Rene Iché

Rene Iché , born the January 21st 1897 with Sallèles-in Aude, deceased the December 23rd 1954, with Paris, is a Sculpteur Moderne French of the 20th century. Appear of engagement in years 20-30, it is member of the Résistance as of the summer 1940.

Biography

Childhood and war

Rene Iché is born the 20 or January 21st, 1897 with Sallèles-in Aude, village on banks of the Canal of the South, where his/her father is a pharmacist modest and close to the radical socialists mediums. Iché is provided education for with Narbonne then with Carcassonne where it côtoit the future surrealist poet Joe Bousquet. As of the 12 years age, Iché carries out portraits and landscapes with oil or the pastel. In 1914, it even gains, as a free candidate, the First price of drawing of the School of the Art schools of Montpellier.
In March 1915, Iché precedes the call in growing old 2 years and engages with Béziers in the 1st regiment of hussards. It passes quickly to the 81e regiment of Infantry then to the 60e regiment of Infanterie. Wounded on several occasions at the time of the Battle of Verdun and in the Somme, it follows a training of officer in 1917 to Saint-Cyr military school. Gauze very seriously in 1918, it will be decorated with the Military decoration, from the Military Cross then receives Légion of honor on a purely military basis. During the First World War, Rene Iché had very briefly started studies of medicine in Montpellier, it had côtoyé Apollinaire and the circles of poetry to Paris during the permissions, and assiduously read the reviews of avant-garde of which SIC , founded by Pierre Albert-Birot, North-South and taken part in the theatrical troop Pacifiste Oberlé .

Misery with Montparnasse

Demobilized in 1919, it settles definitively with Paris, Rue Jacob, and studies the right and the Political sciences. Àprès obtaining its license, it is engaged with the under-secretary's department of the Merchant navy. Parralèlement, it publishes in various reviews and newspapers. In 1921, he writes a play against the war for Gaston Baty, entitled Great Butchery .
At the time of a visit of the workshop of Bourdelle, he is discovered a passion for the sculpture and at once leaves the administration in spite of the opposition of his family. With the Academy of the Large Thatched cottage, Iché becomes acquainted with the architect Auguste Perret who encourages it to follow his own way. Iché leaves Bourdelle, follows the courses of Perret, impassioned by research on modern materials and to earn its living works on the large building sites of restoration of Rheims, Amiens or of Chantilly. In parallel, it follows the courses of esthetics of Henri Focillon to the Sorbonne.
Since 1923, thanks to the support of Maillol and Bourdelle, not very rancorous of its departure, it exposes to the Salon of Independent the. But its work Forfaiture is censured by the police force for indecency the day of varnishing. André Warnod (the inventor of the School of Paris) in the columns of Comoedia-newspaper supports it, in vain… In the same way in 1925, a project for the Monument with died of Canet d' Aude, considered to be too pacifist, is refused. It would be with Port-la-Nouvelle, before its return to Paris, which it assists with a scene very moving between a father and his son. As soon as it finds its workshop of Montparnasse, it models Homme and child , his first work importante.

The first works

By lack of means, it is with a simple screwdriver that it carries out its first personal work in the direct face, Étude of Fighters . It makes some menus work of chiselling for the sculptor Jeanne Poupelet and for the foundry Alexis Rudier. It is with end of resources, when, in 1926, it meets Rosa Achard which works for the dressmaker Paul Poiret and whose nickname is Renee . She poses for various artists. It is by its work that the couple manages to survive. In spite of the difficultées material ones, the ambience with Montparnasse is festive and they take part regularly in the surrealist dressed up balls where they is of setting to disguise itself.
In 1926-1927, Iché exposes with the group Soft France , which gathers artists recommending the return to the direct size. They are accommodated by the galerist Louis Carré then by the photographer Marc Vaux. Iché very quickly, by provocation, exposes bronzes to it then moves away from the movement. In 1927, it conceives the War memorial of Ouveillan , War memorials pacifist, inaugurated by the deputy of Narbonne Leon Blum and the radical Albert Sarraut. Works are openly against the war but 10 years after Verdun, it is worth to him the favors of all the press. The sculpture in the round Man and child is acquired by a conservative of Chicago.

