Marc Couturier
Artist, France
Marc Couturier was born in 1946 and lives and works in Paris. He is self-taught and came to art rather late in life, at the age of thirty-eight. He first exhibited his work in 1985, at the first edition of the Belfort Sculpture Biennale. The piece he presented there, Barque de Saône, was the first in his emblematic series of rivercraft evocative of the River Saône’s boatmen. The installation levitated a water-filled “found” barque above the ground. In 1989, he took part in the legendary Les Magiciens de la Terre (Magicians of the Earth) exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Embarked on in 1991, his “drawings of the Third Day”, executed in lead pencil and silverpoint, evoke the Creation in Genesis. This “manmade” work is complemented by the monumental “Lames” (Blades) series, which includes the Flamme de la Liberté (Flame of Liberty – 2001), located in Tokyo Bay and commissioned as a celebration of Franco-Japanese friendship, and Tremblement de ciel (Skyquake – 2007), presented near the Centre Pompidou-Metz (26 metres high, 17 tonnes and covered in gold leaf).
He has also accepted a number of sacred art commissions, including the stained-glass windows for Saint-Léger Church in Oisilly, the Cross and the Glory for the chancel of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the altar for Saint-Denis du Saint-Sacrement Church in Paris.
His works are included in major public and private collections: the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou, the National Gobelins Manufactory, the National Sèvres Manufactory, the National Contemporary Art Fund (FNAC), the Cartier Foundation, as well as in several FRACs (Regional Contemporary Art Funds).