La Grande Musicienne 1937

Henri Laurens made "La Grande Musicienne" with bronze. I like to think about what it was like for Laurens, wrestling with the bronze, coaxing it into this shape, this pose. It’s a sort of physical dance. The sculpture has a certain gravity to it – literally, of course, with the weight of the material, but also in the sense of the artist’s intent. It’s there in the curves, the bulges, and the hollows, like he's trying to find the essence of music. The way it loops and folds in on itself reminds me of artists like Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, who were also exploring these organic, biomorphic forms. But Laurens brings his own sensibility, a kind of playfulness and joy. It's like they're all in this big conversation, these artists. They're bouncing ideas off each other across time and space. And that's the beauty of art, isn't it? It's never really finished.