Maturity

Since 1926, Iché is interested in the masks and in product a considerable number of which those of Paul Éluard and André Breton. But the poet of which it feels nearest remains regretted the Apollinaire. Iché carves a work representing an expectant mother in position of the scribe squatted and entitles it the sitted woman in homage to the last work of the poet. In 1930, it signs a contract with Léopold Zborowski, the merchant of Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine and Derain. The following year, during its first personal exposure to the Gallery Léopold Zborowski, Nu returns in the collections of the National museum of modern art, and Portrait of Mrs. I to the Boijmans Museum of Rotterdam. From 1931 to 1934, Iché remains in Provence with Maussane-les-Alpilles then with the Paradou, it produces enormously and just like Alberto Giacometti, it initiates a series of Médailles whose subjects are close relations or persons of obscure repute, completely reversing the report/ratio with this rather official art. On its return to Paris, it shares the space of its personal exposure to the Gallery of the Gantry with max Jacob. The Portrait of Laurence is bought by the National museum of modern art like Contrefleur .
Iché takes part in the think tanks of the review Esprit opened with all the political sensibilities or spiritual and carries out with Chagall an special issue of the review on the Esthétique. In 1935, very affected by the successive deaths of his father and his mother, it produces a series of Christ who shock by their humanity assumed well far from the usual representations. Following the non-alignment of France at the sides of the Republican Spanish, Iché carves Melpomène 36 which denounces the tragedy to come. The following year, whereas the radio advertisement a massacre of civilians in Spain, it carves in the following hours an intimate work and expressionnist: Guernica of which it will very seldom accept the exposure. In 1938, it leaves Paris and remains with Carcassonne where it is harnessed to compose a whole architectural in homage to André Chénier, the revolutionary poet. Iché already carried out with the beginning of the year thirty work Surréaliste Fragments of the Young Prisoner ansi that a Jeune Tarentine . The war will put a term at the project, the sculptures will be bought by museums and collectors… His/her friend Joe Bousquet publishes the evil of childhood (account mélant dreams, memories and critics art) illustrated by a photomontage of a work of Iché representing in overprinting the mutilated body and the profile of the poet. The work is dedicated to Paul Éluard.

Again the war

Iché takes part in the World Fair of New York in 1939 with Helene six years . A road show French sculptors will travel then to the the United States. Mobilized in September, it joined its assignment in the Oise but must face the military administration which wishes that it returns immediately in its hearths because of its declarations anti-nazis. As of the defeat, it enters the Résistance within the Groupe of the museum of the Man. Its workshop of the 55 Rue of Seek-Midday will be used as letter-box with the Free French Forces the weapons are dissimulated in the moulds, the files of the Affaire Dreyfus in the cellar, the combatants play the apprentices or models and learn the B.A.BA from engraving… Confronted with the admiration of an officer of Wehrmacht for his work, he refuses with much firmness and humor the Collaboration, whereas many artists make the voyage in Germany or sell to the Nazis. Iché exposes in the living rooms of which he is member (Independent, Automne) and takes part in the courageous exposures of degenerated Art organized by the young art critic Gaston Diehl and to the title perfectly shifted… Twenty young painters of French tradition.
In July 1942, after the arrests of Boris Vildé and Anatole Lewitzky, then of Colonel Hauet and Germaine Tillion, Iché becomes P1 agent within Cohors-Asturies, connects northern secret Armée, directed by his/her friend Jean Cavaillès and who depends on the group Libération. It forwards to London to the Général de Gaulle her sculpture the Déchirée which symbolizes the Résistance. Iché PERT also a certain number of close relations: Raymond Burgard, Emilie Tillion, max Jacob and Robert Rius.

After the Release

With the Release, Iché receives the Médaille of Resistance and sits at the Committee of purification of the artists where it chairs the section sculpture but resigns to mark its dissension with the judgment of Charles Despiau and drifts of the committee. MOMA of New York acquires of Helene 6 years remained with the the United States. The newspaper the Team buys to the Fighters . In 1947, the Monnaie of Paris acquires the small personal medals of max Jacob and Louise Hervieu, the latter having been used as subscription for the creation of the Health record . From 1947 to 1948 Jean Cassou organizes a road show contemporary sculptors in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Works of Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz, German Richier and Rene Iché gain enormous a succès.
there In 1948, Iché is invited by France with the Biennale de Venise in company of Germaine Richier, Henri Laurens, Marc Chagall and Georges Braque. He carries out free several monuments with the resistance of which most known are those of Puiseaux and of Carcassonne. He pays homage to his comrades in arms Jean Cavaillès and Emilie Tillion, mother of Germaine Tillion and gives one of his works to decorate fall it from max Jacob to the Saint-Benoit-on-Loire. The National museum of modern art and the Musée Fabre of Montpellier buy each one a test of Etude of Fighters with ground , representing the fight of Jacob with the angel. Iché associates it since the middle of the Thirties with the symbolic system of the Minotaure on which he works with passion. In 1949, Iché launches the First Proclamation of the Sculptors and founds the National union of the profession. It acts for the social security and the retirement of the artists, takes part in the foundation of the ADAGP. Several retrospectives greet its work in Province and with Paris.
Very weakened by a leukemia, he travels nevertheless in Spain, Austria and Poland. In 1953, the Grand Prix of Sculpture of the Town of Paris is decreed to him, the gallery Berheim-Young person organizes a great retrospective of its works. Criticisms are eulogistic but one reproaches him his withdrawal and his silence.
In 1954, Iché agrees to go in the Eastern European countries, which he had refused until there in opposition to the mode of Stalin (he is one of the only artists of left has not to have taken his chart with the Communist party after the war…). The Polish government orders to him the Monument with the Deportees of Auschwitz . Iché proposes to make of it a collective work by the participation of an artist of each nation touched by the Déportation. In December, an important retrospective is devoted to him to Vienna in Austria, it also goes to the homage that the students in the Art schools of Toulouse return to him before dying abruptly in Paris on December 23rd at the 57 years age. Pablo Picasso replaces it with the foot raised to ensure the construction of the monument Guillaume Apollinaire. Iché was buried in the native commune of his/her mother with Ouveillan after official funerals with Paris.

