Parisian painters to brush up for exam
VISITING Paris? Want your portrait painted in Montmartre? Now you are sure to be immortalised by an artist of talent.
That, at least, is the aim of a plan to weed out frauds in the heartland of Gallic street art.
The initiative comes with the artists of Montmartre struggling against competitors for whom the district represents little more than a commercial opening.
At stake, they say, is the bohemian spirit once associated with this small corner of northern Paris. Under the scheme, candidates for one of 289 official licences to work in the Place du Tertre behind the Sacre Coeur basilica will have to undergo a test.
They will be required to paint an original work in 90 minutes in front of a commission composed mainly of art experts. The commission will say whether they are worthy successors to the likes of Picasso and Toulouse-lautrec, who both made Montmartre their base.
The measure is in response to a flaw in the current process for awarding licences, which involves candidates submitting a curriculum vitae and photographs of their work.
Artists of little talent and even fewer scruples have been obtaining the right to work in Montmartre by sending photos of other people’s work to the commission. This results in holidaymakers being confronted with ugly landscapes and unrecognisable portraits.
‘‘Now the quality of the works will take precedence,’’ said Montmartre Artists’ Commission chair Alaf Gabelotaud.
Despite an annual licence fee of
Artists in Montmartre, Paris. A new scheme will require painters to undergo a test before they can gain their street art licence. 280 (NZ$458), demand is high for a place in the Place du Tertre where 140 artists paint portraits and 149 others work. There are already 40 candidates for one of the six places up for grabs in April.
Midani M’barki, who installed his easel there when he arrived in Paris more than 30 years ago, welcomed the move. ‘‘I think it’s a good thing, although the handful of cheats in our midst is not our main problem,’’ he said.
Mr M’barki is more concerned about the shops which sell Chinese works purporting to have been painted in Montmartre.
‘‘They sell them for 10 or 15 and it is unfair competition,’’ he said. The Montmartre licensed artists were planning to sue shops selling Chinese-produced fakes, he said.