1904 b. Aug. 10th. Geneva. He was a Swiss Publisher and Patron d'Arts. After working in a bank and as an entertainments organizer in luxury hotels, he set up business as a bookseller.
(Henri Matisse 1948) 1928 Founded Skira Publishing in Lausanne shortly transferred to Geneva. 1931 Began his publishing career with Ovid's Les Metamorphoses , illustrated by Pablo Picasso. Poesies of Stephane Mallarme accompanied by twenty-nine gravures by Henri Matisse. This was quickly followed by more luxury editions of poetry illustrated by Salvador Dali and Henri Matisse among others. He began publishing art books with high-quality colour illustrations. 1933 - 1941 He lived in Paris. 1933 - 1939 Published the avant-garde periodical 'Minotaure''; 13 numbers appeared irregularly. Led by Andre Breton and Paul Eluard, published works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro and Rene Magritte also the early writings of Jacques Lacan and the photographs of Man Ray and Brassai. 1934 organized Exposition Minotaure in Brussels. 1948 For the celebrations of its first twenty years Henri Matisse designed the cover of the catalogue, a woman's head which was to become a sort of unofficial trademark for Skira.
1950 The fifties and the sixties witnessed the great rise of Skira on the international scene. Large volumes with illustrated tables reproduced and printed in a quality that was unthinkable for those years. Ranging from the great histories of Italian, French and Flemish painting to the treasures of Oriental civilisations and books focusing on emerging contemporary phenomena such as American art from Willem de Kooning to Jasper Johns. Among the authors involved were the most authoritative art historians of the time such as Lionello Venturi, Andre Chastel, Giulio Carlo Argan as well as writers and poets like Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes and Jacques Prevert. 1973 d. Sept. 14th in Dully. See wiki Fr. ->. See Timeline