The Existential Englishman: Paris Among The Artists
Michael Peppiatt Bloomsbury €35
In 1966, aged 24, an aimless Michael Peppiatt left for Paris where for the next three decades he lived, according to his own account, a gilded existence of champagne and social climbing among the Parisian art world elite.
Structured loosely around the different addresses he inhabited, this slightly self-satisfied memoir charts his journey from fledgling art critic to magazine publisher (and subsequently author of two books on his unlikely but loyal friend Francis Bacon). Interspersed among his journalistic assignments, there are endless rounds of gallery openings, embassy receptions, parties and
apartment-hunting. It is the story of a man finding his way in an exotic demi-monde, a man on the make, dining out, usually at others’ expense, at exclusive clubs and restaurants, filing the odd article, drinking copiously, agonising over his own creative blockage but always alert to the next opportunity.
Meandering around Paris in his company is certainly not without its attractions: he writes well in a present tense that gives an immediacy to his perambulations; he has a good line in self-deprecation, a fine eye for the architecture and history and a foreigner’s passion for the ‘real France’; he is also, of course, always well-informed about developments on the art scene and elevates namedropping to an art form.
However, he details his numerous sexual liaisons in a manner many might find offensive in the contemporary world. There are also few genuine insights into the art and artists he has spent so long observing. This gossipy romp is sometimes too smug for its own good and occasionally a touch pretentious. Disappointing.