What's in a name?

After working for many years in the advertising industry, Pal Sarkozy - father of French president Nicolas Sarkozy - has launched a second career as an artist. He recently opened an exhibition with his creative partner, Werner Hornung, which features portraits of Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, as well as allegories of contemporary life.

The show's venue is the Espace Pierre Cardin - a gallery less than 100 meters from the gardens of the Elysee Palace, where the French president lives and works. The inauguration in late April attracted people from both the contemporary art world and glossy celebrity magazines.

From obscurity to success

Pal Sarkozy loves to share his story. He arrived in Paris penniless in 1948. He had been an aristocrat in Hungary, but had to make his own way in post-war France. His knack for drawing got him work in advertising, which led to a successful career in the industry. He married four times and had five children with different women.

The 83-year-old admits he has had a full life, but he says he still has enough energy to start a new career as an artist, together with his friend Werner Hornung.

"We shared the same office space when we both worked in advertising," said Sarkozy. "We have known each other for 40 years. And six years ago, I was a little bored with retirement, so we decided to start a new career by putting our talents together."

The fact that two rather unknown artists were able to open a show in one of the city's most prestigious art spaces has generated a few snickers. Sharing a last name with the president has certainly helped to open doors.

Critics have slammed Pal Sarkozy's efforts, suggesting he only learned to paint three years ago. However, Hornung denies these allegations, claiming that both he and Sarkozy have been privately active as artists throughout their entire adult lives. To prove this point, the exhibit includes a few of Sarkozy's early drawings, dating as far back as the late 1940s.

Fantasy and reflection

Sarkozy and Hornung collaborate in an unusual way. Sarkozy begins by drawing with black ink on paper. Hornung then scans the drawing on his computer and integrates photos and colors with the help of software.

The result is printed on canvas like a lithograph and they call the compositions digital fine art. A maximum of six printouts are made, each numbered with its own certificate of authenticity. They range in price from 6,000 to 12,000 euros ($8,000 to $16,000).

According to Hornung, the pair has sold about 50 of the works over the past two years, thanks to shows held in eight cities around the world.

They are colorful works of fantasy: There are pink flamingos with women's heads, trees whose trunks are women's bodies, giraffes with tattoos and zebras with baseball caps standing in the middle of Times Square.

The artists say every work tells a story. The zebra piece, for example, is called "The Immigrant" and is an allegory of Pal Sarkozy's experience of moving to France with nothing as a young man.

A famous name

Society photographers start clicking furiously whenever a new celebrity walks into the show, whether it is designer Pierre Cardin or Andree Mallah, the president's mother.

The brouhaha could imply that the exhibit is more about being seen than seeing, but many people do actually study the works on display - including several contemporary art professionals such as Agathe Chaigneau.

"Some pieces are very interesting," said Chaigneau. "Some are good. I don't feel anything for some other ones. But some pieces are very good."

Karin von Roques is a curator who was hired by a gallery in Spain to attend the exhibition and decide whether it should also feature in a sister gallery in the Persian Gulf. She thinks that the pieces containing nudity or Christian symbols would be inappropriate to show in that case, but other pieces could be suitable and possibly bring in buyers who do not generally follow contemporary art.

"Some of them have a good composition, a good feeling for the colors," said von Roques.

Some of the visitors seem to feel uncomfortable sharing negative comments about the works. Pal Sarkozy and Werner Hornung may have the same right as other artists to show their creative output, but the unspoken feeling is that their exhibition was a bit easier to organize - which tends to be the case "when you have a famous name and you know society," said von Roques.

Indeed, many people will attend this show out of curiosity - to see what the French president's father is up to. Some will even buy works and delight in telling their friends who the artists are.

Author: Genevieve Oger (ew)

Editor: Kate Bowen