An entire city to exhibit his works. This is Draguignan’s gift to the sculptor Beppo. The artist celebrates his 60-year career and for the occasion, he was able to arrange his monumental sculptures according to the squares and alleys of the town of Var where he lives.
An artistic journey punctuated by 21 works linked together thanks to an educational circuit that give the city another face. “I think it’s super pretty, it changes what you can see”, reports a resident. “It allows you to discover artists and it gives a little pep to the city”, rejoices another walker.
Far from any academicism, Beppo practices a sculpture contrary to what he was taught, always guided by inspiration. “My work is almost that of a boilermaker, a locksmith. The main thing is that the result comes as close as possible to these blurred images that I had before the realization”, he explains about his creations.
Monumental and light, this is how Beppo envisions sculpture. From wood to stone, including earth and finally metal, the artist has explored all the materials to create his works, carrées, angular, impressive by their size. “All the subtlety of sculpture is to make people forget their weight”, he told the Artsper sales site.
Beppo was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1943. His real name Jean Laugier, the nickname Beppo was given to him by one of his high school teachers. After completing his secondary studies, he entered the Beaux-Arts de Toulon in 1962 and then joined the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1964. He frequented César and Albert Féraud and assisted the latter in 1971 as part of the production of a monumental sculpture intended for the house of sports and youth of Draguignan.
It was in the 1970s that he returned to Draguignan where he set up his studio among the olive trees. But due to a lack of means, he abandoned the classic materials of sculpture to devote himself to sheet metal and the metals he recovered from car bodywork. And it is with this steel that the sculptor found all the lightness he gives to his works.
Exhibition “Beppo in the city” in Draguignan until October 2, 2022
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