Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin Is Opening an Art Gallery With His Son in Hong Kong

France’s former prime minister
Dominique de Villepin is launching an art gallery with his son,
Arthur, in Hong Kong next year.

While it seems like an odd move
for a former politician, who was the French prime minister between
2005 and 2007 under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, de Villepin
has always had a strong cultural interest. During his tenure as
prime minister, he conceived the country’s first triennial and has
been on several museum boards in Europe and the Middle
East.

“Art and culture have always
been key incentives in my diplomatic, political, and personal
life,” Dominique de Villepin tells Artnet News. “During my time as
a diplomat, I met with artists from across the globe to better
understand the world we live in, assert art’s social function, and
demonstrate the power of art to build bridges between cultures and
change lives. This is even more important in a fractured world
facing so many difficult challenges.” 

The former politician has been
building an art collection for the past three decades with a strong
focus on artists who engage with social histories, and the new
gallery he is building with his son—who has lived in Hong Kong for
the past 10 years—will reflect that. 

Villepin Gallery will occupy
nearly 3,000 square feet of a three-story building located at 53-55
Hollywood Road in central Hong Kong. The inaugural exhibition,
which opens on March 13, just ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong, will
show works by the late Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki, who was
close friends with the family. It will be titled “Friendship &
Reconciliation” and will include rare paintings spanning the 1950s
to the early 2000s, as well as a selection of Chinese inks,
watercolors, and lithographs.

It is a surprising time to open
a new business in Hong Kong, a city currently embroiled in political
protest. But the gallery’s founders say they are deeply
invested in the cultural scene of Hong Kong, and convinced that
there is never a bad time to promote art.  

“Growing up with a father
involved in politics and diplomacy, I quickly became aware of the
social and political power of art—for art and artists to build
bridges across cultures and geographies,” says Arthur de Villepin,
who will oversee gallery operations day-to-day while his father
steers strategy from Paris. “Art also has the power to heal. Hong
Kong is a city with a unique history—it’s robust and has a creative
energy that will never go away. We hope that Villepin will be able
to add to that.”

The father-son duo emphasize
that they hope to support a model of collecting based on
friendships and long-term relationships with artists and their
estates or foundations, and want to place works with collectors who
have a personal connection to the objects.

“I grew up surrounded by
artists, which nurture a love of art from a very young age,” Arthur
de Villepin says. “My mother is a sculptor and my father is also an
avid collector, and they were constantly introducing me to new
artists, including Zao Wou-Ki, whose work was the first piece I
bought for my collection.” The work, a small-scale painting from
1948, will be featured in Villepin’s inaugural show.

France has long had a strong
cultural link to China, and the French gallery is part of a new
wave of French-Chinese cultural collaborations, from the Pompidou Shanghai
to the Musée Rodin in Shenzhen
to the newly announced Picasso and
Giacometti museum in Beijing. The private museum sector in
China is also growing, along with the country’s art market, which
is the third biggest in the world after the US and the
UK. 

“I am so happy to see such
beautiful initiatives,” Arthur de Villepin says. “These
developments are happening in tandem with overall cultural growth
in the country.”

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Is Opening an Art Gallery With His Son in Hong Kong appeared
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