Germaine Richier

“Despite being a benchmark for her peers, exhibited in the most important museums, Germain Richier has acquired only an ambiguous status – that of being the least well-known of the great contemporary sculptors.” — Alain Dreyfus

Germaine Richier (1902–1959) is an important French sculptor. In 1956, she was the first woman to exhibit at the Musée d’Art Moderne [Museum of Modern Art] and her works are shown in the most prestigious museums around the world (Centre Pompidou, MoMA, Tate Gallery); despite this, no catalogue raisonné had yet been compiled.

The release of this work therefore is a major event, because Germaine Richier is an artist who plays a leading role in modern sculpture. When she arrived in Paris, after leaving her native Provence, artistic circles and connoisseurs soon noticed and began following her work. She was the sole private student of Bourdelle, her teacher and friend, and her sculpture is recognised, exhibited and collected throughout the world. There is nothing commonplace about her work; like her friend Giacometti, throughout her life she focused on depicting the human body, with an imaginativeness that was all her own.

Montparnasse in the pre-war period was where their artistic and intellectual world was based. While she was on holiday in Switzerland with her husband, the onset of war suddenly brought an end to that life. She remained in Switzerland through the war years, and began incorporating elements of nature in her works, finding her own personal vocabulary.

In 1946, she returned to live in Paris, where her creative freedom emerged in full force: she invented new images of Man and Woman. She posed for Brassaï in her studio, where Homme-forêt [Forest-Man], Araignée [Spider], Mante [Praying Mantis] and Cigale [Cicada] stand next to l’Ogre [The Ogre], Le Diabolo [The Devil], La Feuille [The Leaf], Don Quichotte [Don Quixote] … Her original and peculiar creations, her “hybrid beings”, her Characters, whether major or minor, the introduction of colour at the end of her life that was cut so tragically short; all these are yet to be discovered by the general public. Although Germaine Richier never stopped depicting the figure, it was a figure that was continually evolving in her work.

Text in English and French.