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Géant de Picrochole
2018
Léonard MARTIN
Sculpture
270 x 100 x 100 cm
Polycarbonate, printed paper, steel straps, rivets, steel chassis
During his stay at the Villa Médicis, Léonard Martin made a parade of gigantic figures inspired by Quattrocento painting and the processional giants of the north of France. This Géant de Picrochole is one of them. The mobile sculpture combines allusions to art history and popular means of expression, Paolo Uccello and Italian Renaissance, puppet theatre and Carnival games. This “Nonexistent Knight” is, like in Italo Calvino’s novel, an empty armour that achieved its quest and is trying to come back. The lines running on its shell and tracing its edges evoke Uccello’s battle paintings. “To me, the artists I’m talking about aren’t dead. On the opposite: they keep on living with us, sharing our daily life,” explains the artist. These sculptures paraded twice, during Nuit Blanche in Paris and the Parata Leonardo in Florence.
Born in 1991 in Paris, France
After training in painting and drawing inFrançois Boisrond’s workshop and studies at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporain, in 2018, Léonard Martin spent time in residence at the Villa Médicis in Rome. He is the laureate of the Aud iTalents Award 2019 and presented his work at the Salon de Montrouge, Jeune Création, the Villette, and the Collection Lambert en Avignon. His plastic workbuilds bridges between times and media by tackling prominent themes of art and literature with varied techniques, different visual languages, and multiple representations in space. He thus associates painting, animation and puppet film, and mechanical sculpture.
Artwork of
Léonard MARTIN
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