LSD Magazine - Issue 9 - Chasing Dragons

Could you tell us a little about your family’s histories and how much they shaped your identity?

You have to remember that I was born in 1951, six years after the end of the Second World War, so my parents were born right at the beginning of the 20th century and into what was effectively, a 19th century education with all its’ strictures and focus on detailed erudition. They were well versed in art and literature and certainly cultured people, but they didn’t have a lot of money.

I come from a family which had quite a few artists within it, especially on my father’s side. There was a tradition of architecture, decoration and design – both my grandfather Maurice Prou and his brother René were famous decorators in the 30’s - René actually did the interiors for the Orient Express as well as one of the lavish transatlantic ocean liners. So you had that creative vein within my family while at the same time, my aunt was an integral part of Surrealist circles and a close friend of artists like André Breton, Max Ernst, Dali and Picasso. When I was young, my aunt Colette, who didn’t have children, would take me with her when she visited Marie Berthe Aurenche, Max Ernst’s second wife.

Almost every Thursday we would go to her place, settle in for tea and I would listen as they discussed art and literature. I was still too young at the time to actively participate, but it all created an atmosphere around me. Aunt Collette would also take me to a steady stream of galleries and museums from about the age of 12 until well into my teens. I’ll never forget the moment when I saw my first Dali on one of these cultural outings. It was large painting of a piano and across the length of the keyboard sat six small heads of Lenin – I think it was called Six Apparitions of Lenin and that was a seminal moment in my perception of art.

I also had an uncle who was an engraver, another uncle who was a painter, and while my parents weren’t artists, my father had studied architecture. But history took its’