En Miroirs, 2022
Claude Abeille is a sculptor, born in 1930 and was elected member of the Académie des Beaux Arts (Academy of Fine Art) in 1992.
He lives and works in Montreuil and Romainville.
He lives and works in Montreuil and Romainville.
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Student of Alfred Georges Regener at Fontainebleau and of Robert Couturier at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris (National School of Decorative Arts, Paris) where he obtained his diploma in 1952, Claude Abeille studied at the École des Beaux Arts as an auditor (1955) and began his study of torsos in 1956. From then until 1970, he collaborated on illustrations for the Encyclopédie de la Pléiade (Encyclopedia of the Pleiades), edited by Raymond Queneau, and L'Univers des Formes (The Universe of Forms), published by Gallimard.
Alongside his graphic work, he continued his sculptural research and won the Prix Bourdelle de Sculpture (Bourdelle Prize for sculpture) at the Salon de Mai in 1963, an accolade followed by a solo exhibition of a series of torsos at the Musée Bourdelle in 1964.
Beginning in 1967, Claude Abeille contributed to several architectural projects by creating sculptures of religious sites, scholarly establishments, etc. Namely, the Istres open-air theater, in Isle-d'Abeau, close to Lyon and in 1978, the pedestrian crossroads in Montreuil.
He began working in engraving, and showed often at the Salon de Bayeux, from whom he recieved a prize in 1975. In 1984 and 1985, he was a professor at the Ateliers de la Ville de Paris (Montparnasse) and became a founding member of the École Supérieure ATEP (Paris, 1985-1996) where he taught drawing.
It was during these years that he developed a more intimate oeuvre of sculpture, in rock, marble, and bronze. His largest personal exhibition, in 1991, at the Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpétrière, included works he did during this time.
In 2000, he began to cultivate relations with Chinese artists and showed his sculptures and engravings regularly in China.
"L’oeil du dessinateur n’est pas seulement une fenêtre ouverte sur le monde, mais aussi un projecteur qui choisit et invente. C’est par cet équilibre instable entre les deux opérations, cette respiration, que s’organise et s’installe toute oeuvre d’art."
("The eye of the artist isn't solely a window open to the world, but also a spotlight, that makes choices and that invents. It is through this unstable balance between the two functions, this breathing space, that all works of art are organized and established.")
Excerpt from the book Claude Abeille, published in 2002.