Simone de Beauvoir and art
10 October 2025
from 2.30pm to 6.30pm
Free admission
Simone de Beauvoir appreciated both ancient and modern art and owned art catalogues. Beyond her friendship with Alberto Giacometti, she spent time with Pablo Picasso, met Alexander Calder, and owned
a painting by Fernand Léger. Her sister, Hélène de Beauvoir, to whom she was close, was a painter. However, while Jean-Paul Sartre wrote about many artists, she did not.
This study session aims to highlight Simone de Beauvoir's aesthetic and relationship with art.
With the participation of Nina Childress (painter), Esther Demoulin (University of Paris Cité), Pierre Bras (General Delegate of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize), Michal Sobanski (co-author of the exhibition catalogue "Beauvoir, Sartre, Giacometti. Vertiges de l'absolu") and Claudine Monteil (author of Les Sœurs Beauvoir).
Scientific direction: Émilie Bouvard, curator of the current exhibition ‘Beauvoir, Sartre, Giacometti. Vertiges de l'absolu’ and Director of Collections at the Fondation Giacometti.
Programme
2.30pm Welcome address, Émilie Bouvard, Scientific and Collections Director at the Fondation Giacometti, exhibition curator
First session
Moderator: Esther Demoulin, Senior Lecturer in Literature, University of Paris Cité
2:45 p.m. ‘Modern art in the memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir,’ by Émilie Bouvard
3:15 p.m. ‘Égotopies by Simone de Beauvoir,’ by Michał Sobański, doctoral student in art history at Sciences Po Paris, co-author of the exhibition catalogue
3:45 p.m. ‘Weaving nothingness, inhabiting darkness: embroidery and architecture in emancipation according to Beauvoir,’ by Pierre Bras, general delegate of the jury for the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom, director of the international journal L'Homme et la Société
Discussion and break
Second session
Moderator: Émilie Bouvard
5:00 p.m. ‘Hélène de Beauvoir, feminist artist, environmentalist, story of a friendship,’ by Claudine Monteil, former diplomat, feminist activist with Simone de Beauvoir and Hélène de Beauvoir since 1970, woman of letters, historian & Screening of audiovisual archives about Hélène de Beauvoir, introduced by Catherine Gonnard, documentary project manager, INA.
5:30 p.m. ‘The Tomb of Simone de Beauvoir,’ conversation between Nina Childress, painter, and Valentin Gleyze, Doctor of Contemporary Art History
Discussion and closing of the afternoon, Esther Demoulin and Émilie Bouvard
Videos
