Scribbled César

César Baldaccini, more commonly known by his first name only, was a highly regarded French sculptor who’s professional career spanned from the early 1950’s to the end of the 1990’s. He is known for his assemblages of welded scrap iron, his compressions of materials using a hydraulic press, and his experiments with new materials. World wide 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 “Bird man” 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 marvel-ous artist is a self portrait drawing that he did where once the image was rendered he scribbled over it leaving enough details to be recognized.