CÉSAR BALDACCINI, aka CÉSAR

César was a French sculptor born on January 1ᵉʳ, 1921 in Marseille and died on December 6, 1998 in Paris 7ᵉ. He was part of the New Realists movement, born in 1960.

He was also the creator of the bronze trophy for the French film César ceremony and the trophy for the Bocuse d’or cooking competition.

During his lifetime, despite his fame, César remained snubbed by the art world for a long time and was not exhibited until twenty years after his death by the Pompidou Center in Paris, which recognized his “major contribution to the history of sculpture”. His practices are varied, sometimes he makes sculptures with scrap metal, then he moves on to compression and finally to expansion. Two factors will lead him to focus on human prints, first the invitation to participate in a group exhibition devoted to The Hand, and his discovery of the pantographic enlargement, it is on this occasion that he realizes his famous thumb enlarged (1.85cm).