alberto guzmán (1927-2017)

Born in 1927 in Talara, Peru and died on November 2, 2017 in Nogent sur Marne. The Parisian sculptor of Peruvian origin, Alberto Guzmán, studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Lima, where in 1953 he exhibited his first abstract sculpture in welded iron. He then organized his first solo exhibition at the Instituto de Arte Contemporaneo in Lima in 1959, when he obtained, through a competition, a scholarship offered by French government to study in Paris. Two years later, he presented his sculptures in welded wire at the Musée d’art modern de la Ville de Paris as part of the exhibition "Latin American Art in Paris", then at the “Salon de la Jeune Sculpture”. Guzmán implements a universal language in which two half-spheres are held apart at a distance by metallic wires in tension which translate the impossibility for the human being to achieve essential unity. Guzmán also exhibited in Caracas and Valencia in 1965 and participated in the Venice Biennale the following year. From the 1970s, the artist sought to transpose his creations into marble and began to work in chiaroscuro by making drawings on paper or cardboard in which he then made perforations and cutouts. Guzmán received the Bourdelle Prize in 1971 and organized the following year at the Musée Bourdelle a personal exhibition of his sculptures and drawings from 1959 to 1972. In 1973, he took part in the exhibition "Sculptures en Montagnes" on the Plateau d 'Assy in the French Alpes and then subsequently presented his work at the European Sculpture Triennial at the Grand Palais (1982) and at the Havana Biennale (1986). Along with his career as a sculptor, Guzmán produced jewelry, furniture and theater sets. In 2012, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Pau organized a retrospective exhibition of his pictorial and sculptural work which highlighted half a century of artistic reflection.

Place verte

1992

Onyx and bronze

60 x 60 x 30 cm

Price: 40.000 euros

Publication : Restany, Pierre; Lambert, Jean-Clarence; Brice-Echenique, Alfredo ; Persin, Patrick-Gilles ; Guzman, Vincent (Ed.): Alberto Guzman. Paris 2008, p. 235.