Dimensions: object: 385 x 210 x 215 mm, 11.9 kg
Copyright: © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: So, this is "Large Tragic Head" by Jean Fautrier, held by the Tate. Bronze, I think? The way the face is obscured… it feels very raw, very vulnerable. What do you see in it? Curator: It's a scream made solid, isn't it? Fautrier lived through some brutal times, the Second World War... Perhaps this head is all the pain he saw, shaped into something we can touch. Do you find it ugly or beautiful? Editor: Maybe both? It's definitely not pretty, but there's a power in that ugliness. Curator: Exactly! It's honest. It doesn't try to sugarcoat the darkness. And sometimes, that's the most beautiful thing of all. Editor: I guess beauty isn't always what you expect it to be. Curator: Right, and art can teach you that.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fautrier-large-tragic-head-t06534
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During the Second World War, Fautrier was associated with the French Resistance, and briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo. Large Tragic Head is one of over thirty paintings and sculptures that he made during the Occupation, and suggests the brutality of Nazi atrocities. Here the artist deliberately disfigured the face of the sculpture, clawing deep furrows into the wet clay. The expressive gesture is implicitly associated with sudden violence, and contrasts with the delicate modelling of the eye and gasping mouth. Gallery label, August 2011
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