Art Archives - Matilda Marseillaise

French artists and French links in Sculpture by the Sea 2022

31 October 202230 October 2022Matilda MarseillaiseLeave a comment

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Sculpture by the Sea 2022 marks the return of the outdoor sculpture exhibition to Sydney’s shores for the first time since COVID-19 threw the world into chaos. Among the 108 works that comprise the Bondi to Tamarama instalment of Sculpture by the Sea, there are two works from French artists. There are also works from non-French artists, who have either had their works exhibited in or are held in private collections in France. Find out more about all of these artists and their works exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea 2022 below.

FRENCH ARTISTS AT SCULPTURE BY THE SEA 2022

Bruce Catalano

Benoit

EDITION OF 8

MATERIALS bronze

DIMENSIONS 310 x 120 x 120 cm

STATEMENT Benoit is an ambivalent sculpture within the Travellers series to which it belongs, because it stands at the cross roads of different temporal moments. The unbalanced posture, the particular momentum of movement and the loose fabric of the clothes indicate this man’s desire to live through the pressures of the modern world.

BIOGRAPHY Catalano encountered art and clay sculpture at age 30, through artists such as Rodin, Giacometti, César. He now devotes his life to sculpture. Catalano’s ‘Travellers’ are exhibited and represented in collections all over the world including Bartoux Galleries in Paris, New York, Singapore, Cannes and the Galerie Ravagnan in Venice, Italy.

CHRISTINE MADIES

FRANCE

Fragments of Continuity

MATERIALS arrabescato carrara marble, black granite

DIMENSIONS 50 x 200 x 50 cm

STATEMENT “A little foam, a candid event upon the dark of the sea,” wrote the French poet Paul Valéry. With this sculpture, the artist attempts to capture a tiny fragment of time – the moment of the breaking of the waves.

BIOGRAPHY Group exhibitions in China, England, France and Italy including National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing 2001. Participated in symposiums in Sweden and Japan. Public collections in Italy, China, Japan, and France. Currently works in Italy and France. SxS Bondi 2019. SxS Cottesloe 2020, 2022.

ARTISTS WHOSE WORKS ARE HELD IN FRENCH COLLECTIONS OR WHO HAVE EXHIBITED IN FRANCE

SALLY KIDALL

NSW | ENGLAND

Bunker Down: Survival of the Fittest

MATERIALS plywood, timber, paint, nylon transparent fabric, printed sign

STATEMENT Stage-sets a surreal narrative reflecting on the ever-increasing symptoms of fear, dread and dispossession as humanity searches to escape the impacts of our rapidly changing world. This interactive work aims to engage the viewer via their imagination to visualise this luxurious subterraneous security bunker below, using the website images and property details by scanning the QR code. This work has been inspired by Bradley Garrett’s book, ‘Bunker, Building for the End of Time’. To see inside this safe and spacious home, go to: www.bunkerdown.info

BIOGRAPHY Sally Kidall completed her Master of Art at Portsmouth University, England in 2006. Her international practice spans over 35 years. Kidall travels extensively to create her large site-responsive environmental interventions within challenging locations and beyond the restraints of the gallery. She endeavours to inspire and challenge a wider audience.

FRENCH/ FRANCOPHHONE LINK: Exhibited in France as well as at Dak’ART OFF 22, Dakar, Senegal,

SCOTT CHASELING

NSW

Wanderer Above the Sea of Light

MATERIALS glass, corten steel, powder coated steel

DIMENSIONS 185 x 240 x 80 cm

STATEMENT This contemporary flat screen offers a fresh understanding of landscape, pixelated and distorted. The artist encourages the audience to walk around the sculpture, see the colours grow and shift lighter to fade away.

BIOGRAPHY Post Grad DIP Fine Art, Canberra School of Art, ANU 1991.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Solo exhibition in Cite Gallery, Paris 1996 and held in collections at Sars-Poteries, France

MARGARET WORTH & YI CUI

SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND CHINA

Grafting Cultures

MATERIALS stone, steel, plastic

DIMENSIONS 220 x 200 x 150 cm

BIOGRAPHY

Cui: BFA (Sculpture) China Academy of Fine Art 2016. Exhibited in China, France, Germany, Italy. 3rd Citizen’s Choice Award Nanjing International Art Festival 2017. SxS Bondi 2017. SxS Cottesloe 2018 – 19. Both artists exhibited at Sculpture Encounters – Granite Island, SA, when Yi Cui billeted with Margaret Worth.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Yi Cui Has exhibited in France

BO DROGA

NSW

Despair

EDITION OF 4

MATERIALS metal, woven cotton, rubber

DIMENSIONS 60 x 40 x 40 cm

STATEMENT This work epitomises the helplessness around Australia during the bushfires of 2019–20. Created using old, redundant fire equipment collected from fire stations, now entangled as a metaphor to describe Australians’ distress and the sense of a loss of control over the future.

