The Laurent STROUK Gallery on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of the artist which will take place from March 11 to April 9, 2016, will present about forty works among which furniture, sculptures and paintings.
Philippe HIQUILY (1925-2013) is a singular French artist. Sculptor but also creator of furniture, HIQUILY kept away from the art market and artistic movements. Free, hedonistic, he gives his works a spirit both dreamlike and surrealist. The almost omnipresent eroticism and the delicacy of his creations contrast with the raw aspect of the salvaged materials he uses as a basis. HIQUILY entered the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in 1953.
He quickly attended CESAR's workshop but developed a personal approach to sculpture: he used sheet metal, which was less expensive than bronze, and welded it using the direct metal technique. His meeting with the artist Germaine RICHIER is decisive: she advises him, encourages him and even orders him pedestals and saddles for his own sculptures. HIQUILY is quickly part of the young artists who make the beautiful days of Saint germain des Prés and after two exhibitions in the gallery Palmes and gallery du Dragon, he is contacted by the New York gallery The Contemporaries. The exhibition, organized in 1959, was a success. All the works were sold and one of them was acquired by the Guggenheim Museum.
His success was echoed in France and, the same year, his sculpture "Jeremiah" won the critics' prize at the first Paris Biennale.
In the early 1960s, he was spotted by the decorator Henri SAMUEL and quickly became an essential reference in the decoration world. This lucrative activity allowed him to continue making sculptures.
From the 1980s onwards, greatly influenced by the work of the American artist Alexander CALDER, he explored the question of mobility, balance and movement. By integrating electric motors into his works, he breathes a new dimension into the traditional conception of sculpture.
His notoriety grows and his work is sealed in history and everyday life: the artist receives public commissions (such as that of a 6-meter high "Marathonienne" for the city of Vitry-sur-Seine, in 1981) and his work is represented in many museums (MOMA & Guggenheim, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington; Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal; Musée National d'Art Moderne and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art of Havana). HIQUILY is an artist who claims pleasure, enchantment. He has changed our relationship to the work of art not only by giving the sculpture multiple facets - sometimes art object, sometimes furniture - but especially by placing it at the center of an interventionist approach with the introduction of the rocking game ("La Funambuleuse" (1981), "Pirouettes" (1985-1990), "Galipettes" (1988 - 2000), "La Claudinette" (1999), "La Sauteuse" (2002).
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