Ipoustéguy
Sculptor, painter, draughtsman (1920 – 2006)
A major post-war artist alongside César, Szafran, Cremonini, Rebeyrolle, Mason and Roel d’Haese, an inspired witness of his time, rooted in the present but imbued with the great founding myths… Ipoustéguy was above all a figurative sculptor, a profound humanist and an insatiable worker. His creations, described as ‘sumptuous and rigorous art’, include more than 600 sculptures and 2,000 graphic works, which can be admired in major public collections from Paris to Melbourne, Tokyo to London, Berlin and Washington.
His art? Baroque and carnal, sometimes brutal in the emotions it evokes. Yet it remains fiercely contemporary, as the themes it confronts resonate deeply within us: the oppressions he denounces, the strength of women he highlights, and the sensual beauty of nature he captures and exalts.
And always desire and death, as formal and existential concerns. His visceral determination to carve his own path makes him a major witness to human suffering and delight. He lived them, shares them through his work, and presents them to us directly, without obscene provocation, in their universal dimension.
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Ipoustéguy seen by…
John Updike
I was first struck by the work of Jean Ipoustéguy in the Sculpture Garden of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. There, within view of the great obelisk erected in honor of George Washington, and among modern outdoor sculptures ranging from Rodin to David Smith, the vigorous male nude, L’Homme passant la porte (1966), with a doll-like or robotic expressionless face, pushes a louvered door with both hands and part of one leg, while on the other side of the door, a dog’s head nestles against the man’s hip, whose body is partially flayed.
What could this work mean? I asked myself—this “double perspective” both solemn and comical, this mix of muscular human anatomy and sharply edged forms—the shutters, the doorposts, the smooth disc in one of the man’s hands. “I broke Brancusi’s egg,” Ipoustéguy once said during one of his many spirited self-explanations, offering a way to clarify access to a sculpture that remains resolutely enigmatic, imbued with a distant virtuosity yet brimming with energy…
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The works
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The Ipousteguy Gallery
3 bis, place de la Gare
55110 Doulcon
Tél. : 0033 (0)3. 29. 80. 82. 27.
Mail : tourisme@dun-sur-meuse.com
> www.valdunois.fr
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Ipoustéguy
The Laws of
Scvlptvre
New Perspective on Ipoustéguy,
20 Years After His Passing
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