Les Deux Garçons - Bronzen beeld - 'Handvoet' - Sold

Beautiful surrealistic sculpture by the artist duo 'Les Deux Garcons'.

Unique opportunity to acquire an original work by Les Deux Garcons at a very competitive price!

Michel Vanderheijden van Tinteren (1965) and Roel Moonen (1966) both graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht, plastic design, where they met. The duo, who live in Landgraaf (L), have been working together since 2000 under the name Atelier Les Deux Garçons.

The field of activity of Les Deux Garçons is wide. Always striving for perfection in choice of materials and finishing, they make collages, paintings, bronze statues, free assembly works – very prominent – sculptures of taxidermi (stuffed animals). They are absurdist, sometimes moving sculptures with materials that they find at the taxidermist, but also, for example, at auctions and at antique dealers. Not shying away from the theatrical, they often present their deer, lambs, piggies and other animals as Siamese twins or multiples and with attributes such as toy pistols, banknotes and perfume bottles, for them symbols of fear, fate and transience.

Humor certainly plays a role, sometimes even melancholy humor. Yet their work also provokes thought. For Les Deux Garçons itself, it stands for the choices made earlier in life, which have to be carried along as baggage and sometimes also form an obstacle for the future. This also explains the choice for a title like 'L'adieu impossible' ('The impossible farewell'), also the name of their first exhibition at Jaski Gallery in 2008. 'La Fragilité', their second show, in 2009, let that can also be seen, just like 'L'Éphémère tangible' (2011), 'Jeux d'Anges Heureux' (2013), 'La Force so Destin' (2013) and 'Le Moment Gelé' (2017).

Les Deux Garçons are making a name for themselves at home and abroad. Their works were exhibited at the famous design fair 'Salone del Mobile' in Milan, the Haags Gemeente Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, the Ludwig Forum Aachen, at the exhibition 'Contour/Continuity' in three Delft museums and at the exhibition 'Bloedmooi ' in the Schielandshuis in Rotterdam, alongside names such as Jan Fabre, Jean Paul Gaultier and Maison Givenchy.

The Princesssenhof ceramics museum in Leeuwarden also purchased work by Les Deux Garçons. Choreographer Nanine Linning had them design the costumes and sculptures for her performance 'Requiem'. Their work is collected by Phillipe Niarchos (the famous Niarchos Collections already contains 22 of their sculptures). From December 2012 to May 2013, they formed the focus of a retrospective in the Municipal Museum of Zwolle. At the beginning of 2014, five works by Les Deux Garçons were part of the exhibition 'Romantic fashion – mr. Darcy meets Eline Vere' in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. During Tefaf 2016 they had a retrospective exhibition in the Museum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht.

Les Deux Garçons were the focus of a documentary by AVRO's Kunstuur in 2017. Last year the solo exhibition 'Les Dex Garçons Parcours' was organized in the Beelden aan Zee museum in The Hague. (source Jaski)