Claude Torricini

French, born in Fort de France (Martinique). Prize for Young Sculpture - André Susse in 1954. Beaux Arts de Paris. Claude Torricini's practice is diverse. Clay, plaster, wood, stone, terracotta, cardboard, paper, ribbons and feathers, silver and gold are the supports of his creations. For each subject: its tools and its approach. - for clay and plaster, few tools: the hand is queen, in direct contact with the material, it can model it freely and give it the liveliness of a sketch. - for wood and stone, the chisel and hammer provide strength and precision, but wood and stone are living materials that carry their own history, whether geological or physical, a history made up of colors, traces, of breaks, cracks, scars and movements, which we gain to respect and which it is a question of taking advantage of. - for metals, to the handling of tools is added the magic of fire which makes the support malleable, makes welding possible and allows the reproduction of any work, whatever the material. The bronze works mark out in a particular way the course of Claude Torricini. They are a synthesis of the multiple practices of the artist. They reproduce in metal works initially made in earth, plaster, or wood. They freeze the trace of the chisel or the imprint of the hand whose spontaneity they restore. They illustrate the extent of the work which falls under both the brief time of the sketch, the sketch taken from life, the fragility of the paper and the long time linked to manufacturing times and robustness. millennium of bronze. A scope that goes from solitary research in the studio to collective work with the team of founders, these Masters of Fire, whose expertise put at the service of the artist enriches his creation without distorting it. From this variety of approaches is born a universe where a reality transfigured by the artist's gaze comes together and a world where rhinos sit crossing their legs, where hawks calmly watch us with their arms behind their backs, and where the horses and the cows palaver between them well posed on their behind. His works illustrate this diversity, and at the same time reflect his deep attention to the world, his humor and a tenderness that does not exclude vigor. No solemnity in the Pantheon of modest gods half animal - half man created by the artist. No concern for naturalistic accuracy in his animal portraits, no exaltation or emphasis, simply the restitution of a subtle vibration which gives, whatever the medium, a soul to each of Claude Torricini's works. - Michel Moritz