news sculptures

Contemporary sculpture has never ceased to renew itself and question the gaze.
Numerous artistic approaches will appear throughout the 20th century and give birth to modern and contemporary sculpture. The new artists are inspired by the past and tradition to sublimate it.
 

Pablo Picasso, leader of the cubists initiated a new way of seeing reality by representing the perspective under all its dimensional possibilities. Brancusi opened the way to abstraction by purifying the forms of his simple wooden sculptures. The Dadaism movement is not left out by putting forward an art at the same time provocative and engaged. Marcel Duchamp questioned the place of art and its sacredness by exhibiting the ready-made. Jean Tinguely will upset the tradition by assembling objects of the street to animate them in imperfect and sound machines. César will compress cars and Arman will display broken musical instruments in thousand pieces...

It is necessary to wait the years 60 and 70 so that the contemporary sculpture takes the step on the modern sculpture and gives birth to the conceptual art. Henceforth, the artistic approach, the idea of the artist prevails on the aestheticism and the representation. The Fluxus movement drastically reinvents the fundamentals of contemporary sculpture. During the whole period of the sixties, the notions of "less is more", of minimalism, of return to the purest simplicity will be put forward. The artist Mies Van Der Rohe will never stop pushing the limits of abstraction and aestheticism. New contemporary artists such as Richard Serra, Carl André or Donald Judd will embody the artistic scene of the moment. The Pop Art, Land Art and Arte Povera movements gave contemporary artists the opportunity to create monumental works of art, ephemeral or not, in the middle of nature. The consumer society is harshly criticized. A return to nature and to the notion of temporality inspires the new artists of contemporary sculpture.
The contemporary artists
Contemporary sculptures bring together all the latest sculptural trends in contemporary art. Today's artists explore all the new forms of material: plastic, bronze, marble, paper, plaster, steel, recycled objects, metal, iron, neon, glass, resin, terracotta, wood...
 

The new art brings together very eclectic artists with diverse and varied artistic approaches. Jeff Koons provokes with his giant balloon sculptures and bright colors. Anselm Kiefer transcends the boundaries between emotion, past, history and monumentalism. Ron Mueck proposes hyper-realistic life-size portraits. Olafur Eliasson recreates Icelandic landscapes. Anish Kapoor questions representation with gigantic and mirrored works.
 

In terms of new art, contemporary sculpture artists work in larger formats in general or in very small miniature formats. The notions of volume and scale thwart the relationship with reality. Exhibitions of artists such as Jeff Koons, Anselm Kiefer, Christian Boltanski, Ron Mueck, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor are striking because they create an atmosphere that immerses the viewer in emotion. They are works that invite reflection on the passage of time, the place of man, the criticism of society and the desacralization of art.
 

The contemporary sculpture invests all the places: the streets, the landscapes, the rooms of exhibition, the interior and the outside of the houses. All types of materials are used, diverted, transformed to participate in the artistic approach of the artist and thwart the codes of reality. The spectator becomes definitely active in front of a work of contemporary sculpture. From Louise Bourgeois' spiders to Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog, the artists question their childhood, their memories and their torments. Durable monumental works or fragile and ephemeral objects, sculptures become strong examples of emotion and unavoidable structures of the current artistic landscape. The sculptures can also seem to be fragile like the installations made of cut, folded or incised paper. Paper is the new muse of contemporary art galleries. Many artists work with paper to create meticulous and poetic works, like the imaginary and whimsical animals of artist Ai Weiwei. Canadian artist Calvin Nicholls delicately carves animals with a scapel. The Japanese artist Yuken Teruya creates long and fantastic forests. At Carré d'artistes, discover new sculptures by contemporary artists: Sébastien Chartier, Floh, Daniel Castan, Nikola Vudrag, Zed.