La clairière, 2004

Marc Petit   Best sellers Emerging artists

«La Clairière» is for us a major piece of Marc Petit which fully expresses what we highlight as the main characteristic of his work in our presentation of the artist. But rather than repeat ourselves let’s speak his one : «I remember a visit to Serge Lorquin* who gave me, seeing the knees of one of my sculptures, a memorable lesson. Finding that I did not bring the due respect to them, he made me a severe correction by explaining to me that, as a young sculptor, I had no right to betray Phidias, Michelangelo and Rodin. That if I did not want to realize a full-length character, it was my right, but it was inadmissible to leave part of the work to be abandoned. A foot, a bust, a torso, a torso fragment could be a work in itself.

On the other hand, if I wanted to make an entire figure, I had to respectfully treat each part. Clearly, if I did not want to carve the knees, I did not have to put them on.
I believe that this lesson, twenty years later, was very present in my mind when in 2007 I realized «La Clairière». The right foot complicated the sculpture and brought nothing, but it took me some time for daring to eliminate it. I hesitated, because I was afraid that public could see a displaced amputation that would make the whole thing anecdotal. I hope I have avoided this pitfall by maintaining the integrity of this young person.

The construction of «La Clairière», quite complex, is developed as a staircase. Our eyes are gradually moving from one point to another. It has no center and distributes its receding lines as if, in itself, several luminous points diffused their rays. These lines, if we prolong them, lead all to the void.

I struggled to stabilize its form and find its unity. The limbs were either too long or too short, like the branches where it finds support. The head has been displaced many times, hands have been redone several times. Its face, which had to keep the traces of childhood without stripping itself of its gravity, required long efforts. «La Clairière» is a realization where I had to eliminate doubt after doubt, every detail raising a problem. For a sculptor, simplicity is one of the most complex goals to achieve. But, unlike drawing, sculpture does not keep tracks of repentance. Once finished, nobody can go over the paths that had to be taken to shape it. Some are offered, others are up for grabs.»**

* Jean Serge Lorquin is a French sculptor who won the Rome Prize for sculpture in 1949. He was one of Marc Petit’s professors
** From the «Musée Marc Petit» box set published by the Lazaret - Ollandini Museum