveau to the British high tech was the subject for another book. A trip to the South West Arizona and New Mexico provided for meetings with architects

Antoine Predock Antoine Predock ( ; born 1936 in Lebanon, Missouri) is an American architect based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the principal of Antoine Predock Architect PC, the studio he founded in 1967. Predock first gained national attention with the La ...

and Bart Prince . As a guest of

, Boissière did a large photo survey of the

Chinati Foundation The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. Mission The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public perm ...

in Marfa, Texas with major artworks and installations by

Chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

and

himself.

2000s – between East and West

At the beginning of 2000, Boissiere was a coordinator for

's Morat site for the

Expo.02 Expo.02 was the 6th Switzerland, Swiss national exposition, which was held from 15 May to 20 October 2002. The exposition took place around the lakes of Lake Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Lake Biel, Bienne/Biel and Lake Murten, Morat/Murten. It was divid ...

in Switzerland. Along with Federico Mazzoto he also coordinated Nouvel's project for Piazza Arnolfo in Colle d'Elsa, featuring artists

, Alessandra Tesi, Bertrand Lavier. Following up Nouvel's projects for the Guggenheim Foundation, directed by

Thomas Krens Thomas Krens (born December 26, 1946) is the former director and Senior Advisor for International Affairs of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York City.''The New York Times'' staff.Guggenheim Foundation staff From the beginning of his w ...

, he visited Baku and The Republic of Azerbaidjan, Rio de Janeiro and

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

's office, and was granted private visits of the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

in Vienna. Since 1997 Olivier Boissiere has been shifting between Paris and Sofia. Along with Anriet Denis he established Adob Design in Sofia - a showroom, promoting good design, which introduced for the first time in Bulgaria the furniture of the

Eames Eames is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aled Eames (1921–1996), Welsh maritime historian * Arthur Johnson Eames (1881–1969), American botanist * Benjamin T. Eames (1818–1901), American politician, U.S. Representative ...

Jasper Morrison Jasper Morrison (born 1959) is an English product and furniture designer. He is know for the refinement and apparent simplicity of his designs. In a rare interview with the designer, he is quoted as saying: "Objects should never shout". Ear ...

Marc Newson Marc Andrew Newson CBE RDI (born 20 October 1963) is an industrial designer who works in aircraft cabin design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. His style uses smooth geometric lines, translucency, strength, transpar ...

, Ron Arad and

, the lights of

Achille Castiglioni Achille Castiglioni (; 16 February 1918 – 2 December 2002) was an Italian architect and designer of furniture, lighting, radiograms and other objects. As a professor of design, he advised his students "If you are not curious, forget it. ...

and

Ingo Maurer Ingo Maurer (12 May 1932 – 21 October 2019) was a German industrial designer who specialised in the design of lamps and light installations. He was nicknamed "poet of light". Life Maurer was born in Reichenau Island, Lake Constance, Germa ...

and organized exhibitions where Gehry, Maurer and Nouvel were presented. For more than 15 years his voice has resonated as a commentator of the creative processes in Bulgaria. His ongoing commitment for sustainable architecture has been guiding a few of the young Bulgarian architects. In 2010 Olivier Boissiere has been the coordinator of the first ABITARE Talks Conference in Sofia “Do we need museums and galleries” with speakers

Italo Rota Italo Rota (Milan, 2 October 1953) is an Italian architect. Biography Born in Milan in 1953, he obtained a degree in Architecture at Milan Polytechnic University in 1982. Before that, he had started off in the architecture firms of Franco Alb ...

, David Cascaro and Monique Veaute. Under his proficient eye in 2011 the first Sofia Architecture Week was organized by One Magazine, where Boissiere introduced French architects like Anne Lacaton, Dominique Lyon, Frédéric Borel and Rudy Ricciotti.

2012 onwards – Un Cabinet d'Amateur

Being a modest art collector himself, Olivier Boissière worked closely with the emerging talents on the Bulgarian art scene, some of which he presented at his private apartment/gallery in Sofia. Un Cabinet d'Amateur, devoted to Bulgarian and foreign contemporary art, was established in 2012 and has exhibited works of Kalin Serapionov,

Svetlana Mircheva Svetlana Mircheva (Bulgarian: Светлана Мирчева) (born 1976) is a Bulgarian artist, who was nominated for a 2010 Baza Award by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia. In 2012, she displayed her artwork titled ''Images of the Wor ...

, Marie Maillard, Stela Vassileva,

, Jean-Charles Blais,

. Along with artworks, the Cabinet accommodated a small library with Boissere's personal collection of books, catalogs and documents from his longtime journey in the field. In 2015 Boissiere was an advisor to the team of architects Manal Rachdi and

in the "Reinventer Paris" competition. It was a winning entry for a block at Porte Maillot. Olivier Boissière is deceased.

Books and publications

* Gehry, Site, Tigerman. 3 portraits de l’artiste en architecte, ''Editions de Moniteur, 1981'', * Streamline. The American design of the 30s, ''Rivages Style'', 1987, * Lewis Baltz, Portfolio of Fos Secteur 80, Précis du terrain vague, ''Edition Galerie Michele Chomette Paris, 1988'' * Lewis Baltz, La Ronde nuit Check list Soundtrack ''by Anneliese Centre régional de la photographie Nord pas de Calais and Pompidou Centre, 1992'' * Frank Gehry, ''Architecture d’Aujourd’hui Special, 1989'' * Vitra Design Museum Basel by Frank Gehry (with Martin Filler), ''Thames and Hudson, 1990'', * Philippe Starck, ''Taschen, 1994'', * Jean Nouvel, ''Editions Studio Paperback, 1993'', * Jean Nouvel/Emmanuel Cattani Ass, ''Editions Birkhauser Switzerland, 1994-1998'', * The Unbuilt Jean Nouvel. 100 projects (with Takaaki Tomishige), ''Kenchiku Bunka, 1995'' * Architecture for the Future (with Sheila de Vallée), Rizzoli, 1996, * Jean Nouvel, A Monography, ''Editions Bayard/Pierre Terrail'' 1996, * Twentieth-Century Houses in Europe, ''Editions Bayard/Pierre Terrail'', 1997–98, * Ron Arad (with Raymond Guidot), ''Dis Voir Paris, 1997'', * New Museums (with Catherine Donzel), ''Telleri, 1998'', * American Contemporary Houses, ''Telleri, 1998'', * Outstanding Shop Designs (Art of the Habitat), ''Telleri, 1998'', * Le Corbusier vivant (with Dominique Lyon and Anriet Denis, photographer), ''Telleri, 1999'', * Ch ou l’âge du capitaine. A novel. ''Editions Sens & Tonka, 2001'', , * Being Jean Nouvel (editor, with Maria Giulia Zunino), ''Abitare, 2012'' * I/O Architects 2002-2013, forward, 2013, * Seven love songs, artbook by Jean Charles Blais. ''Un Cabinet d'Amateur, 2013'' * Look at me, David. A photo album by Kalin Cerapionov. ''Un Cabinet d’Amateur, 2014''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boissiere, Olivier 1939 births Year of death missing Architecture critics