My fondest recent memory was following Catherine, mesmerized by her French accented commentary, through the Tate Modern, through Turbine Hall from the Boiler House to the new Switch House, hearing animated details and anecdotes about the transformation of the former power station to its current modern art gallery under the architectural oversight of  Herzog & de Meuron. Catherine does feel directly connected to the place, having been hugely influential and actively involved in the gallery’s expansion and evolution. She currently Chairs the Tate International Council having spent the past 14 years as a member of their Latin America Committee advising the Tate on its acquisitions from the region. As well, she serves as a Trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery, Chair of Gasworks Triangle Network, Council of the Serpentine, among other prominent positions that serve to support and champion contemporary art in a meaningful way to the artists, institutions and community.

And beyond that Catherine has in November, just launched her third book on Colombian Contemporary Art, following her previously published works on Brazilian, and Mexican art.

Catherine lives the life of one who is inspired,  by ideas, beauty, intellect, color… and indeed she is herself drawn to color, be it markets in Mexico, the Beatriz Milhazes painting that punctuates her reception room or her favorite Missoni coat. It is in the spirit of her passion, from collecting art, to influencing and inspiring major art institutions and their communities, that we celebrate Catherine Petitgas as our MUSE. Here she answers our questions:

Q:What would be your desert island essentials?
Water colors, pencils and painting paper – because I have wanted to do that forever and I would love to have time to do it.

Q:How would your female friends describe your style?
I would say probably colorful and classical.

Q:What is the most treasured item in your wardrobe?
I would say probably a Missoni coat, bought in Venice when my son was little, and I remember those days when I wear it.

Q:What is the most treasured items on your walls?
That would have to be this work by Beatriz Milhazes, the Brazilian artist, called Summer Parties, which is a sort of Frieze that evokes the procession of the carnival of Rio that makes me very happy when I look at it.

Q:Is there anything in your wardrobe that you should get rid of but can’t?
I would think it’s that same collection of Missoni in various sizes and shapes that I have outgrown, and that I keep for sentimental reasons.

Q:What do you never leave home without?
Probably lipstick. It’s a very French thing!

Q: You’re the fashion police for the day, what do you ban?
I’m not sure I would ban anything. I think people can be free to wear whatever they want as long as they have the confidence to hold it.

Q:What do you love most about what you do?
I think it’s the intellectual stimulation, and sharing the poetry of the artist and the people I work with, I think they open my eyes, to a different reality, and because working with contemporary art, is really working with everyday life and seeing it from a more poetic and spiritual angle, and I think that’s what I enjoy the most, meeting artists and sharing their views.

Q:Where do you find your inspiration?
I find my inspiration in the markets of Mexico. I need color, I need dust, I need noise, and I find that in the colorful markets of Merida, where I have this house in Mexico which drives my inspiration.

Q:You’ve had many collaborations. What is your favorite collaboration?
I have written a book on Brazil, one on Mexico and one on Colombia. I’m very fond of Mexico, and I think I put all my heart in while writing the Mexico book, and I think it’s been quite a success, so I really enjoyed the Mexico collaboration.

Q: If you could live in any other time for its fashion, when would you choose?
Probably the 1960s, there was mix of femininity and color and shape, which I quite enjoy.

Q: What is your most recent purchase?
It’s a work of art. It’s a fabulously tall totem, made out of bronze, by a Brazilian artist called Erika Verzutti, and the piece titled La Mexicana. That really had my name on it. I only just bought it in Sao Paulo last week, and I’m extremely excited by it. I love this sort of domestic totem, and I have quite a few… I like this idea of art meeting domesticity.

Q: Can you judge a book by its cover?
You know what? I would say yes sadly, because we do spend so many hours and so much effort finding the right cover for the book that I produced, and I can definitely say you can judge a book by its cover. I think people are a bit like magpies, they like things that are colorful, that are shiny, and especially if you are talking about an art book, then sadly the cover is important.

Q: What are your bad habits?
I have a real problem with punctuality. It’s pathological. I’m making efforts though!

