Self-taught, Alain GIRELLI lives and works in FRANCE, between FAYENCE and SEILLANS 83440. This sculptor, who has showed his works in a big number of exhibitions(exposures), makes, in particular, tables, armchairs, seats ( every creation is an unique specimen signed and with a monogram) and especially sculptures mixing wood, stone, metal... phantasmagoria and playfulness.
Do not ask Alain GIRELLI why he works especially with wood, for him, it is obvious " I passed, he explains, a diploma of C A P of carpenter and cabinet-maker (prize-winner) in 1966 and if I had followed the normal way, I would have set up my own business; I was already considered as a very good cabinetmaker, I would have got myself a god job. But, at that time, it was in 1968, I needed evasion and adventure. Obviously, I found a job in SEILLANS because it was necessary to live, but working in the daytime with MAX ERNST, at his house, at night I was dreaming about chairs germinated on the spot ".
Some people laughed at me, all the more as these furniture were out of the ordinary! GIRELLI carves cuts and modifies «lakeside wood” cut at the edge of rivers after full moon. «It was difficult, I mastered twisted wood with difficulty, then my seats and my objects badly resisted to the bad weather ". After several years of attempts and setbacks, he discovered near FAYENCE, where he lives, the recycled trees of a wood called “cade” which are fragrant and rot proof. These endemic trees of the Mediterranean forest tortured by the recurring fires …
It was a rather fast success; specialists are even surprised by the way he assembles wood. In 1973, Mrs SCHLUMBERGER, a big patron in that time and a friend of MAX ERNST, invited him and made him know this artist whose fame was international.
GIRELLI worked with and for him in his workshop in SEILLANS and lived at his house in PARIS. This was the shock; GIRELLI began its first sculptures. In 1977, PARIS greatly welcomed him and, ever since, he has showed his works. The universe of GIRELLI is always joyful, poetic and he has kept the soul of his childhood. Of course, he does not give up the creation of benches and seats, but the wood of “cade” is becoming rare.
In May, 1978, the famous gallery- Lucie Weill. -- presented some works from GIRELLI next to those of ZADKINE BOURDELLE, next to the paintings of PICASSO, MIRO and MASSON and naturally next to the lithographies of MAX ERNST, who became his friend. One day, Jean Paul CRESPELLE, the eminent art critic, author of numerous works about painters and the great periods of art, a man who can be hard on people with just a sentence or a word but also a journalist, the critic of the newspaper FRANCE-SOIR of Pierre LAZAREFF, presented GIRELLI to the great sculptor CESAR. who urged him to create "delirious thrones ".
People noticed Girelli more and more and even Le PRINCE ALBERT de MONACO once wanted to sit down in one of his seats. GIRELLI carves, assembles; his works are in great demand and he has showed them everywhere in France, in the GRAND PALAIS in Paris, in SAINT-JEAN CAP FERRAT, in CANNES, in NICE, in the 24th Biennial event in SAO PAULO in BRAZIL where he conceived an orchard of sculptures trees to pay homage to CHICO MENDES.
In 1999, (with 30 lines for him), he entered the BENEZIT, the great critical dictionary and documentary about painters and sculptors, where it is said that GIRELLI does not look for the anecdote but wishes to give a movement, an expression to the material, which he will make in his Totems. Great collectors have bought works from ALAIN GIRELLI for years.
Mis en ligne le 29/06/2008 par Alain Girelli. Contact: alaingirelli@free.fr site web http://alaingirelli.net
Quartier Pey de Salle 83440 Fayence France