René Iché

René Iché (January 21, 1897, Salleles-d'Aude, France – December 23, 1954, Paris) was a 20th century French sculptor.

Life and work [*Robert Maillard, "Dictionary of Modern Sculpture", 1962. Tudor. 310 pages. Page 141.
*Michel Seuphor, "The Sculpture of this Century, Dictionary of Modern Sculpture". 1959. Zwemmer. 372 pages. Page 282.]

René Iché fought in World War I, where he was injured and gazed. After the war, gradued in law, he changed his life and studied sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle and architecture with Auguste Perret. In 1927, his pacific monument of Ouveillan (a Monumental Modern portic in the South of France) was very appreciated. During his first solo exhibition, at the gallery of Léopold Zborowski, in 1931, two sculptures were acquired by Modern museums in Paris and Rotterdam.

Iché was a very good friend of Max Jacob, close to Guillaume Apollinaire, Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Zadkine and a childhood friend of Joe Bousquet. He sculpted the faces of André Breton [Lyford Amy, Surrealist masculinities, Ed. University Presses Of California, Columbia And Princeton (United States), 2007.] , Paul Eluard and Federico Garcia Lorca.

In his studio of Montparnasse, in 1937, he executed a terrific Guernica' sculpture on the day (April 27, 1937) of the announcement of this event on the radio station and didn't wish to exhib it before...

He was amongst one of the 200 pioneers of the French Resistance during the summer of 1940 and paticiped at the Degenerate art exhibitions. He sculpted so "La Déchirée" ("The Torn"), which was brought to London and given to Général de Gaulle and become one of the symbol of the French Resistance.

He was chosen to sculpt "the Apollinaire Monument" in Paris [Peter Read, Picasso and Apollinaire. Ed. University Presses Of California, Columbia And Princeton (United States), april 2008.] and a "Auchwitz' Memorial" in Poland, but both projects were interrupted by his premature death.

Iché's work is close to surrealism and like the sculptors Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier inherits an aesthetic born from the workshop of Antoine Bourdelle.

Movie

Jean-Pierre Melville's film Army of Shadows (L'Armée des ombres, 1969) is based, like the novel of Joseph Kessel, on the Resistance network, where Iché partipated: Cohors-Asturies. The character of Luc Jardie (Paul Meurisse) is inspired by Iché.

ee also

*Art manifesto

References

*"Bibliographic Guide to Art and Architecture", 1978. G.K. Hall. Page 488.
*Jane Clapp, "Sculpture Index". 1970. Scarecrow Press. x pages. Page 459.
*Robert Maillard, "Dictionary of Modern Sculpture", 1962. Tudor. 310 pages. Page 141.
*Michel Seuphor, "The Sculpture of this Century, Dictionary of Modern Sculpture". 1959. Zwemmer. 372 pages. Page 282.
*Julian Park, "The culture of France in our time". 1954. Cornell University Press. 345 pages. Page 87
*Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, "Index of Artists, International-biographical Including Painters, Sculptors ..." 1935. R.R. Bowker Co. 493 pages. ISBN 0901571768. Page 136.

External links

* [http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYVI71Lqhw French TV show (english subtitles), Guernica by Rene Iche]
* [http://www.rene-iche.com/ Official Website (in french)]
* [http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=8A8F8B1C-A5EB-9285-2F2D3D120B778358 artist page]
* [http://www.centrepompidou.fr Pompidou Center]