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PEOPLE:
Maternity - Jose de Creeft
Spanish-American sculptor, born in Guadalajara, Spain, the "Valley
of Stones", studied in Paris, where Picasso and Juan Gris
became good friends, then moved to the U.S. in 1929. In the early
1920s he had begun to carve directly in stone, the taille direct
that would allow him to break completely with academic tradition
and would lead to his mature style. His lifelong familiarity with
rock allowed him to convert its original shape into bold sculptural
forms. This approach differed from the 19th century method in
which the artist created only the clay model and then had assistants
cast it in plaster and carve it in stone. In describing his interest
in abstracting a sculptural form from the shapes in nature, de
Creeft says, "I see nature and I love it; it is the source
of all my art." "Maternity", directly carved into
the granite, is characterized by the mass and volume of the stone
itself, which dictate the shape of the triangular composition.
Strong, simple forms emerge from the speckled granite, the mother's
head curving towards the child's, her huge fingers cupping its
upturned face with barely defined features. The rough, strong,
very personal quality of the piece is emphasized by the contrast
between natural and polished granite, with its traces of the artist's
own mark.
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