Biographical information/Professional background
Emmanuel Bour is an artist of open air. He lives in the countryside in the middle of orchards and forests. He sculptures the wood which he returns to the contemporary reality, his stake is as well esthetic as contextual.
“I like trees, their beauty, their longevity which watches crossing our short lives of agitated and unconscious human beings, their wisdom, their simple stubbornness to want to live and to grow up, their upward tropism, their infinite diversity. They are marvels, they do not live in the same space-time as we, what makes them for me more interesting still.”
In the chaos of the raw material, a face, a body, a shape appear. But the search for the representation is abandoned to give way to the imagination, the whim. The reference does not matter. What account it is the primal energy, the fascination which it generates. (…)
Emmanuel Bour did sculptor’s classic ornemaniste training course from 1979 till 1982. In 1987/1988 he is the pupil of the sculptor Mariano Vilaplana.. Follow numerous trainings of sculptures on stone, bronze cast iron or Molding on nude.
Since 1990, Emmanuel exposes his sculptures in France, in Germany, in Switzerland, in the Netherlands and in the Luxembourg. In 2016, he represents France in the world day of the wood in Kathmandu (Nepal). French Arts Factory has been representing the artist on a permanent basis since 2017.
His artistic approach :
Emmanuel Bour sculpts human faces, passers-by, strangers.
Their memory is in him and emerges one day or another under the « gouge ». He talks about our armor, our magical amulets, invented to protect us from the violence of the world and to feel a little less helpless in the face of the absurdity of life.
Emmanuel Bour talks about cardboard armor, bubble wrap armor… Slip into a bearskin to have strength and courage, snuggle up in a pink stuffed animal to see life in pink, equip yourself with a black box so as not to forget anything, wear the horn of magical power, the chimney of the factory where progress will be made that will spoil us forever, the ladder of knowledge and science because God is dead… Emmanuel Bour speaks of human natures, sensitivities, differences, fragilities.
So, let’s close our eyes and everything will become calm…
His technique :
The artist uses the technique of the direct carving. It is the direct creation of a work using the technique of the carving without passage by the mechanical transfer, i.e. without development.
The direct carving is a technique of sculpture by which the artist cuts directly a raw block of wood to make emerge the form. The sculptor cuts the material and must not reproduce an identical model. If this is not the case, the carving is done with a focus. Direct carving requires a great technique.
The roughing begins, which consists of removing volumes of material to approach the desired shape, this stage of the process is done with the chainsaw and the « gouge » for woodcarving. The sculptor finishes his work by working it with a « gouge » and a rasp to remove thickness and to define the final shape as closely as possible. This whole process leaves a great deal of creative freedom to the artist. Thus, the sculptures in direct carving are all unique.
It is the gesture of carving that comes first to mind when one speaks of the “noble work of the sculptor”. The image of the artist making a figure emerge from a block of stone or wood using only his mallet and chisel symbolizes the struggle that the sculptor engages with the silent material to give it form and meaning. Direct carving is the most difficult technique in sculpture since it does not allow for any mistakes.
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The artist’s works displayed below are all available for purchase – if you wish to purchase a work, note the name, click on the “Purchase” option at the top of the screen and follow the instructions.
