New York
Dominique Levy and Galerie Perrotin
Germaine Richier’s recent exhibition, shared by Dominique Levy and Galerie Perrotin, was the first show of the French sculptor’s work to be seen in the U.S. since her untimely death in 1959 at the age of 57. Although Richier was associated with major figurative sculptors of the 1950s such as Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick, and Reg Butler (and less directly with Marino Marini and Alberto Giacometti), her manner of thinking and working were completely her own. With deliberate twists, linear supports, and elemental contortions, the fiercely tripodal Le Berger des Landes (1951), the remarkable Le Griffu (1952), and the sensuously ambiguous La Fourmi (1953) all render the figure in inscrutably distended positions that go beyond typical studio poses. Richier’s figures are lean, stalwart, and pulsating with vigor. ..see the entire review in the print version of July/August’s Sculpture magazine.