Hanna: Welcome, Agnes! I am so grateful our paths have crossed in beautiful Saint Lucia and the profound and beautiful energy you bring to every moment. I am excited to share your fascinating life and story with our readers.
You’re a wife, mother of three beautiful women, a grandmother, an accomplished gallerist with a great eye for fashion and style. It is one thing to build a successful career but also to create a beautiful life and family in the process is a magnificent gift. What do you think contributed the most to you creating this remarkable life?
Agnes: What contributed the most to me creating this remarkable life? It is a combination of two important things that have been a part of me since I was born, I think: my passion for beauty and the belief I always had a special role to play on earth.
My passion for beautiful things, be it things that surrounded me or people was really a key driver of all the choices I have made.
I really believe in Karma, creating beautiful and positive things can only go back to you with the same energy. That is what I have taught to my children and what creates a nice atmosphere for our daily life and family.
Hanna: Although now retired, you created an extraordinary career as one of Paris’s most prominent art gallerists serving A-list clients like Yves Saint Laurent, Bill Gates, and the world’s elite. Yet, you didn’t grow up in a household of art or artists. How did you first discover your passion for art?
Agnes: I did not know anything about Art when I was 14. At 15 I saw my first exhibition, it was Monet and it was the beginning of my passion for Art. My parents absolutely wanted all their kids to be civil servants. They pictured me as a chemist.
I did not pass my final exams as I thought this degree would bring me nowhere, convinced of my passion for colors, design, and art. At 17, I met my first husband Patrice Carlhian who was the grandson of a very famous decorator.
This family taught me a lot about art in general but especially contemporary and modern Art. Patrice had a very good position in a private company that he left to build our own Art project. We bought a very small gallery of 10 square meters in rue de Lappe on the 11th Arrondissement in Paris. I did my first sale to a very important collector at 18 years old and from then, I discovered my talent as an art dealer.
We quickly moved to another gallery rue de Charonne and we were quickly surrounded by a group of about 10 artists (Tomasello, Cante-Pacos, Reinoso, …). Then I left my first husband after 6 years. I got divorced; we had two daughters at that time who were 2 and 3.
Hanna: You represented great artists like the famous now-deceased Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj and Olga de Amaral from Brazil. What do you believe played a key role in your success when you were a gallerist?
Agnes: The role of an art dealer is to bring hidden gems to the world in the most beautiful and respectful way. This is at least my vision.
In this light, what played a key role in this success is my taste (and my confidence in the latest) and my curiosity for Art that brought me all over the world. When traveling I discovered all the major artists that I then représented: Olga de Amaral who is 89 in Columbia who is now considered as one of the most famous artists of Latin America, Do who is Greek, Igor Mitoraj from Poland, Iuri Sarmento from Brazil… but also my deep curiosity about the artists themselves.
I had the chance to meet extraordinary people in France too like Daniel Hourde. My confidence in my taste played a key role because if some art dealers chose to display international artists, I absolutely wanted to show something more fresh to the world (for sure some were already well known).
Hanna: You are also a collector of many amazing works of art and large sculptures on your over 1000 acre estate just one hour outside Paris. Who are some of your favorite artists working today?
Anges: All the artists I worked with bring complementary pieces to my life and the property we have with my husband. Olga and Do brings femininity, Daniel Hourde, and Igor Mitoraj. I love all of them for différent reasons.
Hanna: You live a different life now and are no longer pursuing a career as an art gallerist. What made you realize that it was time to close this chapter as an art gallerist and pursue a different life?
Agnes: I had a stroke at 47. They had to open my crane and operate during a 7-hour surgery because I had several aneurysms to clip. It took me a very long time to get the feeling that I could live a normal life, as I was deeply convinced that what happened to me could happen again.
In a way, what happened to me made me realize that I was not so powerful and untouchable. In a way realizing that put me down because this is the belief that made me try things that few people would have ever tried. I could not speak for one year. During that period my husband had to take the difficult decision to close the gallery.
Hanna: You live a different life now and are no longer pursuing a career as an art gallerist. What made you realize that it was time to close this chapter as an art gallerist and pursue a different life?
Agnes: I had a stroke at 47. They had to open my crane and operate during a 7-hour surgery because I had several aneurysms to clip. It took me a very long time to get the feeling that I could live a normal life, as I was deeply convinced that what happened to me could happen again.
In a way, what happened to me made me realize that I was not so powerful and untouchable. In a way realizing that put me down because this is the belief that made me try things that few people would have ever tried. I could not speak for one year. During that period my husband had to take the difficult decision to close the gallery.
What is next for Agnes Monplaisir? What keeps you inspired and fulfilled today?
I found inspiration in my daily life in Saint Lucia and all the beauty that I love. Here we live surrounded by nature, sea, flowers, birds, fruits that we grow, puzzles…
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