Thursday, July 20, 2006

Francois Brochet




Here's another discovery: Francois Brochet (born 1925) -- the pride of Auxerre --and a what a daring/thrilling thing: to put life-size polychrome wood sculptures into a French cathedral (or maybe it's only a chapel)







These pieces are very elegant/simple/expressive/linear --- in that great French tradition that runs from the Romanesque up through Matisse -- and that doesn't really seem to be shared by any other European country.





He also does -- what would you call them -- genre figures of ordinary people ? -- and I like these too.





But I'm not sure that his abilities are appropriate for nudes -- that seem to belong to a different artworld





He's also a painter..





and a graphic designer -- and if not a virtuoso in any of his media -- I certainly wish that the rest of 20th C. French art had joined him in looking for what is enjoyable and beautiful in life.

2 Comments:

Blogger Sir G said...

Medieval germans painted their wooden statues (which they then put in their cathedrals). they, too, were a daring lot. :)

I like these things, especially the mother in child. Though of course it has a studied "volkish" air which I don't care for all that much. (Too much socialism, if you ask me).

July 23, 2006  
Blogger chris miller said...

Yes, the mother and child is the one that appealed to me as well.

July 23, 2006  

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