César

César Baldaccini, known simply as César (1921–1998), was one of the most influential sculptors of the postwar period. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille and later in Paris, he rose to prominence in the 1950s with his masterful use of welded metal.

In the early 1960s, he became a founding member of the Nouveau Réalisme movement, alongside artists such as Arman, Yves Klein, and Daniel Spoerri. Through radical and inventive gestures: from Welded Irons to Compressions, Expansions, and Human Imprints, César challenged conventional notions of form, material, and authorship, creating works that sit between brutality and poetry, tradition and rupture.

His work was widely exhibited internationally, culminating in his participation in the French Pavilion at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. A prolific and groundbreaking artist, César left a lasting imprint on 20th-century sculpture.