MICHEL BASSOMPIERRE
AT THE CALE DE BEAUTOUR (VERTOU)
Following on from the Animal Elegance exhibition, which ran from November 15, 2024, to February 23, 2025, the City of Vertou is welcoming two monumental works by the Grand Master of Contemporary Sculpture Michel Bassompierre to the Cale de Beautour.
La Fratrie n°2a and La Fratrie n°2b, two polar bear sculptures, are on display from May 22 to Friday, October 31, 2025.
.jpg)
La Fratrie n°2a
.jpg)
La Fratrie n°2b
MICHEL BASSOMPIERRE, GRAND MASTER OF THE CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE
.jpg)
Born in Paris in 1948 to an artist mother and a scientist father, Michel BASSOMPIERRE developed a passion for drawing and the animal world from an early age. He has breathed new life into animal sculpture, establishing himself as one of the last Grand Masters.
Focusing on round animals - bears, gorillas, Asian elephants, pandas and even horses - which he transcribes into bronze or Carrara marble, Michel BASSOMPIERRE achieves a form that is both gentle and precise, where light never clashes with shadow. With his perfectly mastered anatomy and drawing, his work shows an animality that is no longer hostile, but peaceful and benevolent. He dispenses with the anecdotal to focus on the essential: pure form, delicate curves, enveloping light that underlines the roundness of the masses from which tenderness and poetry emanate. Far from anthropomorphism, he depicts his “animal brother” as he really is: tranquil, magnetic and majestic.
His works have won over a wide audience in every corner of the globe, and have been exhibited in New York, London, Valencia, Miami and Venice. After exhibiting his monumental sculptures in 2024 at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, the Rosa BONHEUR Museum (77), the InterContinental Paris - Le Grand, Saint-Malo and Cologny (Switzerland), Michel BASSOMPIERRE will be showing his work at La Mamounia (Marrakech) in December 2024 and in New York in 2025.