Q: What are your greatest extravagance?
I would say having this house in Mexico. It’s a dream come true. I’m not sure how much I am going to be going to it, but owning a piece of Mexico is definitely my biggest extravagance.

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?
Chocolate in any form of size or shape. When I don’t have it for two weeks I start dreaming about it.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
To not give up. To believe in the future. To keep hope.

Q: What is your idea of a great holiday?
A holiday where I can swim before breakfast, and where most of it is swimming in the ocean, or the sea, and where most of it is spent barefoot.

Q: What are you most proud of?
Certainly of my son and his achievements, and also my contribution to the art, and how I think that a little contribution can change an artist’s career or perspective, and I think that’s a big reward.

Q: What is your pure bliss?
Having a house full of friends, and sharing my passion with them.

 Q: If you could meet someone from History, who would it be?
It would have to be Marcel Duchamp.  He is my great hero and after whom my dog is named after of course. I just think he will still have a lot to share and he is sort of everything in art and I’m sure he has more to share with us and to enlighten us.

Q: How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who helped others achieve their dreams.

Q: 1-10, how good looking are you?
I think how good looking you are depends on how happy you are, so I think it’s variable.

Catherine Petitgas’s book collection is available to buy online here.

Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born in 1903 in rural Yorkshire, England. Contrary to the norms of Edwardian family life, her father was determined to get as an good education for his daughter as he did for his sons, so Hepworth was sent to a decent school before being awarded a scholarship at the Leeds College of Art and moving on from there to London’s prestigious Royal College in 1924. Establishing herself quickly, she worked continuously from then until her death in 1975. Today, her work is found in public places around the world – including a 21 foot sculpture outside UN Headquarters in New York – and is currently subject to a major retrospective at the Tate Modern in London.

From the get go, Hepworth’s world was one entirely consumed by art – in both a personal and professional sense. At Leeds, she met the artist Henry Moore. They enjoyed a friendly rivalry throughout their careers, and, together, would change the face of modern sculpture, redefining it through their instantly recognizable primitive shapes and pierced forms. Hepworth’s first husband John Skeaping was also a well-known British artist, and her second husband was the painter Ben Nicholson.  As a woman in an almost entirely male dominated world, she had to fight her way to prominence, crashing through hitherto ironclad barriers in a way that was nothing short of revolutionary. Also en route, she became a mother to four – giving birth to a son with Skeaping and triplets with Nicholson. Throughout her life, however, she hardly flinched from her mission as an artist. “I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you’re professional or you’re not,” she once explained in customary matter of fact style.

It wasn’t until the outbreak of World War 2 that Hepworth first visited the sleepy fishing village of St Ives on the Cornish coast of England, the place forever now associated with her name. Home already to an artistic community drawn there by its romantic landscape and kindred spirits, she made it her home in 1949, living there until her death aged 72 in a fire. Her house and workshop was Trewyn Studio, a collection of higgledy-piggledy whitewashed buildings tucked away in the midst of the town’s winding streets. “Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space,” she said of her discovery.

Hepworth’s studio, garden and small main house all served as interlinking and interrelated workshops, with living space came secondary to artistic endeavor in her beloved home. By the end of her life, she kept just one room to live in, whilst the rest was dedicated to her work. Preserved as a museum and kept pretty much as it was during her lifetime, visitors to Trewyn Studio today find her it brimming with tools, huge slabs of stones still waiting to be moulded in the corners, her artists’ smocks still hanging expectantly on the doors. The focal point is her garden – a real source of pride for Hepworth, it acted as a sort of living room furnished with all her own sculptures and exotic plants. Today, it holds some of her most famous works, pieces that overawe visitors with their stature and beauty.  Much like the place she called home and will forever be associated with, Hepworth’s work and life are as starkly beautiful, groundbreaking and impressive to encounter today as they were in her trailblazing days back then.

Photo Courtesy of yoursculpture.wordpress.com, barbarahepworth.org, bowness Hepworth estate, mondo-blogo.blogspot.com, Tate Modern

Photo Courtesy of Tate Modern

Photo Courtesy of Tate