André Villers

André Villers (1930 – 2016) was a French photographer born in Beaucourt, France, perhaps best known for his collaborations with and photographs of Pablo Picasso.

Throughout his practice Villers maintained a distinctive experimental approach, evidenced not least in his engagement with the play of shadows, transparencies, collage and the sculptural dimensions of photography.

Following the hardships of World War II, Villers contracted bone tuberculosis at the age of seventeen and, to convalesce, was moved to the Centro Hélio-Marin sanatorium in Vallauris, southeastern France.

There he was bedridden for five years. During his time at the sanatorium Villers was introduced to photography and in 1953 a chance meeting with Picasso on a Vallauris street marked the beginning of a profound friendship and creative dialogue which would last many years.

The publication of the book ‘Diurnes’ in 1962, with a preface by poet Jacques Prévert, is the culmination of the two artists’ years of joint investigation. Thirty photograms were selected, featuring masks, animals, and group figure studies, from amongst the seven hundred works that Villers and Picasso made together between 1954 and 1961. Villers’ collaboration with Picasso represents a ground-breaking synthesis of photography and painting, expanding the parameters of the Cubist genre.

As well as photographs of Picasso, including in his studio, Villers shot many portraits of great artists, among them Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, César, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger and and Nadia Léger.