Simone Boisecq
Simone Boisecq (April 7, 1922 - August 6, 2012) was an Algerian-born French sculptor who worked in Algiers and Paris. Her work has been described as a synthesis between abstraction and figuration.
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Simone Boisecq | |
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![]() Boisecq in 1997 | |
Born | Algiers on April 7, 1922 |
Died | August 6, 2012 90) Auray, France | (aged
Nationality | French |
Education | University of Algiers |
Known for | Sculpture, drawing |
Spouse | Karl-Jean Longuet |
Early life and education
Boisecq was born in Algiers to Émile Boisecq and Suzanne Deferre on April 7, 1922.[1] Her father was from Brittany, Vannes, and had moved to Algiers in 1920.[2] He was a liberal Catholic who worked as a military administrator and supported the cultural and national causes of the Bretons.[3] Additionally, he supported the Romani people, Kabyles, Arabs, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. He held an interest in primitive art (such as Breton art), collected works of African art, as well as made art himself and wrote poetry.[4]
Boisecq's mother, Suzanne Deferre (b. 1898 in Izmir), was raised in a convent orphanage. She made her living giving piano lessons in Constantinople, and moved to Algiers in 1920. She began working in administration where she met her future husband whom she married in 1921. After the birth of Simone Boisecq the following year, she left her job in administration and resumed teaching piano. The Boisecq family lived west of Algiers in the La Consolation neighborhood.[5]
In 1929, Simone was presented with the gift of a Dogon sculpture from her father that had been purchased at the Chartres market.[5]
As a student at the Lycée Delacroix (now the Lycée Aroudj & Kheiredine Barbarous) she began reading the works of Paul Claudel and André Gide. Three years later, in 1937, she attending drawing classes with Henri Laitier, and took sculpture classes at the Beaux Arts in Algiers, receiving her bachelors degree in 1940. The following year she studies aesthetics and philosopy at the University of Algiers.[5]
Career
Boisecq was a journalist for the Agence France-Presse before devoting herself to art. Her early aesthetic influences were primitive art, the landscapes of Algeria and Brittany, and her admiration and friendships with surrealist poets and painters.[6] As a young artist with a rising career in Paris, Boisecq established friendships with Brancusi, Picasso and Zadkine. She received critical praise for her work by the artist Germaine Richier in 1956.[7] Her work has been described a synthesis between abstraction and figuration.[6]
Boisecq has exhibited her work widely. Between 1999 and 2001, retrospective exhibitions of her work were presented in France, Germany, and Portugal. Between 2011 and 2013, a traveling exhibition of Boisecq and Karl-Jean Longuet's works, titled From sculpture to the dreamed city, was presented at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, at the Musée de l'Évêché de Limoges, at the Musée Sainte-Croix of Poitiers and at the Musée Unterlinden of Colmar.[5]
A monograph of her work, Simone Boiscq: La Période Sauvage (1946–1960) was published in 2018.[8] In 2021, an exhibition of her and Longuet's work was presented in Auray, along with an accompanying book.[9]
Collections
Boisecq's works are found in numerous museum collections, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen;[10] Musée Unterlinden[11] Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon;[12] Centre Pompidou,[13] among others.
Personal life and death
In 1946, she met Karl-Jean Longuet, also a sculptor.[14]
She died on August 6, 2012, and is buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[15]
See also
References
- "Simone Boisecq, Sculpteur". Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- All biographical information taken from Valérie Lawitschka and Anne Longuet Marx, Simone Boisecq, Le sculpteur et ses poètes, Hölderlin-Gesellschaft, Tübingen / Edition Isele, Eggingen, 1999, p. 192-201; Karl-Jean Longuet et Simone Boisecq, de la sculpture à la cité rêvée, Agen, musée des beaux-arts, Colmar, musée Interlinden, Limoges, musée des beaux-arts, Poitiers, musée Sainte-Croix, Reims, musée des beaux-arts; Simone Boisecq, Lyon, Fage éditions, 2011, p. 177-194; Longuet Marx 2022 .
- Longuet Marx 2022, p. 37.
- Longuet Marx 2022, p. 40.
- Longuet Marx 2022.
- "Simone Boisecq nous a quittés le 6 août, à l'âge de 90 ans". French Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- "The Faun, Simon Boisecq". Musée Unterlinden. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- "ANNE LONGUET MARX, SIMONE BOISECQ, LA PÉRIODE SAUVAGE (1946-1960). PURH, 194 P". Art Presse. 27 August 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- "Simone Boisecq – Karl-Jean Longuet. Une sculpture vivante entre Bretagne et Saint-Germain-des-Prés". Republic Francaise: France Archives. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- reproduit dans Simone Boisecq, collection Paroles d’artiste, Lyon, Fage éditions, 2020, p. 25.
- https://webmuseo.com/ws/musee-unterlinden/app/collection/expo/42?lang=fr Images des œuvres de Simone Boisecq et Karl-Jean Longuet au Musée Unterlinden
- Toutes les œuvres de Simone Boisecq sont reproduites dans Donation Boisecq Longuet au musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, préface de François Rebsamen, textes de Anne Longuet Marx, Agnès Werly, Blandine Chavanne, Thierry Dufrêne et Sabrina Dubbeld, Silvana Editoriale/musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, 2022, p.112
- "imone Boisecq, Le Faune, 1956". Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- Anne Longuet Marx, Le Soleil et l'envol, p. 47)
- "Mort du sculpteur Simone Boisecq, proche de la Nouvelle Ecole de Paris (musée)". L'Obs. Retrieved 3 January 2023.