Scribbled César

César Baldaccini, more commonly known by his first name only, was a highly regarded French sculptor whose professional career spanned from the early 1950s to the end of the 1990s. He is known for his assemblages of welded scrap iron, his compressions of materials using a hydraulic press, and his experiments with new materials. Worldwide, he is probably most known for the nearly 40-foot tall bronze reproduction of his thumb at La Defense in Paris.

Wings were an important image that repeated in César’s work. This became even more evident when Léo Valentin, one of the most famous “Birdmen,” fell to his death in Liverpool in front of 100,000 spectators. “Birdmen” used the principles of Icarus and Leonardo da Vinci to experiment with human flight, jumping from airplanes with various versions of man-made winged creations. César made 19 sculptures over a four-year period to honor this daredevil.

The wings in my sculpture are interpretations of two of his welded scrap iron pieces from the “Birdman” series. There is a famous photo portrait of César taken in his studio in Montparnasse by Jean-Claude Sauer with his parrot perched on his head. The final source for my homage to this marvelous artist is a self-portrait drawing in which he scribbled over the image, leaving enough details to be recognized.