Photo: Gerry Hadden/The World.
The art of hand-painted gold leaf signs, like this one by artist Victor Bert, is enjoying a renaissance in France.
I love listening to radio show The World because they find international stories I don’t usually hear on US radio. Recently there was one I liked about the resurgence of handpainted signs in France. Gerry Hadden had the story.
“Victor Bert rummaged through an old wooden tackle box filled with brushes, paints, and emulsions. His assignment,” Hadden reports, “was simple. He needed to paint three words onto a wall: ‘Men,’ ‘Women,’ and ‘Shoes.’
“They’d be on display at the hip Parisian clothing store Asphalte. The project would likely take all day. As an artisanal letter painter, Bert was tasked with handpainting each letter in gold leaf. But that didn’t seem to bother him.
“ ‘This is my passion,’ Bert said. ‘I could spend my life doing this.’
France is known for its quaint and classy handpainted signage on storefronts and hotels. The art form dates back to the early 19th century and was almost wiped out by cheaper high-tech alternatives that emerged in the 1980s. But today it’s enjoying a renaissance and artisans are busier than ever.
“The technique requires a lot of dedication and patience. Instead of painting in cut-out letters, like in traditional stenciling, Bert explained that he makes hundreds of pinholes following the contours of each paper letter.
“After tapping and rubbing the paper against the wall with a special talcum powder dispenser that passes the powder through the tiny holes, the outline of the words appear as little dots that can then be painted over by hand. Like calligraphy, it’s one-stroke work.
“Bert, 32, has been practicing this craft for 11 years, and there are a dozen or so other artisans like himself in Paris.
“When machines started taking over in the ‘80s, the appeal was that it was cheaper and faster to print stickers, decals, and plastic printouts that could be stuck directly onto windows or walls. … But those products turned out to not be very durable. Stickers became unstuck. Vinyl decals cracked, and the ones exposed to the sun aged badly.
“Just when people started souring on decals, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. And when Parisians emerged from lockdown seven long weeks later, artisans like Bert became stars of sorts.
“ ‘Everyone was just dying to get back outside and do stuff,’ he said. …
“ ‘What Bert does, it’s part of the history of stores in Paris,’ said Jonathan Gauthier, the store manager who hired him. ‘It was important for us to embrace this. Plus, we wanted to give the shop a little caché. Gold leaf lettering enriches our image.’
“There’s not much room for error in this process. Bert once had to make tiny inscriptions on $5,000 bottles of wine.
Any mistake, and the artisan has to start from scratch.
“ ‘I’ve only messed up once,’ Bert said. ‘I ruined a $200 bottle of men’s perfume,’ which he then had to pay for. …
But, he’s done other jobs where you simply cannot err. He was tasked with etching the engraving on the tombstone of late French Prime Minister Michel Rocard.
“The inscription read: ‘Happiness to the artisans of peace.’ ”
More at The World, here. And you may recall a previous post, here, about Trader Joe’s hiring artists for handmade signs.
Photo: Jerry Holt, Star Tribune
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