Kirili in Dialogue with
Gaston Lachaise
French sculptor
Alain Kirili, Nataraja, 2006 & Gaston Lachaise, Burlesque Figure, 1930
Exhibition Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, april 2007
(photo © Marilia Destot)
“ The oeuvre of Lachaise inspires me in its celebration of the verticality of sculpture in the round.
To appreciate the sculpture fully, you have to walk around it. His oeuvre is also a celebration of tactility.
At the invitation of Salander- O’Reilly Galleries, I am exhibiting a selection of my sculptures in dialogue with those of Gaston Lachaise. This dialogue is an emotional one for me because it concerns both the singularity of my own identity and the formal relationship between our respective bodies of work. If the curves of my sculptures recall those of Lachaise, this may be due to a shared sense of improvisation and spontaneity, or because the stakes of the unconscious in my work echo his. I am exhibiting sculptures that belong to the series, Nataraja, 2005 named after the Hindu God of Dance, and inspired by the graceful forms of the dancing female body. In these works, I dedicate myself to the restoration of the aesthetic and ethical stakes of verticality.
My sculptures will harmonize with the bodies of Lachaise in a hymn to female verticality! ”
Alain Kirili, New York, 2006
from the Exhibition Catalogue Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, april 2007
Gaston Lachaise, Burlesque Figure, 1930 & Alain Kirili, In Extremis, 2006
Exhibition Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, april 2007
(Photos © Marilia Destot )
Gaston Lachaise,
a "French-American"
by Alain Kirili
published in the exhibition Catalogue Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, 2007
Alain Kirili on Gaston Lachaise, 2006
excerpt from Alain Kirili : sculpteur de tous les éléments, a film by Sandra Paugham, 2009
Alain Kirili/Gaston Lachaise:
Flesh in Ecstasy
by Paula Rand Hornbostel
published in the Catalogue Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, 2007
Alain Kirili, Nataraja II & In Extremis, 2006
(Photos © Marilia Destot )
“Like Lachaise, Kirili was struck by the Louvre's Nike, and has found inspiration in a wide range of sources, from ancient art to American, from African art to Indian and Nepalese. In 1965 Kirili first discovered the work of David Smith at an exhibition of American art at the Musée Rodin. Look carefully at the works of Kirili and Lachaise, for they are the product of much observation and study. You might see in them the shadow of Burgundian tomb statuary or the attributes of Shiva.”
(…)
“ The series of forged iron works called Nataraja was given its name for Nataraja, the Hindu God of Dance. Kirili finds Nataraja, one of the manifestations of Shiva, to be a marvelous expression of the jubilatory nature of Hinduism. ”
Paula Rand Hornbostel
published in the Catalogue Alain Kirili & Gaston Lachaise, Salander O’Reilly Gallery, 2007
HOMMAGE TO GASTON LACHAISE
On July 5th 2006, Alain Kirili & Paula Hornbostel were invited at Art Omi
to create a visual dialogue between the two sculptors’ works.
below the plates of their presentation
