Jaume Plensa

JAUME PLENSA (Barcelona, 1955).
"Tel Aviv man (Head)", 2010.
Bronze, copy 2/8.
Signed and numbered.
Attached invoice from Lelong Gallery, 2010.
Measurements: 10,5 x 9,5 x 6 cm.(figure); 30 x 25,5 x 25,5 x 25,5 cm.(plexiglass box).

"Tel Aviv Man (Head)" (2010) is an intimate format piece, a limited edition collector's work, which condenses the artist's philosophical ideas into a delicate and conceptual object.

It is a common practice for Plensa to explore the same form through different "skins": sometimes solid, sometimes as a curtain of light, and, as in this case, as an ethereal structure of language. The work at hand is the antithesis of monumentality; its power lies in its fragility and precision. The bust is constructed entirely as an openwork mesh, similar to a tracery. The material has been cut and welded.

The "skin" of the sculpture is formed by letters of multiple alphabets (Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, etc.). The letters are not there to be read. They do not form words. Plensa uses them as "cells" or "bricks", the basic component of thought. The head is defined visually as a container made of language.

Being a completely openwork structure, the sculpture is more emptiness than matter. There is no face, no eyes, no expression; the identity of the figure is the web that forms it. Light passes through it, making it seem light, almost an echo or a ghost.

The transparent vitrine is an integral part of the piece. It isolates the sculpture in its own space, emphasizing its status as a precious object and contemplation, almost like a conceptual relic.

"Tel Aviv Man (Head) is part of a larger series of sculptures and installations in which Plensa uses letters to shape a skeletal silhouette; in 2017, one of Plensa's figures was installed in London's Regent's Park as part of the Frieze Sculpture exhibition.

Plensa has always considered the word as a material element worthy of manipulation: through words entire histories and civilizations are established, encoded, and remembered. As the artist himself noted: "I loved the physical aspect of text. I remember leafing through books and feeling bewildered because, while I was looking at a page, the previous one had already disappeared, although it had become part of me. I dreamed of transforming the letters into something physical. In my works, words and letters acquire weight and volume. In this way, they endure and do not disappear" (J. Plensa quoted in M. Stoeber, "Transforming Energy", Sculpture Magazine, March 2006, p. 40). This sense of duality characterizes Plensa's sculptures, in which form and gesture remain irresolvable. Letters become beings that can never be fully understood.

Jaume Plensa studied at the Escuela de La Llotja and the Superior de Bellas Artes de Sant Jordi, both in Barcelona. He excelled in sculpture, drawing and engraving. His work focuses on the relationship between man and his environment, often questioning the role of art in society and the position of the artist. He currently lives in Paris, and has recently been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Plensa began his career working with wrought iron mixed with polyester. Between 1983 and 1984 he began to mold iron with the casting technique, and developed a sculptural concept based on zoomorphic elements. His work evolved gradually, and he is now considered a precursor of Spanish neo-expressionism. In the nineties he introduced modifications in his work, both materially and formally, and began to use different materials such as scrap metal, polyester and resins. During these years he elaborated series of walls, doors and architectural constructions, seeking to give space an absolute protagonism. Between 1999 and 2003 Plensa became one of the pillars of world scenography, reinterpreting with "La Fura dels Baus" four classical operas by Falla, Debussy, Berlioz and Mozart, and alone a contemporary theatrical production, "La pareti della solitudine", by Ben Jelloun. He has had solo and group exhibitions all over the world, including a retrospective at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in 2000. In June 2008 he inaugurated in London, at the BBC headquarters, his work "Breathing", a monument dedicated to journalists killed in the exercise of their profession. Throughout his career he has received numerous distinctions, such as the Medal of the Knights of Arts and Letters in 1993, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, or the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1997, from the Generalitat of Catalonia. Considered one of the leading representatives of the new Spanish art of expressionist tendency, his work is present in the best national and international galleries and art fairs, as well as in the main museums of Europe and the United States, such as the MOMA in New York, the Kemper in Kansas, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Palazzo Forti in Verona, the MACBA or the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.