He met Keith Haring frequent Andy Warhol

It is a fact which explains everything in Thierry Gillier, the founder of the brand Zadig and Voltaire. This man was an artist, but he did not go after his vocation. Art making was so intense that he lives a danger for its balance. The story is not sad, because in 1995, he founded his brand, present today in 120 shops in the world. But not to create art gave him a burning desire to possess. Everything is so in Thierry Gillier: brain or even contradictory...

It was once a child of Troyes, born in 1959 - the family is illustrated in spinning, his father was co-founder of Lacoste - hand study art in New York City: Parsons school of Design, Bard College... He rubs the creations and creators of leading edge. He met Keith Haring, frequent Andy Warhol. "New York was the Mecca of art." The artbusiness is no. At the time, Andy Warhol was a social artist, not someone whose works were millions of dollars. Thus, for an exhibition, he accepted to ten paintings. That said, is in has not sold a single...

Return to Paris to begin her adult life. He attempts to film before ready-to-wear. Business thrive. And the collector will speak. "Becoming a collector involves a difficult Act", explains - it. "Buy." It is wrong. We take contradictory decisions. "His dream at the time A Basquiat. Thing made in 1982. And then comes to the questions. Good or bad Basquiat "Most people have opinions all, but they do not know the subject." Mine, I first kept it for a few months turned against the wall. "As to familiarize themselves with. "And then, when I returned, I wonder if finally Basquiat did not better." So, I have the desire to have another. It's like work. Should I go further. But, over time, I realized that my first acquisition was a major table. It is a self-portrait. It is called The thinker. "Whenever Thierry Gillier buys a new work, a time aside, the guard as standby. "It bored." Need to find a location. And then it is money that I could use for other things. "That said, the collector assumes its contradictions. At the same time, I am a bulimic buyer." Another paradoxical attitude: Thierry Gillier tries not to meet the artists. "They appear too human." Which interferes with the vision of their work. "Among recent desires, an array of Italian conceptual artist, currently prominent, Rudolf Stingel (born in 1956). "He is looking to work the material in a new way." He also speaks with admiration to Christopher Wool (born 1955), the American "that calls into question up to the last extremity the principle of painting". And the suite "A collection is made in twenty years." I am at the crossroads with 100 pieces. I am unable to say what I would like tomorrow, what I love most. It is like life, is like love. I have the same permanent questioning in the business. "Expected: the conclusion of the artist become businessman has, of course, the form of a question mark.

D.R.; RONAN & ERWAN BOUROULLEC / ADAGP, PARIS 2010 / COURTESY OF THIERRY GILLIER. TODD-WHITE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / RUDOLF STINGEL / ADAGP, PARIS 2010 / COURTESY OF THIERRY GILLIER. COURTESY OF THIERRY GILLIER.