Criqué, 2019

Christian Renonciat  

?Born in Paris in 1947, I studied literature at the Sorbonne, and I hold a BA in philosophy.

Wishing to have a more concrete activity, I joined Jean-Louis Gonnet?s studio in Antibes, where I learned in six years all the techniques connected to my favorite material, wood. I opened my own studio in 1975 in Valbonne, and my first sculptures were born.

Back in Paris the following year, I had my first exhibition at the Alain Blondel Gallery. Over the years my interest in the material of things as a subject started to get defined, an I was sculpting the wood into various representations, from the more [hyper]realistic to the almost abstract ones.

In 1984, I have taken another parallel track: the monumental works, for which I wanted to combine imagination and technique in a variety of materials (steel, bronze, aluminum but also garden design) employing very often the tone of an imaginary archeology. The installations in Saumur, Tokyo, Sapporo, Atlanta, San Francisco, Monte-Carlo, Aytré, La Rochelle, Paris, Reims, London, etc. witness this direction in my work.

For the last twelve years, I have decided to dedicate myself again full-time to my work in wood, around "the substance of things", and I have a workshop in the Touraine, close to Chenonceaux; I also work in Paris, in my workshop in Issy-les-Moulineaux.?

- Christian Renonciat