Toni Grand
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Toni Grand (born Antoine Pierre Charles Grand; 2 February 1935 – 29 November 2005) was a French sculptor. In his early career he was associated with the Supports/Surfaces group. He represented France at the 1982
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
and his work has been shown in major museums.


Biography

Grand was born and grew up in Gallargues-le-Montueux, a village in Gard. He went to college at the Armangaud House in Aigues-Vives, where he met Claude Viallat, a member of the Supports/Surfaces group. He studied literature in Montpellier and then studied for a year at the School of Fine Arts. He met at this time his future wife, Amélie Vasseur. He began sculpting in 1955. In 1967, Grand exhibited at the 5th
Biennale de Paris The ''Biennale de Paris'' (English: Paris Biennale) is a noted French art festival, established in 1959. In 1983, the organization ceased functions, until its reestablishment in 2000 with the first exhibition of the new era occurring in 2004. T ...
. He taught at the
École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
in Paris, until 1976, then in Marseille. In 1982, he was chosen along with
Simon Hantaï Simon Hantaï (7 December 1922, Biatorbágy, Hungary – Paris, 12 September 2008; took French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art. Biography After studying at the Budapest School of Fine Art, he traveled ...
to represent France at the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. He taught at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes in Nîmes from 1986. His last exhibition in France was 1994 at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. Grand's had an institutional exhibition in 2000 at the
Renaissance Society The Renaissance Society, founded in 1915, is a leading independent contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago, with a focus on the commissioning and production of new works by international artists. The kunsthalle- ...
in Chicago in the United States. In 2024, a major exhibition was organized at the Musée Fabre, in Montpellier, France. Grand died in Mouriès, Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) on November 29, 2005.


Work

Grand created sculptures that focused on materiality. He preferred a deconstructionist approach and attempted to explore the pre-existing qualities of his materials. In ''Artforum'' Simone Menegoi writes about "Grand's career-long interest in the dialectic between nature and culture, between the human gesture that appropriates and transforms and the materials to which it is applied." Grand used a variety of different materials in his work. His early sculptures, up until the end of the 1960s, were often made with lead, aluminum and steel. From the late 1960s to the mid-1970s he worked primarily with wood. During the late 1970s he began to experiment with synthetic resins applied to wrap stones, wood, bones and even fish.


Exhibitions


Solo exhibitions

* 1986: contemporary galleries, Center Georges-Pompidou, Paris. * 1994: national gallery of the Jeu de Paume. * 2000: Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA. * 2013: MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland. * 2024: Fabre museum, Montpellier, France.


Group exhibitions

* 1984: ''An international survey of recent painting and sculpture'', Museum of Modern Art, New York. * 1987: ''The era, Fashion, Morality, Passion'', Center Georges-Pompidou, Paris.


Collections

Grand's work is held in the following permanent collections: *
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, Paris: 22 works (as of 5 May 2022) *
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York: 1 work (as of 5 May 2022)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand, Toni École des Beaux-Arts alumni 20th-century French sculptors 1935 births 2005 deaths