A groundbreaking retrospective exhibition featuring the artwork of Lise Levitzky, the first wife of legendary French musician Serge Gainsbourg, is currently being held in Quintin, located in the Côtes-d'Armor region of Brittany. The exhibition, running through November 8, marks the first time the late artist's work has been displayed publicly, offering visitors the opportunity to discover a first-rate artist who remained in the shadows throughout her lifetime.

Levitzky lived very discretely in Côtes-d'Armor until she wrote a book in 2010, recounting her relationship with Gainsbourg that continued long after their divorce until the musician's death. She passed away in 2022 at the age of 96, having devoted her entire life to painting. The exhibition is organized posthumously by her goddaughter Sophie Alexinsky, taking place in one of the bookstores that Levitzky used to frequent.

The love story between Lise Levitzky and Lucien Ginsburg – Gainsbourg's real name – began around their shared passion for painting. She was 21 and he was 19 when they met as students of Fernand Léger at the Academy of Montmartre in 1947. Levitzky was the inspiration behind Gainsbourg's famous song "Elisa." The couple married three years after meeting but divorced in 1957.

In a 2011 interview, Levitzky revealed the reason behind their separation: "It was mainly the songs that separated us. I didn't want him to stop painting. At first, he did it for money, to buy tubes and brushes. But it was so expensive. So he started making songs. He got trapped." This poignant reflection highlights the artistic crossroads that ultimately led to Gainsbourg's transformation from painter to musician.

"Lucien became Serge Gainsbourg, Lise remained Lise," summarizes Gilles Perrotin, the bookstore owner and exhibition curator. Levitzky remained largely in the shadows throughout her life because she underestimated her own work. Unable to convince her to exhibit her paintings during her lifetime, her goddaughter is now doing so posthumously. "It seemed important to us to highlight someone who spent her entire life stepping aside for a great artist, who erased her own work," Perrotin explains.

The exhibition showcases Levitzky's completely unique body of work centered around abstraction, which she began developing in the 1960s. Her artistic approach was remarkably guided by mathematics, featuring composition work based on mathematical theories. "There's compositional work based on the research of a mathematician," explains Perrotin. "The puzzle was how to bring together 9, 11, 13, 15 squares in a square or rectangle. We found figures on graph paper, additions, subtractions, divisions."

Beyond these mathematical calculations, Levitzky's paintings are luminous, enigmatic, and fascinating both in their composition and the colors she employed. The canvases demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of geometric relationships while maintaining an emotional resonance that transcends their mathematical foundations. Her work represents a distinctive voice in abstract art that remained largely unknown to the public.

History does not record what opinion Serge Gainsbourg held of the work of the woman who remained so close to him until the end of his life. However, nothing would likely contradict his conviction that painting is a major art form. The exhibition serves as both a tribute to Levitzky's artistic legacy and a reminder of the many talented artists who have remained in obscurity, overshadowed by more famous partners or contemporaries.