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exhibitions : Bronze sculptures and drawings by Irénée
Duriez |
according to Hugo Brutin in “Ars
Libris”.
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Irénée
Duriez has acquired a widespread reputation as a sculptor and
modeller of mainly female figures, as a creator with an initially
robust and then increasingly refined and sophisticated elegance.
Bronze is his material, figuration his language. He has been
drawing for years, but until recently, it was a rather occasional
distraction. So Irénée Duriez is setting out along
the road that artists such as Rodin, Maillol, Matisse took.
He considers the living model as being a stimulus and an impetus,
as a source of his creativity, which fascinates him, intrigues
him, impresses him and appeals to him from a great many viewpoints,
emotions and degrees of sensitivity.
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"Résignation" 42
cm.
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"Aube" 69 cm.
"Autoprotection" 67 cm.
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Il His sculpture
is mainly devoted to the young woman, a conscious choice which
blossoms in the gradual refinement of her three-dimensionality,
in the elaboration of her hands, feet, face, in the subtle integration
of a tangible emotion, of muscles and tensions. It has long been
known that sculptors like to touch, or even feel a volume, a calf,
a thigh, a back to subsequently reproduce the tactile experience,
by drawing on the memory of their hands, as it were. The touched
shape then becomes encrusted in the hand. It repeats itself in
clay or in wax. In his bronzes, Irénée Duriez wants
to achieve perfection and sensitivity, glorify craft and creativity,
keep the respect for the personal shape of the model’s body.
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Let us add that his
torsos are rather his signature. They embody the triumph of volume;
they express the first signs of an unshakeable trust in his own
skills, his basic vision of sculpture and the existence of an
archetype that may be defined as femininity and blossoming sensuality.
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"Jeune femme" 86 cm.
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