Caesar's famous series of "Compressions" was initiated in 1960 after he accidentally discovered a giant American hydraulic press in a scrap yard in Gennevilliers that could swallow up the size of a car. After these "Compressions" of the beginnings, described as "raw", Caesar made "Directed Compressions" whose elements he chose according to their intrinsic properties. As shown in our Bumper Compression (1960), the shapes are intertwined with a strong desire for composition, in order to determine a parallelepipedic block in their stacking. The degree of compression of the shapes has been designed to enhance the reflective quality of the bumper metal. When Caesar presented his first "Compressions" at the 16th Salon de Mai in 1960, the public screamed in scandal. More knowledgeable, art critic Pierre Restany saw a decisive break in the history of sculpture, evoking "a new stage of metal", subjected to "a quintessential reduction".
Lot 36 - César (César Baldaccini dit) (1921-1998)
Bumpers compression, circa 1960
Métal compressé
Signé en bas à droite
Pièce unique
55 x 40 x 41 cm
Provenance: Collection Jean Ferrero, Nice
Cette oeuvre est enregistrée dans les Archives de Madame Denyse Durand-Ruel sous le n°6033
Estimate 90 000 - 110 000 €
In this capacity, he invited César a few months later to join the group of New Realists he had formed in October 1960 with, among others, Yves Klein, Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle. The art critic had perceived in these artists a common point in their work, a method of appropriation of reality that he assimilated to "urban, industrial and advertising recycling" (60/90. Thirty Years of New Realism, editions la Différence, Paris, 1990, p. 76). Through the operation of hijacking and recovery of the object, Restany had seen in the "Compressions" a resurgence of Marcel Duchamp's ready-made. However, Caesar kept away from the visual indifference of the ready-made, since through the choice of materials, the mastery of the compression process, he reintroduced the notion of the creator and showed an attention paid to the sculptural properties of the work. In addition, Restany, by focusing on the urban and industrial dimension of the "Compressions", underestimated their formalist and literal character, which prefigured the primary forms developed by American minimalists Robert Morris, Donald Judd or Tony Smith.
