Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/496780
STUDIO 100 CULTURED Clockwise from top: Jean-Philippe Delhomme in his Paris studio; research material for his new book on Corbusier's Villa Savoye; an illustration from "Les heures claires de la Villa Savoye"; a detail from his mural at Chez Castel; an illustration from Delhomme's column in ZEIT magazin. Jean-Philippe Delhomme Paris 75014 BY BRENT LEWIS Montparnasse, in the building where Balthus would once visit Rilke, is the studio of the artist Jean-Philippe Delhomme. Here he paints: musings of Parisian life, scenes and societies of fashion, art and design, portraits of the structures that surround him. A publisher of books and serial chronicler of culture in such publications as Vogue, GQ and The New Yorker, Delhomme's work continues to portray the spirit of the cultivated and impassioned contemporary individual. You recently completed a mural for Chez Castel, the Parisian club. What was the starting point for that project? André Saraiva and Thomas Lenthal were reopening the club and commissioned me to paint a mural for the bar. They had in mind the murals you find in New York. I always would visit the Bemelmans Bar in pilgrimage on my first stays in New York and thought about this mural in planning my own. A mural provides some naïveté, which is cheerful and honest to a nightclub like this. It can also bring inspiration to the mood and conversation. The mural includes so many familiar faces. Much of your work is an observation of society and culture. Do you consider yourself a participant in the worlds you document? No, not really, but I'm not completely an outsider either. I never really felt adopted by any of these worlds and I don't buy into them entirely, something which helps me navigate better. Are these worlds—for instance fashion and art—so far apart in your view? I see them colluding more and more, without jealousy of each other. I suspect art people might see more transcendence in fashion, while fashion may envy art's sales without the complication and necessity of producing clothes. And what is coming up next for you? I just finished paintings for a book on Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret's Villa Savoye and continue to publish a weekly page in ZEIT magazin, which is a sort of free-form diary of Paris. I also look forward to painting more portraits from sittings. PORTRAIT BY NATACHA POLAERT; PHOTO BY BRENT LEWIS (TOP RIGHT); ILLUSTRATIONS © JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME