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Henri Laurens

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Henri Laurens
Artist's Name: Henri Laurens
Preferred medium: sculpture / plastik
birth year: 1885
Nationality: FR
City: Paris

Henri Laurens - Profile

Henri Laurens, born in Paris in 1885 as the son of a workman, trained at an early age in a decoration studio, where he modelled period-style ornaments and drew architectural designs. Afterwards Laurens worked on building sites and scaffolding, where he learnt the hands-on side of hewing stone. He also regularly attended the popular evening classes in drawing taught by 'Papa Perrin', who instilled in his pupils a serious attitude to craftsmanship. Laurens' first sculpture was influenced by Rodin until he met Braque in 1911. After encountering Cubism, Laurens began to translate the ideas of Analytical Cubism into sculpture, polychrome bas-relief and collages. Picasso, who liked what Laurens was doing, introduced the fledgling sculptor to Leónce Rosenberg, who was so enthusiastic about Laurens' work that he bought some of it and supported Laurens throughout the war years. A number of terracotta and stone reliefs Laurens did not long after the war reveal the influence of Jacques Lipchitz and African sculpture. By then repudiating Cubist geometric forms, Laurens again approached nature, developing an organic, curvilinear style in which he produced highly abstract, rhythmic figures - usually female nudes - that were poetic and powerful. In numerous works Laurens took up themes from Greco-Roman mythology and reinterpreted them. In 1944 Laurens started producing designs for 'La Grande Sirène' and in 1953 he did 'Amphion', a bronze sculpture over four metres high commissioned by the university city of Caracas, Venezuela. Laurens worked over each piece individually to ensure fullness and substance. Henri Laurens was awarded the Grand Prix for sculpture at the São Paolo Bienal in 1953. Apart from sculpture, Laurens' legacy comprises a copious graphic œuvre: woodcuts, etchings and book illustrations. Henri Laurens died in Paris on 5 May 1954. (Ketterer Kunst)

important exhibitions from Henri Laurens

Exhibition Location City Country Date
Abstrakter Raum Formationen der Klassischen Moderne Museum Moderner Kunst - Stiftung Ludwig - MUMOK Wien AT 11.02.2011
Götter und Helden. Nachleben und Eigenleben antiker Mythen in der Grafik Sprengel Museum Hannover Hannover DE 14.09.2011
LEBENSLINIEN- Stationen einer Sammlung Museum Frieder Burda Baden-Baden DE 18.03.2011
Die Gegenwart der Linie. Pinakothek der Moderne München DE 19.03.2009
25 Jahre! Sammlung Henri Nannen und Überraschungs-Gäste Kunsthalle Emden Emden DE 08.10.2011
Meisterwerke der Moderne. Die Sammlung des Kunstmuseums Winthertur MART - Museo Trento e Rovereto Rovereto IT 19.09.2009
Big Bang - Destruction and creation in 20th century art Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne Paris FR 15.06.2005
Gipfeltreffen der Moderne Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Bonn DE 24.04.2009
The Moderns - Revolutions in Art and Science 1890 - 1935 Museum Moderner Kunst - Stiftung Ludwig - MUMOK Wien AT 24.06.2010
Liebesgeschichten. Sehnsucht, Hingabe und Erfüllung in Werken von Munch und Nolde bis Picasso Sprengel Museum Hannover Hannover DE 25.04.2010

WHAT'S ON - current exhibitions with Henri Laurens

artist's website


external Link to the website of the artist or his gallery/institution:
Henri Laurens

Galleries representing
Henri Laurens:

Beck & Eggeling
Brusberg
Galeria Manuel Barbié
Galerie Claude Bernard
Galerie Haas AG
Galerie Helmut Dreiseitel
Galerie Marwan Hoss
Galerie Natalie Seroussi
Helly Nahmad Gallery
Jan Krugier Gallery
Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner
Landau Fine Art
Louis Carré & Cie
Michael Haas
Oriol Galeria dArt
VEDOVI

Collections representing
Henri Laurens

Ateneum Art Museum
Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne
Kunstmuseum Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel - Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Kunstmuseum Winterthur
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro
Moderna Museet
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art
Musée d´Art Moderne
Musée d´art moderne de Lille
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía MNCARS
Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo
Museum Abteiberg
Museum Berggruen - Sammlung Berggruen
Museum Moderner Kunst - Stiftung Ludwig - MUMOK
Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Nasher Sculpture Center
Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMOMA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Sprengel Museum Hannover
Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Tate St. Ives
Von der Heydt Museum