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Alicia Penalba
"She curves stone or silver, gold or wood, but always by detaching them from the original magma. (Pablo Neruda)"
+ Coup de coeur
"Coup de coeur" by Alicia Penalba
Composition XXI d'Alicia Penalba, gouache sur papier de 1958. - Avril 2022
Qui autant qu'Alicia Penalba tutoya les étoiles ? La jeune femme, énergique, curieuse de tout, indépendante, déterminée s'il en est, n'a-t-elle pas toujours quitté ses repères pour voler vers son destin ? Ce sera sa famille, en 1934 - elle a 16 ans -, pour rejoindre Buenos Aires, la grande capitale argentine où elle fera ses études à l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts ; ce sera son pays, en 1948, pour la France. « Je rêve de venir à Paris, et un jour, je pars, laissant tout mon passé pictural et autres dans mon pays natal. Commence la grande quête ! Je veux tout voir, tout absorber. Je suis très sensible au désir de paix qui flotte sur Paris, » écrira-t-elle.
Alicia Penalba obtient une petite bourse d'étude. Elle s'inscrit à l'atelier libre de gravure de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, parvient à louer, en 1950, un atelier à Montrouge tout en travaillant à la Grande-Chaumière chez Zadkine. Alicia Penalba lui sera toujours reconnaissante de lui avoir conseillé de s'isoler et de travailler toute seule : « Vous êtes trop indépendante et vous n'avez plus besoin de mes conseils, » lui dit le grand sculpteur. La jeune artiste part donc à la découverte d'elle-même, c'est le but essentiel de sa recherche.
+ Stamp
Stamp by Alicia Penalba
fictional stamp
The publication of a postal stamp is often a homage paid by a nation to a place, an event, a remarkable cause or a character which count. The painters and other artists do not escape from this rule. Some are however "forgotten" of postal art. Here, gathered below (French or foreign), emitted stamps (206) or simple studies of stamp (224) in homage to the artists represented on our website. The first French stamp was emitted in 1849, England preceded us by ten years. There is often a share of voyage in this small form of shape paper. The stamp circulates, sails, flies away, it makes dream, then dream a little. M.C.
When the stamp is really emitted, the artist name is preceded of an asterisk (*). It is certain that we do not know each stamp emitted for such or such artist; do not hesitate with us to make known them!
Discover all the stamps
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Notes of biography
Alicia Peñalba is born in 1913 in San Pedro, Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Following her father, builder of railways in the countries of Latin America, as a child, she grows up with the deserts and tropical forests. Alicia Peñalba is later on, a student in drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.
After moving to Paris in 1948, she abandons painting to devote herself exclusively to sculpture; she works for three years in the workshop of Ossip Zadkine at the Large Thatched Cottage. In 1952, Alicia Peñalba shows her work in numerous community events and Salons in Paris (Salon of Young Sculpture, New Realities Salon, International Exhibition of Rodin Museum, various biennials, etc.). Her works are also shown in solo exhibitions, the first being held in Paris in 1957.
In 1952, the artist has acquired some of the constants that would characterize her style, working the verticality of totems that evoke petrified exotic plants. Over the years, her work continues in this direction, but sculptures designed for architectural integration are added (petal shapes hanging in space with extremely audacious solutions).
If the first part of her work makes Alicia Peñalba an interesting sculptor among many others in the mainstream of international abstraction of the 60s, the second part, new vision of sculpture, places her among the major sculptors of her generation (Etienne-Martin, Stahly, Germaine Richier, Caroline Lee, etc.).
Alicia Peñalba throughout her artistic career sees her work exhibited in France and abroad (Museum of Modern Art in Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Eindhoven, Leverkusen, etc.). In 1961, she receives the grand prize for sculpture at the Biennial of Sao Paulo. Alicia Peñalba receives large and multiple public and private orders, her work is part of the collections of major international museums, especially the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (Netherlands), alongside works created by the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century.
Alicia Peñalba dies accidentally near Dax (Landes, France) in 1982.
Artists on display
The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.
Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.
We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.
Complete work(s)
Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete worksBibliographic track and more
To read about the artist :
- « Penalba », Patrick Waldberg, Ed. du Dragon, Paris, 1957
- « Alicia Penalba », Michel Seuphor, Bodensee Verlag, Amriswil, 1960
- « Penalba », Galerie Charles Lienhard, Zurich, 1961
- « Penalba, Alicia », Cat., Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 1964
- « Penalba. Sculptures », Galerie d'Art Moderne Feigel, Bâle, 1971
- « Alicia Penalba », in revue Nouvelles images, n° 28, octobre 1974
- « Le grand livre des bijoux », Ernst A et Jeanne Heiniger, Ed. Vilo, Paris, 1974
- « Arte argentino y critica europea », Tomas Alva Negri, Ed. Bonino, Buenos Aires, 1975
- « Penalba », Jörn Merkert, Carmen Martinez Ed., Paris, 1977
- « La sculpture moderne en France - A. Penalba », Aube Lardera, Arted Ed. d'Art, 1982
To read from the artist :
- « L'objet », in Chroniques de l'Art vivant, N°19, Maeght, Paris, 1971
- « Entretien avec un grand sculpteur de notre temps », in journal 24 heures, Lausanne, 1975
Website :
penalba.com/More :
+ Stamp
Stamp by Alicia Penalba
fictional stamp
The publication of a postal stamp is often a homage paid by a nation to a place, an event, a remarkable cause or a character which count. The painters and other artists do not escape from this rule. Some are however "forgotten" of postal art. Here, gathered below (French or foreign), emitted stamps (206) or simple studies of stamp (224) in homage to the artists represented on our website. The first French stamp was emitted in 1849, England preceded us by ten years. There is often a share of voyage in this small form of shape paper. The stamp circulates, sails, flies away, it makes dream, then dream a little. M.C.
When the stamp is really emitted, the artist name is preceded of an asterisk (*). It is certain that we do not know each stamp emitted for such or such artist; do not hesitate with us to make known them!
Discover all the stamps
+ Watch
Watch
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Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.
These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier
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