Tristan Hoare is delighted to present The Collection of Monsieur X, an exhibition of artworks by Pierre Le-Tan, curated by Umberto Pasti. The exhibition features a diverse grouping of artworks, chosen and arranged by Pasti, which will be illustrated in Le-Tan’s distinctive style and exhibited around the gallery. The artworks will range from classical to contemporary and will be laid out in the gallery’s Georgian rooms, which will be transformed into an eccentric collector’s apartment and presented as if he had just left the room.
Pierre Le-Tan, one of Paris's most celebrated illustrators, created remarkable illustrations of nostalgic and timeless characters and interiors, quietly capturing snippets of everyday still lives — a desk of unfinished letters, an open door and a fallen boot, a lit match, an aeroplane apparent through an apartment window. During his lifetime Le-Tan drew tirelessly, creating a closely observed universe spiced with humour with a hint of surrealism. His precise, meticulous scratchings of India ink and macaron palette of watercolours, which he developed from an early age, became his signature style. Le-Tan was an avid art collector, an activity which was inseparable from his drawing, often becoming interested in areas well before the market caught on. He began from an early age and frequented the Puces de Saint Ouen in Paris as well as art galleries around the world. Talking about his love of art and drawing he said, “I knew very early on that this was it for me and nothing else: drawing and my art collection.” The exhibition recreates the home of an elusive and reclusive collector, Mr. X, drawing on Le-Tan's own home which was filled with remarkable objects collected by Le-Tan throughout his lifetime.
Umberto Pasti is an Italian writer, curator and landscape designer, living and working in Italy and Morocco. His Moroccan hillside garden is famous for the hundreds of indigenous plants which he has saved from extinction. Passionate about natural conservation, Pasti has designed numerous gardens in Italy, Spain and Morocco, each one imbued with a story, designed around an imaginary character. His landscapes also feature prominently in his books, becoming the protagonists of his many novels and illustrated albums. Pasti fervently collects and curates objects in the same way he cultivates plants, seeking the rare and the endangered to create a bucolic, eclectic ensemble.