Works in the museums

nonexhaustive List

  • Study of fighters (1924) Museum of the Art schools, Narbonne

  • Father and wire (1925), Art Institute, Chicago
  • Father and wire (1925), Museum of modern art, Saint-Etienne
  • Portrait of Mrs. I. (1926), Boijmans Museum, Naked Rotterdam
  • (1928), National museum of modern art, Center Pompidou, Naked Paris
  • , study n°2 (1928), Museum of the Art schools, Rennes
  • Mask of Paul Eluard (1930), Museum of the Art schools, Saint-Denis
  • Mask of André Breton (1930), Library Jacques Doucet, Paris
  • Fragment of the Young Prisoner , Funds municipal of contemporary art of the town of Paris
  • Portrait of Laurence Iché (1934), Center Pompidou, Paris
  • Contrefleur (1934), Museum of modern art, Saint-Etienne
  • Contrefleur (1934), Museum of the Art schools, Villeneuve-sur-Lot
  • Young person Tarentine (1934), Museum of the Castle of Saint-Ouen
  • max Jacob (1935), Museum of the Art schools, Orleans
  • max Jacob (1935), Museum of the Art schools, Quimper
  • Mask of Louise Hervieu (1936), Center Pompidou, Paris
  • Mother and child (1936), Museum of the Castle of Saint-Ouen
  • Helene 6 years (1936), MOMA, New York, collection Rockefeller
  • Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca (1936) House of the Memory-House Joe Bousquet, Carcassonne
  • Jacob and the angel (1937), Center Pompidou, Paris
  • Jacob and the angel (1937), Museum Fabre, Montpellier
  • Model of Joe Bousquet (1938) Museum of the Art schools, Carcassonne
  • Melpomène 36 (1939) Museum of modern art, Palate of Tokyo, Paris
  • Melpomène 36 (1939) Museum Denys Puech, Rodez
  • the Torn (1940) Museum Charles de Gaulle, the Woodwork, Colombey-the-two-churches
  • the fighters (1945) Newspaper the Team, Iso-the-Moulineaux
  • the couple (1948) Museum of modern art, Palate of Tokyo, Paris
  • the small dancer (1954) Museum of the Art schools, Narbonne

Works in the open air

nonexhaustive List

Proclamations and Leaflets

Against the Official art

  • May 17th, 1938, two arts , published in the newspaper Art schools :
It is necessary that the Independent ones answer the Official ones. The debate could be elsewhere only in the opposition between these two terms. Especially it would not know to consist of quarrels on the notions of the Beau , the Fini , the Parfait and the Mesuré . Nor on the artisanal virtues that the President of the Republic glorifie of a red ribbon. The debate is between those which seek unceasingly (...) and those which having found the perfection (see it with the Large palace) teaches the receipt of it. This debate, one can slice it of a joke: it there with the Official art, and it there with Art

On the social function of the Artist

  • November 19th, 1949, First Proclamation of the Sculptors, leaflet:
The sculptors knew, when they chose this career, that it was random and promised only few profits, even with best. They thus do not ask to grow rich, but with living by achieving their social function

The Sculpture: universal language

  • November 19th, 1949, First Proclamation of the Sculptors, leaflet:
On the manure of the millenia, after geological cataclysms and the warlike disasters, only the statues emergent and address themselves to us in their major language, its most universal mystery, and which is

On the unit of the Resistance

  • 1947, Project of enclosure of the memory to the Mount-Valérien first project, leaflet:
The essential value of Resistance lies in this experiment of a major unity discovered beyond all apparent diversities. Each voluntary and clandestine combatant directed his action in the direction of its own design of the absolute, but all these particular specifications had united with the starting point and were tied around a fact fundamental: that of a unit of the France, and France which was not a fatherland among others, but the symbol of the values without which the life did not deserve to be lived.

