Emma de Sigaldi is a Monegasque artist. Her work retraces the birth of her country, to which he has a strong attachment. “There had been an idea in my head for a while. Every time I went past the Place des Moulins, I said to myself: that tiny fountain isn’t worthy of Monaco! We need to go bigger! So...
Emma de Sigaldi is a Monegasque artist. Her work retraces the birth of her country, to which he has a strong attachment. “There had been an idea in my head for a while. Every time I went past the Place des Moulins, I said to myself: that tiny fountain isn’t worthy of Monaco! We need to go bigger! So I devised a project more in keeping with the Principality.” A jet of water circulates inside the Colonne de la Vie or Column of Life. The artist describes the piece as a hymn to life, telling the story of human development. “From the bottom of the statue symbolising family, the kernel of society, several figures are climbing to try and reach the very top, around those two symbols of water and matter. The one who has made it to the top is expressing his joy. Another, who has not yet completed his climb, is treading on his neighbour’s foot. A third, tiring and resigned, has given up.”
Emma de Sigaldi, born Emma Lackner in Karlsruhe (Germany) on 22 December 1910, was a Monegasque artist. She first devoted herself to dance in her home town and later in Dresden, with the illustrious Mary Wigman. Appointed as a senior dancer at the Munich Opera, she then went on to open a dance school in Wiesbaden. She trained in sculpture through contact with the Bauhaus masters, and later continued to teach herself. In 1954, she married Count de Sigaldi, the Captain of the Palace Guards, and moved to Monaco. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1960. In her studio, she focused primarily on figures sculpted in line with an expressionist view, such as Le Plongeur Olympique at the Rainier III Outdoor Swimming Stadium (1961). Already, however, the terracotta La Mère , sculpted the same year, heralded what would become the artist’s new approach to her work. Beginning in the 1970s, Sigaldi produced marble sculptures in natural shapes, which reflected the influence of Arp and Moore. In 1983, a retrospective under the high patronage of Prince Rainier III traced the progression of 25 of the Monegasque artist’s sculptures. Many of her works can be found in public and private collections in Monaco and throughout the world. Emma de Sigaldi died in Monaco on 23 October 2010.