BIOGRAPHY BVA Sculpture, RMIT 1998.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Held in private collections in France

VOJTECH MICA

CZECH REPUBLIC

Phantoms of Corporality – Urban Islands

MATERIALS concrete

DIMENSIONS 165 x 110 x 130 cm 230 x 140 x 120 cm

STATEMENT Phantasmogorical figures of modern humans, standing in contrast with the history of the place they live in. These are our shadows.

BIOGRAPHY Academy of Fine Arts, Prague 1985-1992. Assistant Professor, Prague Academy of Fine Arts 1993-2015. Works predominantly in sculpture and monumental installations.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Has exhibited at Germinations 7-Magasin, Grenoble, France

EGOR ZIGURA

UKRAINE

Colossus Holds Up the World

EDITION OF 5

MATERIALS bronze DIMENSIONS 280 x 75 x 85 cm

STATEMENT Our civilisation’s collapse might prove to be more cataclysmic than that of any ancient culture. We believe that we rule the world, but our society and our civilisation are not cohesive – they represent a fragile mechanism.

BIOGRAPHY MFA (Sculpture) National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine 2012.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Has exhibited in France

NIKITA ZIGURA

UKRAINE

Global Warming

EDITION OF 3

MATERIALS aluminium, stainless steel, paint work

DIMENSIONS 320 x 210 x 150 cm

STATEMENT At present, the world is facing global warming. The changes are more prominent in some regions than others. They glow red on the weather maps of the world like hot zones of military conflicts. The two ripe white cherries play as an allegory to this theme.

BIOGRAPHY Post graduate degree National Academy of Fine Arts & Architecture, Kyiv 2012.

FRENCH/FRANCOPHONE LINK: Has exhibited in France, and is held in private collections, in France and Morocco.

KEY INFO FOR SCULPTURE BY THE SEA 2022

WHAT: The 24th edition of Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea outdoor sculpture exhibition

WHEN: Now until Monday 7 November 2022

WHERE: Along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk

HOW: Just show up

HOW MUCH: For the first time ever, the organisers of Sculpture by the Sea are requesting that attendees donate to contribute to the costs of mounting the exhibition. They request $5 per adult or $10 per family but you are of course free to donate more. You can donate directly through the app or via their website

MORE INFO: At the official website

Will you be attending Sculpture by the Sea 2022?

You may also like to read our interview with French artist Robin Godde who presented his work “Parenthèses” at Sculpture by the Sea in 2018.

See more than 80 Picasso works at The Picasso Century at the National Gallery of Victoria

29 August 202229 August 2022Matilda Marseillaise

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition The Picasso Century developed by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Musée National Picasso-Paris and the National Gallery of Victoria closes on 9 October 2022.

The Picasso Century is your chance to see over 80 Picasso works alongside more than 100 works from over 60 of Picasso’s contemporaries exclusively curated from the French national collection by noted scholar of 20^th century painting Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Musée National d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. The Picasso Century comprises more than 180 works in all.

Those non-Picasso works include several by artists rarely exhibited in Australia, including Natalia Goncharova, Julio González, Wifredo Lam, Suzanne Valadon and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. The Picasso Century also places Picasso’s work in dialogue with that of the artists with whom he intercepted and interacted throughout the 20th century, including Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Françoise Gilot, Valentine Hugo, Marie Laurencin, Dora Maar, André Masson, Henri Matisse and Dorothea Tanning.

The Picasso Century examines the diverse influences, encounters and collaborative relationships that steered Picasso through many distinct artistic periods, such as his Blue Period, cubism and surrealism, and draws lines between Picasso’s famous creations and the world around him. By exploring Picasso’s career through his personal, artistic and intellectual engagement with his peers, the exhibition provides a unique insight into the artistic legacy of one of the 20^th century’s most influential and celebrated artists, as well as the community of artists from which he emerged.

