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Jean-Gabriel Chauvin biography

1908/09

The young Chauvin moves to Paris. He enrolls in the École des Arts Décoratifs on March 14, and then he is found at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he attends the workshop of the sculptor Antonin Mercié starting from January 7, 1909.

1909

Creates the first sculpture qualified as abstract, "La Toilette," made of Japanese ebony wood.

1913/14

Works alongside Joseph Bernard in his studio, located at Cité Falguière. There, he certainly completes his training in direct carving. At the same time, Chauvin creates his first cubist-style work : La Maternité, in wood and plaster.

1915/20

Chauvin exhibits at the Salon d'Automne and at the Salon des Indépendants. He participates in the carving of "La Frise de la danse" by Joseph Bernard (currently at the Musée d'Orsay), but definitively turns towards abstract sculpture.

1924

First individual exhibition at the "Au sacre du Printemps" gallery.

1935

Creates a large bronze sculpture "Fontaine Lumineuse" for the ocean liner Normandie.

1936

Individual exhibition at the Jeanne Bucher Gallery.

1937

Paris World Exhibition : Chauvin creates a monumental sculpture in burst concrete (H : 11 meters) for the Pavilion of Decorative Artists and two large luminous basins (H : 1 meter) in porcelain for the Sèvres Pavilion.

1939

Exhibition at the Charpentier Gallery. He creates the sculpture "La Guerre".

1941

Paris, Jeanne Bucher Gallery "Chauvin"

1946

Bern, Kunsthalle, Switzerland "Contemporary Sculptors of the School of Paris". Prague, Czechoslovakia "Sculptors of the School of Paris". Paris, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, group exhibition.

1947

Paris, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, group exhibition.

1948

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands "Thirteen Sculptors of Paris"

1949

Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Sweden "French Art 1938-1948" October-November.

Retrospective at the Maeght Gallery in Paris, which is a great success. Chauvin begins a new series of "fantastic architectures."

1950

Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum, Germany "French Art 1938-1948" March-April. La Chaux-de-Fonds, Museum of Fine Arts, Switzerland "Contemporary French Painters and Sculptors" February.

1951

Paris, Jeanne Bucher Gallery "Chauvin, Drawings".

1952

Liège, Royal Society of Fine Arts. Belgium. Salon, October. - Ljubljana, Moderna Galerija, Yugoslavia Sodobna Francosha Umetnost, May. - Paris, Rodin Museum, 4th Salon of Young Sculpture: Arp, Brancusi, Chauvin, Zadkine pay tribute to Rodin.

1954

Paris, M.N.A.M. (National Museum of Modern Art) "Contemporary Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art". Venice, French Pavilion. 27th Biennale. Zurich, Kunsthaus, Switzerland "Founders of Modern Sculpture" November-December. Yverdon, Switzerland "Seven Pioneers of Modern Sculpture" Chauvin, Laurens, Brancusi, Arp, Duchamp-Villon, Pevsner, and Gonzales.

1955

Antwerp, Belgium. Biennale.

1956

Tournai, Museum of Fine Arts, Belgium, group exhibition.

1957

Paris, Suzanne de Coninck Gallery "Chauvin, Plasters and Bronzes" May-June.

1958

Paris, Claude Bernard Gallery, group exhibition.

1960

Paris, Jeanne Bucher Gallery "Tribute to Jeanne Bucher" May-June. - Paris, Elysée Gallery "Chauvin" November-December. - Marseille, Cantini Museum "Contemporary Sculpture" March-April. - Saint-Étienne, Museum of Art and Industry "One Hundred Sculptors from Daumier to Today"

1962

Chauvin represents France at the Venice Biennale. Zervos dedicates a monograph to him published by Cahiers d'Art. Exhibition at the Elysée Gallery.

1971/76

Solo exhibition at the Galerie Villand et Galanis in 1971 and then at the Galerie L’Enseigne du Cerceau in 1974.

1976

Chauvin s’éteint le 15 mai  au château de Chaillé à Saint-Martin-Lés-Melle après avoir fait don de la totalité des maquettes de ses sculptures au Musée National d’Art Moderne.

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Two galleries in Paris

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