Michel Sima, a pseudonym for Michał Smajewski (20 May 1912 – 12 April 1987 ), was a Polish artist, known as a sculptor, photographer and ceramicist. He is best known for his photographic portraits of

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and of almost all the artists of the

School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

.* Erika Billeter, ''Michel Sima'' (Ateliers d'artiste), Gand, éditions Snoeck, 2008 p.201 to p.203

Biography

Michał Smajewski was born on 20 May 1912 in

Slonim Slonim is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slonim District. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa (river), Isa rivers, southeast of Grodno. As of 2025, it has a population of ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

(now

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). Born in a liberal middle class Jewish family, he arrived in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1929, 17 years old, and was admitted into the "Acadèmie de la Grande Chaumière". From his earliest years, he wanted to become a sculptor. In 1933, he joins the group of the painter

Francis Gruber Francis Gruber (15 March 1912 – 1 December 1948) was a French painter, founder of the ''Nouveau Réalisme'' school, and a member of the ''Forces nouvelles'' group. He was born in Nancy, France, the son of stained glass artist Jacques Grube ...

. He works in the Brâncuși's and

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Alexeevich Zadkine (; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Russian and French artist of the School of Paris. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born o ...

's studios, among others, and earns a living taking photos of current events for various newspapers. He socialized in Gertrude and Leo Stein's circle and makes friends with famous people such as

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, writer, filmmaker, magazine publisher, poet, and typography, typographist closely associated with Dada. When consid ...

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement. Early life Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' Halles'' ma ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

Pierre Tal-Coat Pierre Tal-Coat (real name Pierre Louis Jacob; 1905–1985) was a French artist considered to be one of the founders of Tachisme. Life and work He was born the son of a fisherman, in the village of Clohars-Carnoët, Finistère in 1905. He atten ...

and Youki Foujita. In 1936 he met

. He took part in many group exhibitions in

and on the

Riviera () is an Italian word which means , ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria (the Genoa region in northwestern Italy) in the form , then shortened in English. Riviera may a ...

. During World War II he sought refuge in the "

Zone libre The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered b ...

" but in 1942 was arrested in Golfe Juan as a Jewish foreigner and sent to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

then to

Blechhammer The Blechhammer (') (nowadays Blachownia Śląska, district of the City of Kędzierzyn-Koźle) area was the location of Greater German Reich chemical plants, prisoner of war camps, and forced labor camps (). Labor camp prisoners began arrivi ...

(Judenlager), while an exhibition of his work together with Picabia's in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

enjoyed a great success. Seriously ill, he returned to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1945, and spent months recovering in

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional ) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Re ...

at his friend Dor de la Souchère's in Cannes. In 1946 in Golfe Juan, he met Picasso again, and obtained for him a large studio in the Grimaldi museum in Antibes, given by Dor de la Souchère. In this studio Picasso creates "La Joie de Vivre" and "Le Triptyque". Following Picasso's advice, Sima turns to photography. He's too weak to work as a full-time sculptor, but he continued creating small pieces and engravings, and working in ceramic. He gave his personal opinions to Picasso about his works and provided him with documents. It resulted to the book : "Picasso à Antibes" published in 1948. Michel Sima then specialized in portraits. He creates a very personal style, expressing his deep-rooted fondness for his model. And in the following years, he'll realizes photos of nearly all the artists, members of the

. His first book was published in 1959 by editor Fernand Nathan: ''21 Visages d'artistes'' (21 Faces of Artists). Seeing the poor quality of the copies, Sima's disappointment was so great that he decides to stop publishing photos. In 1967, his old friend, the painter René Besset invited him to the

Ardèche Ardèche (; , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche (river), Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.La Ruche ''La Ruche'' may refer to: * ''La Ruche'' (residence), artists' residence in Paris * ''La Ruche'' (school), early 1900s anarchist school outside Paris See also * Beehive (disambiguation) {{dab ...

" in Paris. From this tim e to his death in 1987, he kept testing new materials and searching for new forms in his sculptures.

Books by Michel Sima

*(fr) ''Picasso à Antibes'', photographies de Michel Sima, commentées par Paul Eluard, introduction par Jaime Sabartès, Paris, René Drouin, 1948. *(fr) ''21 visages d’artistes'', photographies de Michel Sima, préface de Jean Cocteau, Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1959. *''Faces of modern art'', photography by Michel Sima, preface by Jean Cocteau, translated by Gloria Levy, Tudor Publishing Co., New York, 1959

Public museum collections

* Picasso museum in

Antibes Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...

* Picasso museum in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

* Picasso museum in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

Arp Foundation
in

Clamart Clamart () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The town is divided into two parts, separated by a forest: ''bas Clamart'', the historical centre, and ''petit Clamart'' with urban ...

* Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in

* Documentation center of the Matisse museum in Nice * Würth collection

Bibliography

* * Jean-Louis Andral, Michel Sima, Anne de Staël, ''L'atelier des combles'', co-édition Musée Picasso, Antibes, éditions Hazan, Paris, 2008 *Jean-Louis Andral,

Pierre Daix Pierre Georges Daix (24 May 1922 – 2 November 2014) was a French journalist, writer and art historian. He was a friend and biographer of Pablo Picasso. As a young man, Daix was an ardent Stalinist. He joined the French Communist Party at the ag ...

, ''Picasso : la Joie de Vivre'' (1946–1949), Skira, 2007 * Maurice Fréchuret,

Françoise Gilot Françoise Gaime Gilot (26 November 1921 – 6 June 2023) was a French painter. Gilot was an internationally known artist working largely in watercolors and ceramics as well as a bestselling memoirist of the book ''Life with Picasso''. Gilot's ...

, Michel Sima, ''1946, Picasso et la Méditerranée retrouvée'', Nice, Grégoire Garedette éditions, 1996 * Mark Haworth-Booth, « The artist as subject. The photographs of Michel Sima », in Paul Josefowitz (CM),

Apollo (magazine) ''Apollo'' is an English-language monthly magazine covering the visual arts of all periods from antiquity to the present day. History and profile ''Apollo'' was founded in 1925, in London. The contemporary ''Apollo'' features a mixture of revie ...

, No 428, October 1997, London, monthly

Filmography

* Christian Tran, ''Picasso et Sima, le modeleur d'amitié'', production Artis, Lyon TV, 2009, 58 mn, (English subtitles)Catalogue of the BPI

References

External links

Official site

Sima at the Picasso Museum in Antibes

Michel Sima in : Picasso, La joie de vivre, 1945-1948, La collection François Pinault, Palazzograssi.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sima, Michel French modern sculptors Jewish Polish sculptors Jewish French sculptors Belarusian sculptors Polish sculptors Polish male sculptors Belarusian Jews 1912 births 1987 deaths School of Paris French portrait photographers Auschwitz concentration camp survivors 20th-century French sculptors French male sculptors Polish emigrants to France