Ref: Interview by Marie Godfrain, Le Monde, January 2022
The Swiss photographer collaborated on a book devoted to the Russian designer Slavik, creator of several Parisian restaurants and shops such as the Drugstore Publicis. Peter KNAPP looks back on their friendship, symbolised by the portrait taken of him by Slavik in 1974.
After completing my art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, I left for Paris to immerse myself in the life of this mythical city. It was 1951, and I quickly realised that France was in fact behind in terms of design and graphic design…
In Switzerland, we were very influenced by the Bauhaus and its modernity. Function and beauty were very important to us.
In that respect, Paris disappointed me until I happened upon the Galeries Lafayette window displays, which dazzled me: the clothes and sets had been stripped back to white. I felt a real creative shock. I then asked about the identity of their creator. It was the first time I heard the name Slavik, who was then in charge of the window displays.
After we met, he quickly brought me into the department store, where I worked on typography, the logo, catalogues, posters and set design, and from 1955, art direction. We left together after winning a competition to create pavilions for the Brussels World’s Fair. We complemented each other very well: I had a modernist education, inspired by the architects Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen; he was more influenced by Surrealism and Jean Cocteau.
We became friends immediately: my Swiss identity amused him, and his surreal side fascinated me. I was a little too radical and conceptual; he loved art history in its entirety, from Bosch to Magritte. He opened my eyes to that history.
Our professional paths diverged in 2960, but we remained friends until his death in 2014. Slavik was witty and likeable; he had elegance, imagination, something of Edgar Allan Poe about him. I loved listening to him: he took care with his language, he invented words.
We went on holiday together and talked about art and cars. He owned a Mercedes 300 SL, whereas I was more of a Porsche or Ferrari man. But we no longer talked about work, because we had taken different paths.
At that time, he began designing restaurants, including L’Assiette au bœuf on the Champs-Élysées, where he took this photo of me in 1974. I was 43 then, and I can be seen in conversation with Christine Simonet, a young journalist from Elle magazine who would become my wife. It is one of the rare photos taken by Slavik, who did not even own a camera. He borrowed mine for this one.
It was not so simple to embark on producing a “retrospective” book, because we started it without any archives. Slavik never registered the designs for any of his lights or seats, which made Charlotte Perriand furious. He preferred to live in the moment.
