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Lot Essay
Passé par l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Cuba où il est né en 1927, Agustin Cardenas opte très tôt pour la sculpture où il trouve dans la confrontation à la matière une manière d’affirmer sa propre sensibilité. Progressivement, il trouve un style personnel qui commence à s’affirmer dès 1951 après la découverte de Brancusi, Arp et Moore : les formes s’épurent et la figure devient plus schématique disparaissant peu à peu sous un jeu de rondeurs et de fusion de la matière. En décembre 1955, il parvient à quitter Cuba grâce à une bourse et arrive pour la première fois à Paris. Faute de moyens, il travaille principalement le bois et le plâtre dans ces premières années parisiennes, ne pouvant se permettre de travailler le marbre ou de fondre ses réalisations en bronze. S’il admire l’œuvre de Brancusi, Cardenas se crée rapidement des affinités avec le milieu surréaliste, notamment dès 1956 au Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Il rencontre Géo Dupin alors responsable de la galerie A L’Etoile Scellée fondée par Breton et qui va lui offrir sa première exposition en 1959 à la galerie La Cour d’Ingres pour laquelle Breton écrit, en introduction, « Voici jailli de ses doigts le grand totem en fleurs qui, mieux qu’un saxophone, cambre la taille des belles ».
Le travail du bois permet à Cardenas de travailler sur une certaine verticalité, un élan dont Jucambe, réalisé en 1958, est un parfait exemple et qui s’oppose au travail du marbre plus concentré auquel il commence à s’atteler à partir de 1959. Ici, Cardenas joue du matériau et lui insuffle une vie. En laissant brûlée la surface du bois, il crée également une forme de vibration, une peau sensible à sa sculpture dont la minéralité est contrebalancée par l’introduction de deux éléments en fer, tels des charges mystiques qui ne sont pas sans convoquer ses lointaines racines africaines.
En 1962, Arturo Schwarz l’expose pour la toute première fois à Milan où il présente une sélection de ses sculptures en bois. C’est ainsi directement auprès de Cardenas qu’Arturo Schwarz acquiert cette œuvre remarquable qu’est Jucambe, tel un totem aux courbes presque cosmiques, comme en suspension, nées sous cette main « perforeuse et jouisseuse » telle que la qualifiait André Breton.
A graduate of the School of Fine Arts in Cuba, where he was born in 1927, Agustin Cardenas chose sculpture very early on. In confronting matter through sculpture, he found a way of affirming his own sensibility. Gradually, he found his own style and really began to define this from 1951, after discovering Brancusi, Arp and Moore: shapes were pared down, figures becoming more simplistic and disappearing little by little in a play on curves and blending of material. In December 1955, he was able to leave Cuba after receiving a bursary and arrived in Paris for the first time. With limited resources, he worked mainly with wood and plaster during these first years in Paris, unable to afford the luxury of working in marble or casting his creations in bronze. Whilst an admirer of Brancusi’s work, Cardenas soon formed affinities with the Surrealist movement, especially after the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture in 1956. There he met Géo Dupin, who was the manager of the A L’Etoile Scellée gallery founded by Breton and who offered him his first exhibition in 1959, at the La Cour d’Ingres gallery. Breton wrote the following in his introduction to the exhibition, “What has flowed from his fingers is a great, blooming totem which outlines the arch of a beautiful woman's back better than a saxophone”.
Using wood enabled Cardenas to work on a certain verticality, with an impetus and drive which are perfectly evident in Jucambe, produced in 1958 and which contrast with the more concentrated work in marble that he began to tackle in 1959. Here, Cardenas is playing with the material and giving it life. By leaving the surface of the wood burned, he has also created a sense of vibration, giving his sculpture a sensitive skin. He has offset its minerality by introducing two iron elements, like mystical charges reminiscent of the artist’s distant African roots.
Arturo Schwarz exhibited his work for the very first time in Milan in 1962, presenting a selection of sculptures in wood. This is how Arturo Schwarz acquired Jucambe, this remarkable work, directly from Cardenas. This totem with its curves which are almost cosmic, seemingly suspended, created by the “driving, sensual” hands of Cardenas, as André Breton described them.
Le travail du bois permet à Cardenas de travailler sur une certaine verticalité, un élan dont Jucambe, réalisé en 1958, est un parfait exemple et qui s’oppose au travail du marbre plus concentré auquel il commence à s’atteler à partir de 1959. Ici, Cardenas joue du matériau et lui insuffle une vie. En laissant brûlée la surface du bois, il crée également une forme de vibration, une peau sensible à sa sculpture dont la minéralité est contrebalancée par l’introduction de deux éléments en fer, tels des charges mystiques qui ne sont pas sans convoquer ses lointaines racines africaines.
En 1962, Arturo Schwarz l’expose pour la toute première fois à Milan où il présente une sélection de ses sculptures en bois. C’est ainsi directement auprès de Cardenas qu’Arturo Schwarz acquiert cette œuvre remarquable qu’est Jucambe, tel un totem aux courbes presque cosmiques, comme en suspension, nées sous cette main « perforeuse et jouisseuse » telle que la qualifiait André Breton.
A graduate of the School of Fine Arts in Cuba, where he was born in 1927, Agustin Cardenas chose sculpture very early on. In confronting matter through sculpture, he found a way of affirming his own sensibility. Gradually, he found his own style and really began to define this from 1951, after discovering Brancusi, Arp and Moore: shapes were pared down, figures becoming more simplistic and disappearing little by little in a play on curves and blending of material. In December 1955, he was able to leave Cuba after receiving a bursary and arrived in Paris for the first time. With limited resources, he worked mainly with wood and plaster during these first years in Paris, unable to afford the luxury of working in marble or casting his creations in bronze. Whilst an admirer of Brancusi’s work, Cardenas soon formed affinities with the Surrealist movement, especially after the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture in 1956. There he met Géo Dupin, who was the manager of the A L’Etoile Scellée gallery founded by Breton and who offered him his first exhibition in 1959, at the La Cour d’Ingres gallery. Breton wrote the following in his introduction to the exhibition, “What has flowed from his fingers is a great, blooming totem which outlines the arch of a beautiful woman's back better than a saxophone”.
Using wood enabled Cardenas to work on a certain verticality, with an impetus and drive which are perfectly evident in Jucambe, produced in 1958 and which contrast with the more concentrated work in marble that he began to tackle in 1959. Here, Cardenas is playing with the material and giving it life. By leaving the surface of the wood burned, he has also created a sense of vibration, giving his sculpture a sensitive skin. He has offset its minerality by introducing two iron elements, like mystical charges reminiscent of the artist’s distant African roots.
Arturo Schwarz exhibited his work for the very first time in Milan in 1962, presenting a selection of sculptures in wood. This is how Arturo Schwarz acquired Jucambe, this remarkable work, directly from Cardenas. This totem with its curves which are almost cosmic, seemingly suspended, created by the “driving, sensual” hands of Cardenas, as André Breton described them.