Yves Dana, un autre regard sur la sculpture
 

From 5 October 2023, Artcurial, in collaboration with Waddington Custot, presents an exhibition of Yves Dana, known for his graceful, pared-back sculptures in stone and bronze, inspired by ancient Egyptian and Cycladic forms. This exhibition traces the creative development of this extraordinary sculptor from the mid-1990s to today, shown for the first time in France. All the sculptures presented will be available for purchase.

Two monumental works in bronze, Figure en expansion (2023) and Figure en devenir (2023), lead visitors through the space to the heart of the main exhibition.

It was a trip to Egypt in 1996, a return to his native land, that proved transformative for the artist's artistic and technical creativity. On the outskirts of the Egyptian desert, the artist began sculpting with plaster and stone, reorienting her aesthetic towards simpler forms. Dana then began his Stèles series: the work Stèle XII (1997), included in the exhibition, bears witness to the artist's particular attention to the pure lines and minimalist sculpture of Cycladic idols. Its textured surface recalls the ancient stone slabs covered with hieratic inscriptions that Dana had noticed in Egypt. Many of Dana's vertical sculptures also have their origins in this country, inspired by Egyptian feluccas: simple, traditional sailing boats from the time of the Pharaohs, still in use today.

Figure au levant, 2013 and Le silence des pierres (2017) show the different ways in which Dana reinterprets this original form to create elegant, fluid sculptures.

The artist pays close attention to surface, patina and scale. Each work, carefully laboured over in Dana’s studios in Pietrasanta and Lausanne, is created instinctively, without pre-drawings or maquettes. Instead, the sculptor responds in dialogue with the individual qualities of his material.

To accompany the exhibition, Yves Dana publishes a new, updated edition of his “catalogue raisonné”, fully illustrated, and featuring an interview between the artist and rabbi and philosopher Marc-Alain Ouaknin. A collectable limited edition of this comprehensive tome features a bronze relief recessed on top of an oak slipcase.

Yves Dana
Yves Dana was born in 1959 in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1961, the Dana family left Egypt for Switzerland, where the artist settled. After studying Sociology at the University of Lausanne (1979–1981), Dana set up his first sculpture studio and earned an MFA from l’École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Geneva, in 1983.

From then on, Dana devoted his time entirely to sculpture and spent years exploring different materials, quickly achieving recognition with regular exhibitions. Dana sources the best quality stone from around the world, including limestone from Egypt, France and Turkey, serpentine from Italy and diabase from Germany. He combines innovative carving techniques with traditional tools to create precise planar forms. With each work created over several weeks or months, the physicality of carving stone, with deep sensitivity to its tones and texture, is evident in the subtlest details of each work.

In 1987, at the suggestion of the City of Lausanne, Dana moved his studio to the Orangerie of Parc Mon Repos. The sunlit 19th-century orangery offered a double- height space that allowed Dana to create work on a larger scale. His monumental sculptures are in public spaces worldwide, including in the United States of America, France, Greece, Switzerland and Japan. Dana’s work has been selected for important museums and gallery exhibitions, including the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Jan Krugier Gallery, New York; Galerie Krugier- Ditesheim, Geneva, and Tel Aviv Museum of Art where a sculpture was installed in the entrance to the building. In 2015, Dana’s works were presented in a retrospective exhibition at Arlaud Museum, Lausanne and chronicled in a significant 420-page monograph. The same year, he received the Grand Prix from the Vaudoise Foundation for Culture. Yves Dana lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland and Pietrasanta, Italy.

Information
Browse Catalogue

Exhibition
From 5th to 26th October 2023
Closed on Sundays

7 Rond-Point
des Champs-Elysées Marcel Dassault
75008 Paris

Contact
Vanessa Favre
+33 1 42 99 16 13