Pablo Picasso
Spanish 1881–1973
Portrait of a young woman, after Cranach the Younger, II (Portrait de Jeune Fille, d’après Cranach le Jeune, II) 1958
colour linocut, printer’s proof
64.4 × 53.4 cm (block)
76.9 × 57.5 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, 1996
© Succession Picasso/Copyright Agency, 2022
Photo: NGV

Cécile Debray, President, Musée national Picasso-Paris, said: ‘The Picasso Century offers an original, broad approach that allows us to grasp the artist’s career in his artistic and cultural context, from his formative years to his posterity. It thus offers an astonishing journey through the Parisian and cosmopolitan art scene of the 20th century. A Picasso, no longer a genius “ex-nihilo” but an artist in the world, with his friendships with poets, cubists, surrealists, his political commitments, his love affairs with artists, his circles of disciples and admirers.”

Fortunately, the exhibition long in the planning was not hindered by the tension in Franco-Australian relations following the AUKUS fallout. Cécile Debray, President, Musée national Picasso-Paris, said “I am delighted by this partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which testifies to the ties of friendship and proximity between France and Australia, but also that the French museums participating in this major exhibition have the opportunity to be ambassadors of French heritage and of a historic artistic scene that was the foundation of Western modernity.”

Laurent Le Bon, President, Centre Pompidou, said ‘Picasso reunited at last with Australia and his fellow accomplices and travellers. I am delighted with this collaboration between two French institutions and the National Gallery of Victoria: this exceptional partnership will allow the Australian public to discover Picasso’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and the works of the artists with whom he never ceased to interact. I wish to extend a warm thankyou to all those who have made this magnificent project possible.’

Special events for The Picasso Century

There are also special events you can attend around The Picasso Century.

Introductory talks series

Before you enter The Picasso Century or to reflect on your experience afterwards, visitors can also join the pop-up introductory talks series 10 Minutes with Picasso. In this talk, NGV Educators will give an introduction to Pablo Picasso’s story and that of the creative leaders in his circles.

Monthly discussion series

For the duration of the exhibition, audiences can also hear differing perspectives on significant figures, events and artworks featured in the exhibition with the in-depth monthly discussion series

Two Perspectives on Picasso

Hosted by NGV specialists and guest commentators, the four-part series will examine:

the value of collaboration through the friendship between Picasso and Georges Braque;
perspectives on gender and identity through the life and work of Dora Maar and Françoise Gilot;
the political engagement of Picasso and his inner circle; and
themes of love, grief and war through Picasso’s masterpiece and icon of the NGV Collection, Weeping woman, 1937

Friday nights

Each Friday night between 6 and 10pm, the NGV opens for NGV Friday nights. Your NGV Friday night ticket includes entry to The Picasso Century as well as the live entertainment. Artists performing over the coming Fridays include:

Velvet Bloom and Kalyani (2 September)
Birdsnake and Pjenne (9 September)
Surprise Chef and College of Knowledge (16 September)
Harvey Sutherland (DJ set), Polito and Vincent Sole (23 September)
ACOPIA and Sina (30 September); and
Sweet Whirl and The Dollar Bin Darlings (7 October)

Pablo Picasso
Spanish 1881–1973
Weeping woman 1937
oil on canvas
55.2 x 46.2 cm
National Gallery of Victoria
Purchased by donors of The Art Foundation of Victoria, with the assistance of the Jack and Genia Liberman family, Founder Benefactor, 1986
© Succession

KEY INFO FOR THE PICASSO CENTURY

WHAT: The Picasso Century exhibition of Picasso paintings alongside works of his contemporaries, organised by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and the National Gallery of Victoria

WHERE: The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

WHEN: until 9 October 2022

HOW: Purchase your tickets via the exhibition page

HOW MUCH:

Ticket prices are as follows:

NGV Member Adult $25
Member Child (5–15 years) $8
NGV Member Family (2 adults + 3 children) $50
Adult $30
Concession $28
Child (5–15 years) $10
Family (2 adults + 3 children) $65

What’s your favourite Picasso painting?

Matilda Marseillaise

All things French and francophone in Australia

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French artists and French links in Sculpture by the Sea 2022

FRENCH ARTISTS AT SCULPTURE BY THE SEA 2022