César is one of the most illustrious but also the most misunderstood artists of his time. Noticed, he is from the age of 25, when, "mounted" in Paris in 1944, he perfects his technique of "welded irons". Unknown, despite a southern flair and a way of existing in public, he masked a complex character
He is not only the man of the "Compressions", "Empreintes" or "Expansions", but also almost a classic whose work populated by a bestiary with human figures links him to the idea of the Masters elders whom he venerated.
César had joined in 1960 the "New Realists", Inventive, guided by the only material, he prints his writing transforming in his own way the language and the practice of sculpture. He always came back to the techniques invented when, penniless, he welded fragments and waste metal recovered with as stages of creation that have become mythical: Le Poisson, La Vénus de Villetaneuse, La Ginette, all sculptures that have now become icons. In the end, an intimate relationship with creation, a praxis which delegated nothing to the machine and which only resulted from the initiative of its hands.
From this marriage between a craftsmanship and a semi-industrial practice César builds a dialectic and a method, which his friend Raymond Hains called "work sites", returning to them constantly, inventing tools, pushing his curiosity further. César, in front of his "Wrappings" of sheets of Plexiglas, his "Champions" made of the carcasses of wrecked cars, in front of his "Milan Suite" of new compressed and lacquered cars, fed on his experiences, replaying them in as many exercises, guided by a reflection on the language of sculpture.
The Center Georges Pompidou organized a retrospective in 2017-2018 which shed global light on this major artist of the XNUMXth century.
The Centaur: Caesar's most emblematic work
Our travertine marble centaur commissioned by the Monegasque industrialist Michel Pastor from his friend César is the same size as the bronze centaur that sits on Place Michel Debré́, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Another copy is also on the artist's tomb in the Montparnasse cemetery.
This hybrid being reveals César's two passions: one for horses, the other for Picasso. Originally, to celebrate, in 1983, the tenth anniversary of the latter's death, the Picasso Museum in Antibes asked artists to create a work in homage to the Spanish Master. Alas, for lack of funds, the order did not succeed.
The Ministry of Culture then launched the project of a public order. Caesar can thus confront his Master. Because the centaur and the minotaur are two inverted replicas of the human and the beast. If the head of the centaur is indeed that of Caesar, a mask above reproduces the face of Picasso. With a gesture, thanks to an adjustable rod, the mask can cover the face. Who is who ?
“Marble was too expensive, old scrap metal was lying around everywhere, I became a sculptor because I was poor” he “laments”. He saws, welds, models everyday objects, a wizard sculptor of metamorphoses, just like Picasso. Our marble example is therefore unique in size and material.
Inside the body, it hides a small Statue of Liberty, and a dove of Peace is about to take flight on the left hand of the fantastic animal. To join Picasso?