Born in Grans, Provence, in 1902, Germaine Richier was a French artist who worked in sculpture and drawing. A¡er her initial training at the École des beaux-arts in Montpellier, she studied under sculptor Antoine Bourdelle in Paris from 1925 to 1929, meeting Alberto Giacometti and Bourdelle’s marble technician Otto Bänninger, whom she would later marry.

She established her own studio in the capital, where she began to exhibit in galleries. During the Second World War she lived in Zurich with Bänninger. _is period saw the first animal figures appear in her work, drawing from her repertoire of “hybrid forms”: The Ant, The Mantis, The Bat, The Toad, The Spider, etc. When the war ended she moved back to Paris and met the poet René de Solier, who became her partner. She began to bring more colour into her works, which enabled her to capture and amplify light. In 1956 Germaine Richier became one of just a handful of artists to have a retrospective at the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art during their lifetime. She passed away in Montpellier in 1959.

Previous exhibitions (selection)

2014
Germaine Richier: Retrospective, Kunstmuseum, Bern (Switzerland)

2013
Germaine Richier, Galerie Perrotin, New York (United States)

1956
Germaine Richier, musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (France)