Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

César Baldaccini
Portrait de compression de drapeaux Suédois

1989

About the Item

Publisher GKM. Unframed. Edition of 200 ex. Signed, dated and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. César Baldaccini (1921 – 1998) is one of the great sculptors of the twentieth century. As a young man he took a stand for art that was firmly anchored in reality, as a counterweight to the lyrical, abstract painting of the time. He has transformed rusty bolts, screws, scrap metal and steel wire into biomorphic sculptures depicting everything from chickens on roller skates to self-portraits of the artist. In his magical hands, metal from the junk-heap, old car parts, discarded cans and plexiglass have been compacted into delightful cubistic works of art that César himself has called “compressions”. As a kind of antithesis to these, he experimented by expanding plastics, glass, aluminium and bronze into voluptuously inflated forms known as “expansions”. Among César’s casts of sculpted breasts, female torsos and clenched fists, it is the thumb that, above all else, has emerged as the artist’s hallmark – his own, greatly enlarged thumb in bronze. Exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1965, today you can see it – in bronze or marble – in museums and public places all over the world. His largest bronze thumb, measuring fully 12 metres in height, stands in La Défense in Paris. In similar fashion, the artist’s signature is always accompanied by his thumb print. Born in Marseilles in 1921, by the age of 12 César had already left school to work in his father’s wine merchants business. In 1935, however, he enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts in Marseilles. He continued his art studies in 1943 at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, sharing a house for some time with Alberto Giacometti. In 1960 he was invited to join the group of artists known as “les Nouveaux Réalistes”, where he worked together with Arman, Pierre Restany, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and others. César’s genius lies in his ability to coax artistic forms from whatever materials may be at hand. “When I was a child,” he recalled, “I used to think that a sculptor was a man who chipped away at stone with a hammer and chisel. It was only later that I understood you can make sculptures from any material you choose.” In the early 1940s César discovered the opportunities that scrap metal opened up, and his first solo exhibition, “Animaux en ferraille” (or “Scrap metal animals”), was held at the Galerie Lucien Durand in Paris in 1954. “I don’t choose my materials to suit a particular motif,” he once said. “It’s the material itself that shapes the expression I give to my sculptures.”
  • Creator:
    César Baldaccini (1921 - 1998, French)
  • Creation Year:
    1989
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 29.93 in (76 cm)Width: 23.23 in (59 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Malmo, SE
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU3282397073
More From This SellerView All
  • Descente.
    By Vladimir Velickovic
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Publisher GKM. Unframed. Edition of 150 ex. Signed, dated and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Vladimir Velickovic was born in 1935 in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of A...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Nude Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Fragments de Chine
    By Fernandez Arman
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Publisher GKM. Unframed. Edition of 200 ex. Signed and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Arman wrote, “The bow on the strings releases an explosion of sounds,” in the book Trio à ...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Eternel éte. 1998. Portfolio with 5 engravings.
    By Corneille
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Corneille. Eternel éte. 1998. Portfolio with 5 engravings. Edition: 80 ex. Publisher GKM. Unframed. Signed, dated and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Corneille, one of the found...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Accords à cordes II
    By Fernandez Arman
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Publisher GKM. Unframed. Edition of 120 ex. Signed and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Arman wrote, “The bow on the strings releases an explosion of sounds,” in the book Trio ...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Prints and Multiples

    Materials

    Screen

  • Été souverain
    By Corneille
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Publisher GKM. Unframed. Edition of 150 ex. Paper: 300gr. Goya. Signed, dated and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Corneille, one of the founders of the COBRA group, has passed aw...
    Category

    1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • L’amour au jour le jour II
    By Corneille
    Located in Malmo, SE
    Publisher GKM. Portfolio with 3 silkscreens. Unframed. Edition of 150 ex. Signed, dated and numbered. Free shipment worldwide. Corneille, one of the founders of the COBRA group, has...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

You May Also Like
  • Wildflowers - Screen Print by Franco Bocchi - 1980s
    By Franco Bocchi
    Located in Roma, IT
    Wildflowers is al modern artwork realized by Franco Bocchi in 1980s Mixed colored screen print. Hand signed on the lower margin. Numbered on the lower left margin. Edition of 200...
    Category

    1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Coasts Of Illusion - Moonstrips Empire News By Eduardo Paolozzi
    By Eduardo Paolozzi
    Located in London, GB
    Coasts Of Illusion - Moonstrips Empire News By Eduardo Paolozzi Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a pioneering Scottish artist and sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement. Ren...
    Category

    1960s Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • "Jake Yeager Untitled 9" aerosol, screen printed monoprint, skull, animalia
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    This piece titled "Jake Yeager Untitled 9" is an original artwork by Jake Yeager and is made from spray paint and screenprint. This piece measures 24”h x 18”w. About Space 1026...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Paper, Spray Paint, Screen

  • "Jake Yeager Untitled 8" aerosol, screen printed monoprint, skull, animalia
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    This piece titled "Jake Yeager Untitled 8" is an original artwork by Jake Yeager and is made from spray paint and screenprint. This piece measures 24”h x 18”w. About Space 1026...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Paper, Spray Paint, Screen

  • "Jake Yeager Untitled 5" aerosol, screen printed monoprint, skull, animalia
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    This piece titled "Jake Yeager Untitled 5" is an original artwork by Jake Yeager and is made from spray paint and screenprint. This piece measures 24”h x 18”w. About Space 1026...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Paper, Spray Paint, Screen

  • "Justine Kelley Untitled 1" Text, botanical motif, illustration, screen print
    Located in Philadelphia, PA
    This piece titled "Justine Kelley Untitled 1" is an original artwork by Justine Kelley made from silkscreen printing on paper This piece measures 22.75”h x 12.5”w. Justine Kelley is...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Paper, Ink, Screen

Recently Viewed

View All