Dora Maar's notebook

“ It remained tucked in the inside pocket of an old leather diary case bought on the internet. A small alphabetical notebook for writing down addresses and telephone numbers from 1951. A: Aragon. B: Breton, Brassaï, Braque, Balthus… I flipped through the yellowed pages in amazement. C: Cocteau, Chagall… E: Éluard… G: Giacometti… Phone number, often address for each name. L: Lacan… S: Sarrault…

Twenty pages listing the greatest post-war artists living in Paris. Who could have known them and socialized with them?

“ It took me three months to discover that I was holding Dora Maar's notebook. “

When Brigitte Benkemoun bought a second-hand notebook cover on eBay, she had no idea that she would discover a notebook full of the names of Paris's celebrity bohemians. On further investigation, she discovered that the address book belonged to the artist and one of Pablo Picasso's muses and mistresses - „ crying woman“ Dora Maar. A famous photographer who gives herself completely to Picasso and her passionate love for him destroys her – After their separation, he went into seclusion, immersed himself in painting for the next sixty years of his life and gave his whole being to God.

During the two-year search for her fate, the bohemian Paris of the twentieth century comes to life and other friends and acquaintances appear whom Dora had not written down in her notebook in 1951 – Georges Bataille, Max Jacob, Man Ray… and of course the (ubiquitous) Picasso.