EXHIBITED:
Triennale de la Petite Sculpture, Fellbach, Germany, 1986
Skulpturen von Malern, Mannheim Kunstverein, Germany, 1987
Beelden van Schilders, Museum van Bommel, Venlo, Netherlands, 1987
Gérard Garouste, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 28 – October 27, 1988
Garouste/Garouste & Bonetti, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Meymac, France, 1996
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Frankreich, Europäischen Zentralbank, Francfort, Germany, 1999
Gérard Garouste Rétrospective 1979-1991, Galerie Liliane et Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris, France, 2001

ILLUSTRATED:
G.G. Lemaire, Gérard Garouste, Paris 1983, color illustrated, no. 26
Gérard Garouste, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 1988, black and white illustrated, p. 110
P. Cabanne, Gérard Garouste, Ed. de la Différence, Paris, 1990, color illustrated, p. 107
Gérard Garouste: Les Indiennes, Touko Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Expo, 1990, color illustrated, p. 43
Gérard Garouste oeuvres récentes, expo. cat., Bevédère du Château, Prague, Czech Republic, 1991, color illustrated, p. 39
Gérard Garouste, expo. cat., Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienne, Austria, 1992, color illustrated, p. 39
P. Cabanne, Ed., Gérard Garouste, Expressions Contemporaines, Angers, France, 2000, color illustrated, pp. 94-95

LE DÉFI DU SOLEIL
GÉRARD GAROUSTE

Gérard Garouste was born in 1946 in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Singier, an abstract painter. In Garouste’s works, there are often references to canonical artists, including Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp, El Greco, with a fusion of the surrealism and emotionally charged expressive scenes. However, he refused to be categorized as one specific group as he was regarded avant-garde during his time. To reflect on the thoughts of avant-garde, Garouste was interested in looking at what we are made of and attempted to decipher the meanings of symbols and the power it may possess underneath these signs.

The faces and bodies of his figures are often contorted with emotional intensity, set against a moody background. This is largely due to his early pursuit in the fields of theater. Being the most celebrated French painter-sculptor of the 1980s, Garouste held his first exhibition at the Durand-Dessert Gallery at the age of 34. After two years later, he received international recognition when his works were shown at the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York. Not long after he gained institutional recognition by CAPC of Bordeaux (Centre d'Arts Plastiques Contemporains de Bordeaux) and Foundation Cartier in 1987. His works are also in the Collection of Centre Pompidou, Ludwig Museum.

Le Classique et l'Indien (The Class and the Indian) was a theater show written and directed by Garouste in 1977 when he worked as a scenographer. The theme of Indiennes first developed in the late 80’s in Garouste’s paintings, they were inspired by Genesis, Exodus, the Zohar, or Dante’s Inferno in order to offer a meditation on the human condition. Since then, Garouste transformed these inspirations into installations.

Apollo and Dionysian are both sons of Zeus, two characters with opposing natures and appeared in Le Défi du Soleil. The opposing concepts of Apollonian and Dionysian originated from the ancient Greek mythology represent dichotomy. These terms were used by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy, for everything that is structured; with form that defines individuality is Apollonian in character. Apollo as the god of light, related to order, logic and self-consciousness. Sculpture would be the Apollonian form of art for it having the shape and structure. On the contrary, Dionysus being the god of wine, represents drunkenness and ecstasy, giving up his individuality and rationality, music becomes the Dionysian type of art. Although both opposing forces are present in Greek tragedy due to tensions of the two, one character needs one another to bring out the personality. Garouste believed they both coexist in human being, too. In fact, Garouste was diagnosed with bipolar in the 1970s coincidently. The battling of depression against euphoria is a constant struggle for the artist, this ‘madness’ is sometimes hinted in certain games he invented, such as Isaïe d'Issenheim, where broken body is being attacked by delirium. Similarly, two heros embodying two sides of the emotions, tragedy setting against joy is essentially the meaning of life.

Originally Le Défi du Soleil was a small bronze sculpture intended for the Royal Palace in 1986, nearly twenty-five years later, a monumental bronze sculpture of Le Défi du Soleil was installed in the park of Saint-Cloud in 2013. When installing the monumental sculpture in Saint Cloud, Garouste redesigned its work by arranging the scene in circular structure of six meters in diameter. Scattering enigmatic clues around the basin, making oneself wonder about the work and the likelihood of the rising winner. In the current lot, the bronze attributes bearing symbols of Greek mythology, representing three persons and one animal as follows: Atropos, Thanatos, Clotho and Cerbère. Garouste developed some sort of a game by arranging these attributes differently; it could result in up to thirty-two combinations. In broad terms, Cerbère and Thanatos represented death, while Atropos and Clotho symbolized life, again, the arrangement of their attributes could evoke greater unimaginable possibilities. Garouste is excellent in leaving enigmatic clues in his works; sometimes questioning is the way to discover the truth in life.