STUDIO Atelier Crisis

Once upon a time, Paris was an artist's paradise. The ambiance was inspirational, the scenery delicious and, most important, around every corner waited a spacious, high-ceilinged studio flooded with the luminescence of the Parisian sky. Dirt cheap, too. The School of Paris was virtually born in the Bateau-Lavoir, a Montmartre dump so named for its ramshackle resemblance to a laundry barge. Picasso, Juan Gris, Utrillo and Braque all lived there before World War I. La Ruche (The Beehive) in Montparnasse was a roachy, twelve-sided wooden structure with wedge-shaped studios where Modigliani, Soutine, and even the nonartistic Lenin lived. Said Marc Chagall of La Ruche: "You either died there or left famous."

These days, artists are seeking other meccas. And the blame, many believe, belongs strictly to an absence of elbow room. Entire streets of studios -Rue Vandamme, Rue Moulin-de-Beurre, Rue Vercingetorix -have been razed and replaced by glassy apartment buildings. A Deputy from Montparnasse complains that 140 ateliers have been destroyed in the past two years. La Ruche, spared as a historical monument, still offers 110 studios at $10 a month -but only one-fifth of its inhabitants are artists. More ex-ateliers are increasingly occupied by nonpainters willing to pay fat rents for the chic of living bohemian style.

Quelle crise! Culture Minister Andre Malraux has conducted a survey that shows that a minimum of 1,500 ateliers must be built by 1973, most of them just to house artists already living in condemned buildings. Since 1963, however, only $400,000 has been budgeted for new studios, and just 92 ateliers have been built. For the next five years, Malraux has only $200,000 a year to spend on artists' housing. Other than that, he can only encourage real estate developers to include low-cost ateliers in their high-cost apartment buildings.

The most ambitious new project is the privately owned, government-backed new Cite Internationale des Arts, a $4,000,000 studio project on the Right Bank that will eventually provide 300 air-conditioned ateliers for artists of all sorts. Ceilings are low, but musicians' quarters come equipped with upright pianos, painters' rooms are furnished with easels, floors are sculptor-proof. Under construction are a library, bar, restaurant, auditorium and exposition hall. Rent is only $55 a month. But foreign governments or corporations must lay out $16,000 per studio, reserving the right to name their resident artists. Whether such space will stimulate art is anybody's guess -but some of the first tenants are already complaining about faulty air conditioning.

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