Fragile Giants - Park Avenue, New York
Since May 17, 2025, nine monumental works by Michel Bassompierre, including a unique gorilla sculpture, have been on display on Park Avenue in New York City. Until May 2026, the Fragile Giants exhibition raises awareness of the beauty and fragility of the living world.
In this gentle encounter between art and biodiversity, the Grand Master of contemporary sculpture initiates a poetic dialogue between the city that never sleeps and the wild world, which urgently needs to be preserved...
An exhibition in partnership with Galeries Bartoux, Patrons of Park Avenue, and the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association.
Michel BASSOMPIERRE, Grand Master of contemporary sculpture
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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 great 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, Marrakech (La Mamounia) and Cologny (Switzerland), Michel BASSOMPIERRE is exhibiting his works on Park Avenue in New York, from May 2025 to May 2026.