This summer, the Donjon de Vez presents the first major retrospective dedicated to Robert Couturier since 2005. Considered one of the most important post-war sculptors in France—alongside artists like Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier—Robert Couturier returns to the spotlight with around twenty monumental, life-size sculptures, displayed throughout the gardens and rooms of the Donjon.

La Savonnette - Robert Couturier

The twenty sculptures by Robert Couturier (1905–2008) on view offer a retrospective of an artist who was both a major figure and a witness to a 20th century marked by the avant-garde and profound artistic upheavals.

For over sixty years, in the quiet of his studio in the Villa Seurat in Paris, Couturier devoted himself to the human body—especially the female body—as his primary material.

Trained in drawing and lithography, he developed a sculptural language that began in the footsteps of Aristide Maillol, whom he met in 1928 and whose influence marked his early work. Maillol’s death in 1944 coincided with Couturier’s decisive emancipation. From then on, he committed himself to creating an “anti-Maillol,” combining void and solid, visible and invisible, interior and exterior space—in representations of the human figure, which he would never abandon.

His transition to a language of his own occurred when he began to suggest forms rather than impose them visually, while preserving a sense of fullness. He spoke of “open form,” where air and light move freely.

Taking the opposite approach of additive sculpture, Couturier chose to eliminate, remove, carve out and hollow the material so that form could emerge. This “anti-sculpture” embodies a metamorphosis of the body: along the viewer’s line of sight, the perception changes as the viewer moves.

This “sculptural draftsman” confronted real space directly and played with the balance of forces, suggesting forms that hover between presence and absence. The viewer is drawn into the work—the spectator becomes a participant, guided by what the piece offers.

Robert Couturier’s work is grounded in everyday life and poetic simplicity.

This exhibition is made possible with the support of Galerie Dina Vierny, representing the artist’s estate.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1905 in Angoulême, Robert Couturier studied lithography in Paris and soon caught the attention of Aristide Maillol in 1928, becoming his student and friend. In the 1930s, he won the Blumenthal Prize and participated in group exhibitions in Parisian galleries. In 1936, on the occasion of the 1937 World’s Fair, he received a commission for The Gardener, installed on the Trocadéro esplanade in Paris, and created all the sculptures and decorations for the Pavilion of Elegance, designed by Émile Aillaud.

In 1938, he co-signed the Rupture manifesto with the groups Forces Nouvelles and Nouvelle Génération. The manifesto advocated a return to traditional craftsmanship and artistic values. Their aim was to renew the representation of the human figure, and this aesthetic movement had an international impact.

Captured during World War II, Couturier managed to escape and later became one of the founding members of the Salon de Mai in 1943. After the war, in 1946, he was appointed professor at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Couturier held his first solo exhibition in London in 1947 and participated in major shows in 1948–1949 that brought together past and new generations of sculptors in Bern and Amsterdam. He represented French sculpture at the Venice Biennale (1950), the São Paulo Biennial (1951), and participated in Sonsbeek (1952) and Antwerp (1953).

The Musée Rodin organized his first retrospective in 1970, followed in 1975 by the Monnaie de Paris, which presented a major collection of his sculptures, drawings, and medals.

To mark his 100th birthday, the Fondation Dina Vierny – Musée Maillol in Paris dedicated a retrospective to him. He was also named Officer of Arts and Letters. He passed away on October 1st, 2008, at the age of 103, leaving behind a body of work consisting of over 500 sculptures.

Blending tradition and modernity, Robert Couturier offered a new interpretation of the human figure. As the inventor of “allusive” sculpture, he moved away from classical forms to bring renewal. The female figure was his main source of inspiration. With a single line, he could suggest the whole body, using a varied language of elongated, full, or hollow shapes.

His dynamic works seek a dialogue between form and space. He played with materials—plaster, bronze, stone—and integrated everyday objects into his sculptures. Couturier’s works establish a rhythm between form and matter, a delicate balance that offers great interpretive freedom.

Robert Couturier, Jeune fille lamelliforme, 1950, bronze, 115 x 45.5 x 70 cm (courtesy Gelrie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi).

Robert Couturier dans son atelier, juillet 1997 (Photo © Jean-François Bonhomme)

Robert Couturier, Hommage à Millet, 1994, Bronze, 75.5 x 27.5 x 14.5 cm, (Photo Courtesy Galerie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi)

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Robert Couturier, Torse concave, 1966, Bronze, 177 x 25 x 28 cm ( Photo Courtesy Galerie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi)