Yvon Lambert (b. 1936) was born with a keen eye for beauty. He began his own gallery in Paris in 1967 and has since established himself as a leader in the French contemporary art scene, a role he continues to play to this day. Also a prominent art collector, Lambert opened his private collection to the public in Avignon in 2000 and went on to donate it in its entirety to the French State in 2012, the most important art donation since Picasso in 1974. After 50 years of exhibiting the most significant artists of the 20th and early 21st Century, he closed his gallery in 2014 in hopes of creating a more intimate space: a bookshop, exhibition space, and publishing house in Paris' beloved third arrondissement.
From the beginning of his career, Lambert understood the importance of publishing art, from artists' books by Lawrence Weiner and Sol Lewitt in the 1970s to limited edition "bibliophilie" created in close collaboration with artists such as Louise Bourgeois, On Kawara, Christian Boltanski, and Giuseppe Penone. His current publishing program consists of poetry collections, photography books, and artist's prints. For this year’s TABF, we will delve into the history and evolution of the French art book scene through Yvon Lambert's influence from the 1960s to the present.