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Laurens, Henri
born: 1885 Paris
died: 1954 Paris
Henri Laurens came into contact with the Cubist artists in 1911. In
addition to sculptures, he made pictures of pasted paper, papiers colles,
which were closely related to works from the Synthetic Cubist period of
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Here, in an oval of hea grey paper, Laurens
has created a still life of paper shapes, overlain with black and white
lines. The colors are subdued, largely neutral. The emphasis is definitely
on the composition. In keeping with the principles of the late phase of
Cubism, Guitar, Glass and Pipe of 1918 evinces not only a synthesis of
various materials but a visual and intellectual synthesis of difFerent
objects as well. While here various aspects of the objetts are reduced
ta largely planar terms, a Cubist sculpture like Guitar af 1914-1918 actually
occupies space and can be seen from all sides. On the frant, the complex
composition of black, sheet-metal shapes is accented by details that characterize
the instrument: the curves of the sound box, strokes of paint suggesting
strings and the frets on the neck. The back of the sculpture continues
to reflect a Cubist employment of sharp-edged, facetted, interlocking rounded
forms. In the course of the 1920s Laurens increasingly turned to organic
or biomorphic configurations, favoring the female figure and characters
from mythology. This may be seen in The Farewelf, a sculpture of 1940-1941.
This figure adopts certain developments made by sculptors like Aristlde
Maillol or Constantin Brancusi, who abandoned the dramatic, space-dominating
gestures of Auguste Rodin's approach to concentrate on creating self contained,
often crouching figures. Yet while in their case the sculptural energies
seem to remain enclosed within the volume, Laurens's piece shows a countermovement.
After Cubist dissolution in form and content, Laurens's late phase brought
a return to the self contained sculptural values of the human figure. His
works reveal an attempt to give an impression of calmness and tranquillity.
The emphasis is not so much on vitality as on composition. The harmony
and sculptural laws that determine the pieces, the system by which their
volumes seem mutually to engender each other, the fact that the empty space
around them counts as much as the masses - all these factors are aimed
at lending the sculptures stability. The affinity with forms of female
fertility idols from prehistorical and early historical eras points to
a specially humane element in Laurens's sculpture: the invitation they
offer both to perception and touch.
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