C Mercier

'Claude Mercier (1924 – 2019) He was born in Paris, Lycée Janson de Sailly then entered the Ecole Boulle in the wood sculpture section. In 1944, he joined the Air Force in France then in the Royal Air Force. In 1946, he worked in the studio of Marcel Gimond at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, an expert in figurative sculpture. After graduating, Claude Mercier turned away from preparatory plaster and opted for metal. 1950 Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. 1952 Cité d'artistes 14th arrondissement, Paris. In 1954, he met Henry Moore in London. In 1955, he met Alberto Giacometti. From 1960 he regularly exhibited his new sculptures in the Salons for 'La jeune sculpture', 'Comparisons', 'Réalités nouvelles', 'Salon de Mars', 'Salon de Mai', 'Le salon de Montrouge', 'Grands et Jeunes d'aujourd'hui'. From 1964 he created jewelry sculptures exhibited at the Hesse Museum Darmstadt, Germany. 1968, Argos Gallery, Nantes with Braque, Mathieu. 1971 '1500th anniversary of the birth of Dürer' Nuremberg. 1974 Maison de la Culture de Saint-Etienne. Fabre Museum, Montpellier. 1977 Attali Gallery, Paris. 2008 Martel Greiner Gallery, Paris. 1971, Mercier, Mathieu, Raymond Galliera Museum, Paris 'Air France and the Art of Today'. Exhibitions 1961 Galerie Ursula Girardon, Paris. Gallerie XXII Marzo, Venice, Italy. 1962 Hayes Gallery Palm Beach in the United States. 1971 Musée Galliera with Mathieu and Raymond Pagès 'Air France and the Art of Today'. An art critic wrote that: 'Faced with the blank sheet of paper, the artist launches himself without concern for representation, and draws with a light hand his future abstract sculpture. Passing into the 3rd dimension, he appropriates the space to design a sculpture which, through the power of metal, will become aerial.'

Numerous collections include: France Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, National Fund of Contemporary Art, Paris, Regional Fund of Contemporary Art of Ile-de-France, Prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis Bobigny, Town Hall of Allones, Sarthe, Sandelin Museum, Saint Omer, Roquebrune Museum, Municipal Museum of Dunkirk, as well as many monumental sculptures for public spaces in France.

International collections

Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, Hesse Museum, Darmstadt, Germany, Toronto Foundation, Canada, etc.' Excerpt from 'Art of the School of Paris in the 20th Century Post-War (1945-2000)' Lise Cormery, Michelangelo Publications, Paris, 2020.