Alain Némarq of Mauboussin Is a Sophisticated Lover of Art

Are you more interested in paintings, objects or photos?
Painting, especially Mark Rothko. Juxtaposing rectangular fields of colors blurs boundaries and allows the mind’s only limit to be the imagination. His works convey human emotion in all its splendor.

What is your favorite exhibition or cultural event at the moment?
Pierre Jeanneret, who designed a whole typology of administrative office furniture. In doing so, he allowed as many people as possible to use beautiful objects, the public space being the space of the people. His extraordinarily pure and honest aesthetic, inspired by Indian culture, is accessible to the artistic and emotional sensitivity of everyone.

A work that you would like to own?
The Mona Lisa, although I’d rather look at the painting than own it. The only works I’d like to possess are inaccessible ones.

The artist whose work most touches you?
Arman for his accumulations and César for his compressions. Reinventing an object or creating a work by transforming an existing one fills me with a sense of eternity, rebirth and renewal.

Fine Arts Paris & La Biennale or Paris+ par Art Basel?
I liked the FIAC so much (editor’s note: it has been replaced by Paris+ by Art Basel). It was France and demonstrated our open-mindedness with art. Since the 1960s, we’ve been fighting to make Paris an original marketplace capable of competing with the world.

Is there a common theme to your acquisitions?
Whenever I buy or look at a work, whether I’m in a museum or just walking down the street, I think of my parents and wonder, would they have liked what I see? They are the running thread of my thoughts, my past and my future.