Claude Cehes

Biography

Claude Cehes was brought up by a father who was a doctor and a mother who was professor of literature in Belcourt, the working-class neighborhood of Algiers that was immortalized by Albert Camus. She leaves Algeria with her family after the declaration of independence in 1962 and finishes her high school education in France. In 1968 she enters khâgne (preparatory course for the arts section of the École normale supérieure) at the Lycée Masséna of Nice. Instead of pursuing the academic classes ENS, she decides to follow the classical sculpture teachings of André Bourroux, under the aegis of the sculptor Paul Belmondo.

In 1973 she leaves for Pietrasanta in Italy, close to Carrare, to learn to sculpt marble in the workshop of Blasco Pellacani, where she will regularly return and later on work on monumental commissions. There she meets Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy, Alicia Penalba, Henry Moore and befriends Antoine Poncet. In 1974 she enters Paris' Fine Arts School (École des Beaux-Arts de Paris), where she meets Gérard Koch who teaches her how to work with polyester resin. As early as 1975 she takes part in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad, amongst which biennials and modern art trade shows where she exhibits her works alongside her elders: César, Parvine Curie, Marta Pan, Roselyne Granet, José Subira-Puig, Albert Féraud et Alberto Guzman. She makes the acquaintance of Claude Gaspari, photographer for the Maeght Foundation, who takes an interest in her work and will subsequently photograph all her works She also meets Gilbert Clementi of the Clementi Foundry, to whom she will, from then on, entrust the smelting of her bronze works.

Her first personal exhibition takes place in 1980 at Cérès Franco's Œil de Boeuf Gallery, with the support of a state subsidy for first exhibitions. There, she displays open bodies, reconstructed from resin and marble in the style of the anatomic waxes of the 18th century which she had closely studied at La Specola Museum of Florence. Fluctuating between realism ("Flesh and bones", 1980) and slight abstraction ("The Tarot Arcana", 1993) or total abstraction ("Limps", 2007), she develops her recurrent theme of human finitude. She illustrates it with bronze, wood, sponge, glass, rubber or computer cables. In 1984 she is a laureate of the General Council of Ile de France for a marble work integrating a hologram.

As early as 1983 her works become part of the collections of the Quai Saint Bernard Museum, in Paris, the Regional Fund for Modern Art of Ile de France, the Regional Council of Ile de France, and the collection of Paris and other French cities. She is honored by commissions from the French Presidency and in 1987 receives the Neuman Prize of the Paris Jewish Museum. In 2003 she wins a competition on the theme of environment organized by the Hôtel de la Monnaie (Paris) (State Mint), which mints her medal. Since 1988 she has been part of an education program, which forms part of the Cultural Affairs' Section of the city of Paris program.

A retrospective of her works, "30 years of sculpture" was held in 2011 in Montceau, France .

Monumental works

Main personal exhibitions

Exhibitions in France

International fairs and trade shows

Fairs in France since 1977

Foreign fairs

Academic work