» I am cement " said Claude de Soria. As if the material, which had become central and indispensable to his creation, had stuck to his skin...
"These cement jewels by Claude de Soria, which are sculptures worn directly on the body, clearly demonstrate this fusion between the work, the material, and the artist. Wearing an artist's jewel is, in essence, appropriating the most intimate part of his work, and in the case of Claude de Soria, it is merging into this fusion, extending it, in a way."
Esther de Beaucé, January 2017.
Born in 1926 in Paris, Claude de Soria took refuge in the South during the war and embarked in 1943 for Tunisia where she finished her secondary studies.
Back in France, she took classes with André Lhote and then Fernand Léger. In 1952, she discovered and perfected her technique through contact with Ossip Zadkine. She recorded her impressions in her sketchbooks, which she carried with her throughout her travels in Italy and Spain.
From 1953, she moved to the provinces and worked with clay and bronze. But these two materials did not satisfy her.
It was in 1973 that Claude de Soria definitively found her calling thanks to a bag of cement left by a mason in the courtyard of her workshop. From that moment on, and until the end of her life, she would only work with cement. She understood the benefits she could get from this malleable material, which she handled only with her hand and a trowel. Over time, she experimented with different dosages, cement powders, and sands. She left a lot of room for chance so that the material would live. She obtained varied abstract forms that she called balls, rods, flat folds, points, blades, counter-blades, openings, slats, needles…
In 2000, Soria began using the remaining cement left at the bottom of her plastic tubs to create smaller sculptures. She found the same interplay of brilliance and brutality in them as in her monumental works. These pieces would become wearable sculptures and jewelry for the artist. Pendants, rings, brooches—each one is unique.
She has exhibited in numerous museums (Centre Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Museum of Decorative Arts, Fondation Cartier, etc.) and galleries (Galerie Germain, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Galerie Montenay, Galerie Tendances, Galerie Laurent Godin).
She died in 2015, leaving behind more than 2 works.
The jewelry presented at the MiniMasterpiece Gallery is the latest work by Claude de Soria.
About the MiniMasterpiece Gallery:
The MiniMasterpiece Gallery—created in spring 2012 by Esther de Beaucé—is the first Parisian gallery exclusively dedicated to the production and sale of jewelry by contemporary visual artists and designers. A piece of artist jewelry, like a painting or sculpture, is a work of art. Born from the same creative process, it possesses the strength, poetry, provocation, and sometimes humor of each. Their purpose alone distinguishes them.
The gallery's ambition is to engage renowned contemporary artists and designers to create unique and exclusive jewelry projects. To date, the gallery has collaborated directly with artists François Morellet, Pierette Bloch, Lee Ufan, Bernar Venet, Barthélémy Toguo, Claude Lévêque, Vera Molnar, Françoise Pétrovitch, Miguel Chevalier, Pablo Reinoso, Sophia Vari, Andres Serrano, and designers Christian Ghion, Constance Guisset, François Azambourg, Nestor Perkal, Cédric Ragot, and David Dubois.
Yann Delacour, artist, sculptor, and photographer, created the gallery's visual identity. He designs and creates all of the scenographies at the gallery and at fairs (Design Basel, Art Paris, Pad Paris, Art Elysées, etc.).
Exhibition at the MiniMasterpiece Gallery, 16, rue des Saints-Pères – 75007 PARIS
From March 17 to April 26, 2017.
Claudie V.
