L’ ouragane, 1948, 1949
Germaine Richier
Like “Storm Man”, this work is a homage to the survival of humanity in the face of destruction wreaked by the Second World War. The titles of both works contribute to the sense of violence, evoking the “winds of war”. Characteristic of Richier’s sculptures are her expressive use of the bronze medium, with its pock-marked surfaces, and her insistently figurative subject matter. She thus combined two parallel approaches in European art of this period: a concentration on the physical qualities of “matiere”, or matter, and an emphasis on the relevance of the human figure as a subject for art.
