Lucien Petit

Born in 1957 in Sancerre, Lucien Petit lives and works in Boisbelle, a village near La Borne, France. His work develops an interest in architecture, construction and the broader theme of receptacles, structured by the binary opposites of full and empty, form and counter-form, elevation and collapse, convex and concave, mineral and organic.

Trained in the techniques of ceramics, very early on he associates the interior to his personal work, an image recurring in all of his work. His most recent works evolving between anthropomorphism and abstraction, are part of the tradition of simple shapes of sculptors who have been able to mark the modern history of La Borne. Set in a space and installed on the ground, these sculptures act as the protagonists of a silent piece reminiscent of the monoliths of a constantly changing landscape. Never frozen, it is always likely to be reconfigured or connected to other objects or foreign organic elements. Lucien Petit is a sculptor. Along with architects, he shares the professional ambition to build, bringing hospital forms out of the ground. His own forms rise up with no agenda to match. They stand, sometimes taking their lines from their habitat, no matter how rustic it may be. So they harbour a breath. Each time, an idea finds refuge in a space, lodging itself inside. Well-built statues provide asylum. Like a temple, every work functions as a tangible receptacle to contain that which is not. The artist creates a fixed envelope to accommodate the moving object. Austere silhouettes and rough surfaces assert the authority of stability, fixed with poise on a plane and emphasizing its perpendiculars. On the promontory of ostentation, verticals humbly parade upright, their sturdiness bearing witness to the essential rigour.