Jean-Jacques Darbaud

JEAN-JACQUES D'ARBAUD (France, 1943).
"African", ca. 2000-2010.
Bronze, specimen 5/8.
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 90 x 40 x 20 cm.

This sculpture of African belongs to the most representative line of work of Jean-Jacques Darbaud. It was in the year 2000 when he began to work in this ethnographic line, of great visual power, which was very well received, finding its audience in the framework of major events in Paris at the PAD, Brussels at the BRAFA, Antwerp, Geneva, Miami in the framework of ART BASEL. Her naturalistic style is inspired by old photographic documents and obeys a permanent concern to capture in clay all those "details" of identity: headdress, jewelry, scarifications... which will then be magnified by the bronze. It is perhaps this care with which he tries to translate the detail that gives his sculptures and portraits an almost anthropological character.

The contemporary sculptor Darbaud was born in 1943 in Aix en Provence. After high school, he entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the classes of Jacques Busse, Jean Aujame and Ozip Zadkine. For many years he worked as a set designer on numerous films for cinema and television, while continuing his activity as a painter and sculptor. In 1993 he exhibited a series of large graphite drawings on wood at the Touchaleaume gallery and moved to the south of France, where he created and directed an academy of painting and sculpture. His works are part of numerous national and international private collections. Apart from bronze sculpture, he also takes pleasure in creating light sculptures and design objects. Every year, the Galerie Philippe Heim presents his work in the Tuileries as part of the "Pavillon des Arts et du Design". He exhibits permanently in Brussels, in a gallery in the Sablon, where he attracts an international clientele.