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Nicolas Alquin

Présence de bois

published at 25/06/2018

On display in the Farmyard’s Asinery, this unique and spectacular sculpture by Nicolas Alquin is a work whose intensity, rigorous composition and beauty are imbued with an extraordinary strength.
“Turning the precepts of post-minimalist sculpture on their head, Nicolas Alquin deploys a practice that replays the history of art, not without a good measure of intensity, summoning up references both central to and on the margins of the history of sculpture. In an ongoing dialogue between the Judeo-Christian iconographic heritage and the influence of primitive sculpture (African and Eastern alike) on contemporary western art, Nicolas Alquin’s works give concrete form to reflections on the relationship between the visible and the inexpressible, the hand and mind, the controlled and the random. He has no hesitation in appropriating so-called “traditional” techniques (direct carving most of all, along with bronze chiselling) in order to colour them with a variety of influences and put them into perspective.” Marc Bembekoff
 
“The air is sculpted, and to sculpt is to create air because you remove wood.
Under the microscope, timber is a bundle of tubes.
That’s the great secret: all woods are organs.
There’s room for you, in them.” Nicolas Alquin

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Nicolas ALQUIN
BELGIUM

Born into a family of artists in Brussels in 1958, and after studying artwork restoration at the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, Nicolas Alquin was a frequent visitor to the studios of sculptors Reinhoud d’Haese and Etienne Martin. He developed his own artistic lexicon in accordance with three main vectors: wood (direct carving); beeswax cut and shaped directly from the mass (and sometimes cast in bronze); and sepia or black ink (for washes).

AWARDS

2014
Grand Prix Léon-Georges Baudry de la Fondation Taylor, Paris

2007
Prix de la fondation Charles et Christiane Oulmont, Paris

2004
Enku Award, Gifu, Japon

2002
Prix de la Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Poznan, Pologne

2001
Grand Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco, Monaco

1997
Prix de sculpture de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts, Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca, Paris

1988
Prix Leonard de Vinci, Abidjan, Côte-d’Ivoire

1987
Prix Villa Médicis, Hors les murs, Vérone, Italie

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS PUBLIQUES (SELECTION)

Musée de Soissons
Paroisse Saint-Joseph de Montrouge
Chapelle de la Maison des Serviteurs de la Parole, Charenton
CEC-Théâtre de Yerres
Maison de la conférence des Evêques de France, Paris
Kliniek Sint Jozef, Pittem, Belgique
Église Notre-Dame-d’ Espérance, Paris
Hôtel des Douanes, Annecy
Musée de Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, Pays-Bas
Église de Varennes-Jarcy
Musée Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, Pays-Bas
Fondation Veranneman, Kruishoutem, Belgique
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque
Musée d’Art Sacré, Lille
Église Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, Paris
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Puteaux

Complete biography

On the web

The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire

Aquired by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire has become an unmissable site within the spheres of art and gardens. The triple identity of the Domaine : Heritage, art and gardens make for a unique visit within the circuit of the Loire Valley castles

Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire
41150 Chaumont-sur-Loire
Tel :+33 (0) 2 54 20 99 22
Fax :+33 (0) 2 54 20 99 24
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