Henri Laurens
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Henri Laurens (February 18, 1885 – May 5, 1954) was a French sculptor and illustrator.
Born in Paris, Henri Laurens worked as a stonemason before he became a sculptor. In 1899 he attended drawing classes during which he produced works that were greatly influenced by the popularity of Auguste Rodin. Later though, he would be drawn to a new gathering of artistic creativity happening in Montparnasse, and from 1911 he began to sculpt in the Cubist style after meeting Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger.
Multi-talented, Laurens worked with poster paint, and collage, was an engraver and created theatre design and decoration. In 1915 Henri Laurens illustrated a book for his friend, the author Pierre Reverdy. In 1938 he shared an exhibition with Braque and Picasso that travelled to major Scandinavian cities. Later, in 1947, he made prints for book illustrations and in 1948 he showed his art at the important Venice Biennale That same year, he exhibited at the Galerie d'Art Moderne in Basel, Switzerland.
A great many of his sculptures are massive objects such as the monumental piece L'Amphion done in 1952 for the Central University of Venezuela, Caracas after a request from the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva.
Henri Laurens died in Paris and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. His tomb is decorated with one of his own large sculptures, La Douleur (Grief, see image).
