Larger - Than - Life
5 - 15 August, 2020OPERA GALLERY PARIS
62 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
T +33 (0)1 42 96 39 00
https://www.operagallery.com/Opera Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition featuring over 20 big, bold and beautiful sculptures by 13 modern and contemporary artists from across the world. This immersive online show, with “larger-than-life” artworks presented outdoors as well as indoors, would have been impossible to stage in reality, as none of our 13 exhibition spaces could accommodate so many large pieces at the same time.
Whether to inspire awe or push the technical limits of their medium, sculptors have long worked on a larger-than-life, even monumental scale. Monumental art has always caught the attention of the human eye, it alters or emphasizes the viewer’s perception of space and proportion. Furthermore, large volumes often contribute to convey strong messages, that the artists are thus able to express fully: the imposing and majestic proportions of monumental sculptures give a sense of power, evoke admiration and wonder and never cease to amaze.
Keith Haring, Untitled (Head Stand), 1988
Painted steel, 701 x 302 x 302 cm (276 x 119 x 119 in)
| Constantly looking at the world around him for inspiration, Keith Haring found great interest in capturing the living forms of contemporary dancers: break dance and electric boogie culture taking hold of America’s youth in the late twentieth century. In Untitled (Head Stand), Haring presents two figures in a ‘totem pole’ sequence where the man balancing on top relies on the strength and stability of his counterpart below. The vibrant colours and the typical cartoon-like style contribute to the jovial and naive sensibility of this work. |
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Robert Indiana’s archetypal stacked LOVE composition, with its bold serif lettering of VE stacked beneath the L and tilted O, is one of the most ubiquitous works of art of the century. |
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| Robert Indiana, Love (Gold faces - Red sides), 1966 - 2002 Polychrome aluminium, 182,9 x 182,9 x 91,4 cm (72 x 72 x 36 in) |
| La machine à rêver associates the ‘character’ of Saint Phalle’s legendary Nana figure with the fractured composition of a riding/cycling vehicle. The blind body enjoys the simulated mechanisms of a dream-cycle as she is pulled on the back of a wheeled machine. With this sculpture, Niki de Saint Phalle departs from the single-figure Nana and begins to explore the greater and bolder dimensions of the oversize goddess set in oversized furnishings. |
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| Niki de Saint Phalle La machine à rêver 1970 Fiberglass and painted polyester 280 x 346 x 120 cm - 110.2 x 136.2 x 47.2 in |
| Demonstrating the unique pictorial language that Jean Dubuffet pioneered in his seminal L’Hourloupe series, Tea cup I is a monumental personification of a simple daily ritual, where the humble cup of afternoon tea has been elevated to heroic proportions. |
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| Jean Dubuffet, Tea cup I, 1967 Polyurethane paint on polyester resin, 197,5 x 127 x10,1 cm (77.8 x 50 x 4 in) |
| "Sculptures permit me to create real volume. One can touch the forms, one can give them smoothness, the sensuality that one wants." Fernando Botero |
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| Fernando Botero, Woman on a Horse, 1990 Bronze, 183 x 102 x 112 cm (72 x 40.2 x 44.1 in) |
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Walking through Central Park a few years ago, Manolo Valdés saw a woman sunbathing, with monarch butterflies swirling around his head. That image - along with an exhibition of tropical butterflies at the American Museum of Natural History and a Spanish expression describing people with a lot of ideas as having butterflies in their heads kindled something in the artist.“ All of a sudden, they were everywhere,” Valdés said of the butterflies in an interview with The New York Times. “That’s how ideas start. You never know when one is going to pop in.” Manolo Valdés captures Las Meninas by Velázquez, details them, diverts them and multiplies them. He explains: “What amuses me the most is to repeat the same image while transforming it. A single creation is not enough to tell everything. As with photography, several shots are needed to tell a story”. |
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| Manolo Valdés, Mariposas, 2015 Painted steel and steel wires, 540 x 1100 x 660 cm (212.6 x 433.1 x 259.8 in) |
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| Manolo Valdés, Reina Mariana, 2017 Bronze, 180 x 120 x 135 cm (70.9 x 47.2 x 53.1 in) |
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Valdés comments on the juxtaposition between the static faces of his sculptures and their dynamic headdresses, stating, “I must admit that I adore the pronounced tension that is established between the two parts; it’s as if they were two entirely different sculptures. And the challenge is having them function as a harmonious whole, as well as allowing their initial different formulation to be seen not as something separate but as something enriching.” |
| Voir la suite de l'exposition sur le site : https://www.operagallery.com/larger-than-life-viewing-room |
