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/ Courtesy of Opera Gallery
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
French sculptor Marie Madeleine Gautier's smooth, rounded sculptures at the Opera Gallery Seoul appear to be a celebration of the female form.
But the works, characterized by tiny heads, elongated torsos and voluptuous hips and legs, are not meant to convey any ideological feminist concepts.
In an interview with The Korea Times at the gallery Monday, Gautier said she is more interested in the idea of contradictions.
``I wanted to make the head as small as possible, and the legs and hips as big as possible. I'm interested in the contradiction between the small head, long arms with the legs that are very big and firm. This kind of disproportion is not usually thought of as beautiful, but in the sculptures, you can see it can also be beautiful. The focus is not the woman. The woman is just the language. What I want to convey is harmony,'' she said.
Gautier was in Seoul for the opening of the ``Love Me Tender'' exhibition at Opera Gallery, Cheongdam-dong.
She has been making art since she was three years old. Born in 1956, she studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. Her sculptures have been likened to Giacometti for the elongated forms, and Henry Moore for the smooth, sensuous surfaces.
Her bronze sculptures have very small heads and the faces usually do not have any details or expressions. Gautier believes in the power of body language, which expresses real and true emotions.
``In general, we believe in the expression of the face. But actually I am more concerned with language of the body. We can lie with our faces. We can pretend to be happy. But the body expression is the real language. I don't make the face detailed. Without any facial details or expression, we can concentrate on the body language and what the body is saying,'' she said.
In ``La Mere et La Fille,'' there are two sculptures, a larger one of the mother and a smaller one of the daughter.
``This is about the relationship of the mother and the daughter. The sculptures are similar. The daughter is looking at her mother and copying her movements but doing it in a slightly different way. The mother is her mirror but the daughter is still her own person. The mother is always looking at her daughter to protect her,'' Gautier explained.
Interestingly, the two sculptures can be rearranged in different ways, and alter the meaning of the piece.
Her inspiration for the sculptures comes from everyday life, people, and friends. But it may take Gautier weeks, if not months and years, to transform her ideas into a finished sculpture piece.
For ``Un Jour Peut-etre,'' Gautier said she had the idea to make a sculpture showing a lady sitting on the back of a chair around 15 years ago. But it took her a while before she finally executed the sculpture to her satisfaction. In fact, the new sculpture is being shown for the first time anywhere in the world.
It was Gautier's first time in Seoul, but she immediately took a liking to the architecture, the trees in the streets and the friendly people. Her eye-catching hairstyle ― short blue dyed-hair tied at the top with a gray hair scrunchie ― usually elicits stares elsewhere, but only seems to attract friendly smiles from Seoulites.
``Everyone is so friendly. They look at me and smile at me like I'm their friend,'' Gautier said, with a laugh.
The ``Love Me Tender'' show, also featuring paintings by Paris-based artists Kelyne, runs through July 7 at the Opera Gallery, which is located on the first floor of Nature Poem Building, Cheongdam-dong. E-mail seoul@operagallery.com.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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