Would this piece by Lartigue best be defined as a sculpture or a fountain? We have the answer from the artist himself. “I prefer to define my work as sculpture-fountain. It shows movements of water created on its own volumes. Without water, in winter for example, it still exists as a piece of art on...
Would this piece by Lartigue best be defined as a sculpture or a fountain? We have the answer from the artist himself. “I prefer to define my work as sculpture-fountain. It shows movements of water created on its own volumes. Without water, in winter for example, it still exists as a piece of art on its own terms, whereas a mere fountain might appear as a sad collection of simple pipes. In my sculptures, the form is the vehicle for the water. Water is treated as a material in its own right. And the quantity of water used must be proportionate to the volume of the sculpture. A thin stream of water on an object weighing several tonnes just would not work!” The piece, commissioned by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace in 1969, was renovated by Guy Lartigue’s son Brice in 2022.
Born on 6 April 1927 in Paris, Guy Lartigue was the son of Maurice Lartigue, also known as Zissou, the elder brother of the photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. He was a pupil of Jean Souverbie, Emmanuel Auricoste, and Ossip Zadkine. After studying sculpture at the Académies de Montparnasse in Paris, Guy Lartigue produced a number of monumental pieces in France, working with metal, copper, stainless steel, or granite. Lartigue used sheet metal, which he folded and bent into the desired shape. His sculptures often refer to the human body. He also created numerous decorative pieces, fountains and bas-reliefs, which he incorporated into architecture. He defined himself as a statuary sculptor in love with the “song of water”. In the hundred or so sculpture-fountains he produced, water is treated like any other material. In the 1960s, he was commissioner to make a sculpture-fountain for the residence of the King of Spain in Marseille. The meeting with sculpture and water proved a pivotal moment, and he continued to express his art through them constantly. He created numerous sculptural artworks, many of them monumental pieces, devoting his life to art and water. From Paris to Monte-Carlo, he designed sculpture-fountains for squares, gardens, and the great ensembles of the 1970s. He died in Paris on 5 May 2021.