Against the Sacred art and lithurgic

  • June 2nd, 1952, Answer to an invitation of the Abbot Verdier , letter:
I have in my workshop several works of art religious (...). None was elaborate in order to reach the expression of the Sacré. None is Liturgique. The first of these two values inspires a kind of fear to me (...). The second is not my spring.

With the cinema

In the film the Army of the shades of Jean-Pierre Melville which is inspired clearly by the history of the network Cohors-Asturies and the Movement Libération , the character of Luc Jardie (Paul Meurisse) recall some facts of Resistance of Rene Iché and the tragic anecdotes related to his family.

With the theater

The character of Rene Iché in the part of Armand Gatti the Unknown n° 5 . Part presented to Sarcelles in January 1997.

Anecdotes

Refusal of Iché to the proposal for a collaboration

To the officers of the Wehrmacht proposing to him to collaborate sour the Occupation, Iché made this simple answer: “You noticed that our uniforms do not have the same color?”. Their visit proceeded in the workshop of Iché, located at the 55 Rue of Seek-Midday to Paris, principal letter-box of a network of the Résistance and in which Iché sheltered Résistants, Juifs, Franc-maçons…, weapons, station of engraving to manufacture the false paper and the files of the Affaire Dreyfus (subtilized by the lawyer Andrée Dunant with the prison of Seek-Midday).

Recent bibliographical sources

  • Philippe Koutouzis, Rose-Helene Iché, Rene Iché , in DVD-Romanian Resistance in Ile-de-France , AERI, 2004.
  • Cariou Andre, Klinka Isabelle, max Jacob, Portraits of Artists , ED. Somogy, 2004.
  • Imbernon Laurence, Tena Marjorie, Rene Iché, Sculptor . ED. Tarabuste, 1997.
  • Peter Read, Picasso and Apollinaire, the Metamorphoses of the Memory 1905-1973 , ED. Jean-Michel Places. Oct., 1995.
  • Patrick Elliott, Constantin Brancusi: Exhibitions and Monographs , The Burlington Magazine, vol. 137, No 1111,705-707. Oct., 1995.

Press review: the Torn

Summarized facts: in the month of June 2007 the police officers of the Valley of Oise finds by chance the sculpture of Iché the Déchirée , symbol of the Résistance French to the Nazi Germany and offered to De Gaulle with London, during the war. The Fonds National of Contemporary art asserted work by way of press then obtained an ordinance at once enabling him to recover it. At the end of July the Déchirée was transferred in their buildings in Puteaux. September 8th, the lawyer William Bourdon stated that Rose-Helene Iché, the grand-daughter of the Sculpteur and his single Ayant-droit, assigned the FNAC with the civil Court.
  • Parisian the of July 6th, 2007: the preferred statuette of De Gaulle finally found by Frederic Naizot.
  • Le Figaro of July 7th, 2007: a statuette fetish of De Gaulle miraculeusement found .
  • free Midday of July 7th, 2007: the grand-daughter of Rene Iché tells Torn France by Marie Pintado.
  • Parisian the of July 12th, 2007: One disputes already the miraculée statuette of De Gaulle by Frederic Naizot.
  • France 3 - 19/20 - Ile de France of July 26th, 2007: the Torn business the by Michelle Rey and Philippe Jarry (report of 2" 16).
  • free Midday of July 28th, 2007: a battle engages around bronze of Iché signed F.H.
  • Independent the of August 18th, 2007: a work of Resistance of the sculptor Rene Iché found by Serge Bonnery.
  • Le Figaro of September 8th, 2007: the statuette fetish of the de Gaulle general soon in front of the courts .
  • 20 minuten - Swiss - of September 9th, 2007: Wem gehört die halbnackte armours Frau?
  • Kleine Zeitung Steiermark - Austria - of September 10th, 2007: Skulptur
  • Newspaper of Haute-Marne of September 11th, 2007: Movement around a sculpture offered to De Gaulle
  • France 2 - 20:00 of September 12th, 2007: Torn of Rene Iché found .
  • Release of September 18th, 2007: the mystery of Torn the by Nicolas Chevassus-With-Louis.
  • Release of September 18th, 2007: Rene Iché, figure of committed art .
  • TF1 - 20:00 of September 24th, 2007: the mystery of Torn the by Alain Am and Nicolas Ruel (report of 1" 48).

External bonds

  • Official site Rene Iché.
  • Center Pompidou, Paris.
  • Museum of modern art of Paris
  • Memories of Resistance

  • Rene Iché on Artnet

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