Figure XII A

Henri Presset (Geneva, 1928-2013)
Collection : Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC)

Whether in sculpture or engraving, Henri Presset endeavored to describe the human figure, and more particularly the female silhouette. His career, which began in the 1950s, saw wide variations in terms of form and style, but also in terms of technique (concrete, plaster, corten steel or welded iron, his material of choice), and there were also ruptures, such as when he decided to renew his formal approach and adopt simple geometry in 1965. For the area by the Pâquis baths, he created a sculpture consisting of compact, dense volumes. He devised it within the limits of a rectangular block, which gave rise to oblong, vertical and horizontal forms that superimpose one another to suggest a figure lying on her back. Clean and concise, the stylized, geometrized human silhouette is divided into rectangular parallelepipeds with curved ends. The simple volumes are thus infused with a sensual roundness, and the rusty tint characteristic of corten steel stands out against the blue and green tones of the lake, uniting the natural and industrial.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham