CHRISTIAN RENONCIAT (b. 1947) is a French found-object sculptor who delights in his materials and derives near-poetic inspiration from their use. He thinks of his artworks — the categories of which include cardboard, douceurs, paper, tremors, and varnishings — as présentations of both the artistic process and the materials’ essence, rather than exact replications of any particular object. “I do not conjure an image to be appreciated by the mind,” Renonciat states, “but matter, consistency, surface, texture, that I set before the body and its senses, directly, without mediation. In a way, I am not providing an interprétation of what is presented, but revealing what is.”
Rarely have the inherent qualities and inner workings of materials been more enjoyed and deeply explored than in Renonciat’s sculpture. Simple surfaces — cardboard, paper, plastic — take on new configurations and meaning in the hands of this artist. He bends, moves, and adjusts his materials, or creates entirely new constructions, with full awareness of how they are wired and want to behave — almost like a trained musician whose familiarity with his instrument results in the most natural and agreeable sound.
Even the sounds and smells of the materials mean something to Renonciat: he mentions the wrinkling, rustling, and rippling of the paper; the icy crackling of plastic manipulation; and the “happy fumes” of alcohol and lacquer vapors involved with varnishing — all contributing to the overall experience of creation. Of course the tactile qualities of the surfaces contribute to the process, too. Describing his work with paper, Renonciat states, “Paper is also organized matter: a sheet, a piece (as we say “a piece of fabric”). In this way, it can be folded and unfolded, draped and unfurled; pli selon pli —crease by crease — it remembers and reveals. Moreover, fold down the four corners of a sheet of paper and it’s an envelope: matter organized into graphic object — a tribute to the diagonal. The created object has uses: it bears writing on the surface and also enfolds another sort of paper in turn: paper not as matter but purely a medium for thought. Paper and wood in connivance, pleasure of texture, happiness in hand: paper is like skin, fine and sensitive.”
Renonciat’s latest works will be exhibited at Waltman Ortega Fine Art (Miami) in November, and at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art (Houston) next year.