César (1921-1998)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more MASTERWORKS FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN COLLECTION
César (1921-1998)

Le Centaure

Details
César (1921-1998)
Le Centaure
incised with the artist’s signature ‘Cesar’ (to the base); numbered ‘EA 1/2’ and incised with foundry name ‘bocquel fondeur’ (on the side of the base)
bronze
60 5/8 x 29½ x 61 3/8in. (154 x 75 x 156cm.)
Executed in 1983-1984, this work is artist's proof number one from an edition of eight plus two artist's proofs
Provenance
Sylvain Linker, Charleroi.
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 2000.
Literature
P. Restany, César, Paris 1988 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 298).
P. Restany, César, Milan 1988 (another example illustrated in colour, p. 48).
H. Lévy, César: Les Bronzes, exh. cat., Sète, Musée Paul-Valéry, 1991, p. 51 (another example illustrated in colour, p. 31).
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
Further details
Another larger example is on permanent display at the Place Michel Debré, Paris.

This work is registered in the archives of Denyse Durand-Ruel under no. 3243.

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Amanda Lo Iacono
Amanda Lo Iacono

Lot Essay

'One would have to be very blind not to see them, these forefathers who roam around his bronzes. Take the Centaure for example. Take this masterpiece of equestrian sculpture, a miniature version of which we have here [in France] in Sete. We think, says Restany, of Marcus Aureleus of the Capitole, of Donnatello’s Gattemalata, on the Piazza del Santo in Padua. We dream of Verrocchio’s Colleone in Venice. We dream of the great antique exemplars or of those of the Renaissance. Without forgetting, of course, of Picasso who is the dedicator and is the shadow, in truth, which has haunted César from his beginnings. Bless you César! You would think he was here, between Saint Paul and the Fouquet’s. You imagine him as a peer to Arman or to Tinguely, of Pages or Christo. You imagine him engaged in obscure rivalries or conflicts without glory. All the while that he is there, in reality. He has this other life – the real one – which revolves around other stars, in other galaxies'
(B. Lévy, César – Les Bronzes, exh. cat., Musée Paul Valéry, Paris, 1991, p. 9).

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