AVE, CESAR!

I am a real fan of French scuptor César’s work (1921-1998). During winter 2018, the Centre Pompidou in Paris made a retrospective of his career where I went on the first day.  Among the works exhibited, I have been especially thrilled with the last room (cf picture on the right) which showed Suite Milanaise, Cesar’s last work in 1998. This work is made up of eight compressed Fiat car bodies painted in eight different metallic lacquers of the Fiat industrial production range colours that gave their name to each of the works: Giallo Naxos 594, Violet 105, Blu Francia 490, Arancio 592, Verde Wembley 396, Blu Energy 452, Agatha 316 and Silver. For Suite Milanaise, Cesar applied less pressure than with his 1960s compressions, producing interstices in the folds of the metal.  Looking at the compressions in detail, the abstract result make the viewer not sure of what he is looking at. I felt I had to do something with this room, photographically speaking. I came back a couple weeks later and shot one detail of each work. Please see below.