Robert Wlérick

ROBERT WLÉRICK (Mont de Marsan, 1882-Paris, 1944).
"Toilette", 1928.
Bronze.
Ed. 8/10.
Signed and numbered at the bottom.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture of the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Reproduced in the catalog of this exhibition, edited by the Fundació de les Arts i els Artistes, 2014.
Measurements: 62 x 18 x 16 cm.
With his sculpture "Toilette", Robert Wlérick takes up the classic theme of the bather and inscribes it in modernity, by representing an everyday female figure, refusing both timeless idealism and traditional naturalistic realism. Certainly, in this bronze the sculptor manages to synthesize in a self-absorbed gesture and a veristic anatomy but far from all anecdotes the key to his artistic understanding: simplicity and harmony but without lending itself to lyricism or falling into obsolete canons. Robert Wlérick was one of the most outstanding sculptors of the New French classicism, and became one of the most influential artists of his generation in the later practice of the discipline. He was a member of the group of sculptors known as the "Bande à Scnegg", who gathered around Lucien
Schnegg (1864-1909), who explored the plastic possibilities of the renewed classical language in modern sculpture. In 1913, Robert Wlérick began teaching at the Germain Pilon School, the School of Applied Arts and the Grande Chaumière. He exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and in 1917, he participated with Bourdelle, Dejean, Despiau and Maillol in the founding of the Salon des Tuileries. He also participated in the Salon des Artistes décorateurs at the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, where he was represented by four works, and regularly sent works to the Salon d'Automne. He participated in the 1937 International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques with commissions such as a Zeus for the Electricity Pavilion, The Offering for the Petit Palais and Youth, exhibited with the "Masters of Independent Art". In 1994, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Wlérick's death, four French museums such as the Musée Bourdelle in Paris and the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan organized an exhibition of his sketches and drawings. An anthology of texts was published in 1991. The artist's main works are exhibited at the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan. Some works are also exhibited at the Coubertin Foundation in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (Yvelines).