Claude Engelhard

I was born in 1953 in Paris. I attended from childhood a painting workshop highlighting the expression personal (method inspired by theorist Arno Stern). This was decisive for sowing in me the taste of artistic creation. In the early 70s, while I was staying very frequently in a Lubéron village (Maubec in the Vaucluse), I introduced myself to stone carving with craftsmen who were working on the restoration of this old town. My first sculptures were gargoyles that are still present in the retaining walls of the old village of Maubec.I continued my training in sculpture in the 80s in Paris at the Cultural Center Xème borough, abandoning on this occasion the stone profit from wood.

Installed in the late 80s in Bourges (Cher), I continued and intensified my sculpture activity, working mainly cedar, oak, linden and wood fruit. The representation of the bodies of men and women, often fragmented and stylized, is the essence of my inspiration. Installed since 2015 in Nice I explored new forms of expression by making sculptures with barrel elements (their wooden elements, the staves, and metal hoops) and sculptures combining wood and glass (from a glass factory Biot). But I keep creating at the same time more figurative sculptures, always inspired by the body human.

What am I most proud of? I dare to answer my hands, because they are the ones who handle the tools of sculptor, but they are also a source of inspiration because I like enormously represent them. An anecdote ? A few years ago I sculpted a big bust of man. When it was finished, I treated it with linseed oil as I do with all my sculptures. Then appeared the drawing of a placed heart exactly where this organ is! But a few days later this pigmentation has disappeared ...

Fortunately I keep the picture of this ephemeral detail. My wishes ? Always find the most beautiful pieces of wood, shape them and share with an audience the emotion of the beauty of this material and the forms that I give it.