Lucien Wercollier

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Lucien Wercollier in his workshop around 1995

Lucien Wercollier (born July 26, 1908 in Luxembourg ; † April 24, 2002 in Luxembourg) was a Luxembourgish sculptor .

Life

Lucien Wercollier was born the son of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Wercollier. From 1924 to 1927 he studied at the crafts school in Luxembourg, then until 1933 at the art academy in Brussels and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris with Henri Bouchard. After his return he took on a teaching position at the Handwierkerschoul Lëtzebuerg. Here he taught technical drawing and introduction to architecture.

In 1936 he married Yvonne Schmit, with whom he had two children. A year later he met the painter Joseph Kutter , whose work inspired him. During this time he was working on a sculpture for the Luxembourg pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris .

In 1941, when Luxembourg was occupied by Germany, Wercollier was asked to join the Reich Chamber of Culture . After his refusal, he was banned from exhibiting. He was a member of the Letzeburg People's Legion, a resistance organization that worked against the Nazi regime. When he took part in the nationwide general strike against forced recruitment on September 4, 1942, he was arrested and taken to the Hinzert concentration camp . Then he was sent to the Lublin camp in Poland. In June 1945 he returned to Luxembourg and resumed his work at the Handwierkerschoul.

Wercollier monument, memorial in the SS special camp in Hinzert
Wercollier's sculpture “Affection” in the Rhine complex in Koblenz

In 1948 he founded the group La Nouvelle Équipe together with the artists François Gillen , Victor Jungblut and Joseph Probst , with which he wanted to distance himself from the traditional art business. With Iconomaques , a group of progressive artists, Lucien Wercoll made the final break with traditional representational art in 1954 in favor of abstract forms of expression.

In the years that followed, Wercollier created many works from various materials for public spaces. It wasn't until he was 50 that he was able to sell a bronze sculpture to a private collector. In 1965 he stopped teaching in order to devote himself entirely to his artistic work. His progressively weak health no longer allowed him to complete a plastic he had started in 1999. Lucien Wercollier died on April 24, 2002 at the age of 93.

plant

Wercollier is considered one of the most important protagonists of contemporary Luxembourg art. His first works were influenced by Aristide Maillol and Henri Laurens . Like many of his artist colleagues at the time, Wercollier gave up objective representation in the course of his development and turned to non-representational, abstract form. Although most of his work is done in bronze and marble , he also used other materials such as wood, alabaster or onyx marble for his sculptures.

His works are in the Musée National d'Art Moderne , Paris ; Musée de la Résistance Esch / Luxembourg ; Musee de Metz ; Miami University, Oxford / Ohio; The Israel Museum Hakyria, Jerusalem ; European Court of Justice , Luxembourg; Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken ; BP Gallery Antwerp ; Ostend City Museum ; Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , Washington, DC , Neumünster Abbey, Luxemburg-Grund and in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

literature

  • Linda Eischen among others: Wercollier et ses amis peintres Gillen, Probst, Stoffel , Trémont . Villa Vauban , Luxembourg 2003, ISBN 2-919878-48-4 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Galerie d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg, April 30 to September 7, 2003).
  • Joseph-Émile Muller: Lucien Wercollier (Les Maîtres de la Sculpture Contemporaine). Arted, Paris 1976, ISBN 2-85067-038-3 .
  • Michel Ragon, Michel Seuphor : Wercollier Lucien . In: Diess. L'art abstrait, Vol. 4: 1945-1970. Biography of the artistes. Maeght, Paris 1974.

Web links

Commons : Lucien Wercollier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph-Émile Muller: Lucien Wercollier (Les Maîters de la Sculpure Contemporaine). Arted, Paris 1976.
  2. ↑ Aloyse Raths: Homage to Lucien Wercollier. 1983.
  3. ↑ Wercollier Lucien. In: Georges Hausemer (Ed.): Luxemburger Lexikon. The Grand Duchy of A-Z . Editions Guy Binsfeld, Luxembourg 2006, ISBN 978-2-87954-156-3 .
  4. ↑ Linda Eischen and others: Wercollier et ses amis peintres Gillen, Probst, Stoffel, Trémont . Villa Vauban, Luxembourg 2003 (exhibition catalog).
  5. ↑ Nathalie Scuri, Claude Frisoni (ed.): Lucien Wercollier au cloître de l'Abbaye Neumünster . Mediart, Luxemburg 2005, ISBN 2-9599867-2-5 (catalog of the permanent exhibition of the same name in the Center Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster ).
personal data
SURNAME Wercollier, Lucien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourg sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 2002
Place of death Luxembourg