BY YOOX

                                          ROSAMOND BERNIER

A life of adventure between America and Europe; from Mexico, where she flew her own plane and raised a small zoo, to Paris, where she lived for twenty years. There she worked for Vogue and, in 1955, set up L’Oeil , a magazine dedicated to the most innovative and prestigious art of the era. Rosamond fell into the circle of the most important European artists of the period, masters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti. Through the years she gained their respect, affection and trust, and she started to tell the story of their works in numerous conferences around the world. Conferences that attracted not just academics, but true enthusiasts such as Diana Vreeland and Jackie Onassis, and high caliber designers like Coco Chanel and Cristobal Balenciaga, personalities who would ordain her as a true style icon for her incredible charm and exquisite taste in clothes. Now living in New York for the last 40 years, in addition to her career as a lecturer, Bernier has acted as consultant for many art collections. In collaboration with her husband John Russell, chief art critic of The New York Times, she made hugely successful television programs dedicated to Henry Moore, Philip Johnson, Paul Mellon and Joseph Hirshhorn. Rosamond has also received numerous honors for her contribution to art and culture: she was made “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” and “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” by the French government and awarded the “Cross of Isabel la Católica” by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.
Bernier’s lectures are important events in the art world, in which her love of everything beautiful and sense of the aesthetic shine through. Dressed head-to-toe in haute couture, she loses herself in anecdotes of artists’ lives, in intense impromptu narrations, an animated flow of images and captivating memories. And so Some of My Lives: A Scrapbook Memoir  was born, a treasure-trove of unforgettable moments, photographs, sketches, portraits by Matisse, and dedications by Ernst, who details Rosamond’s life; the perfect blend of art, style and culture.