Art Paris 2020 LIVE • Monumental Projects

For Art Paris 2020, the major spring event for modern and contemporary art, Art Paris will take place in 100% digital format. Galerie Loft is pleased to invite you to an online visit to discover our new exhibition dedicated to the monumental.

Since the dawn of time, human beings have erected monuments to the glory of their gods, their rulers, or their deceased. Places of tribute, gathering, memory, and devotion, they fascinate us with their sometimes superhuman dimensions.

This aesthetic of the "colossal", built in stone, took a new direction from the end of the nineteenth century with the evolution of industry. Imposing metal structures began to inhabit the urban landscape, notably thanks to the genius of Gustave Eiffel.

During the twentieth century, artists themselves began to be drawn to the possibility of creating works on entirely new scales. The growing number of private commissions from major companies and wealthy patrons, as well as public commissions—particularly in France with the introduction of the 1% artistic law in the 1960s—made it possible to carry out large-scale sculptural projects.

The artwork was thus freed from the traditional constraints of exhibition spaces. It became architecture as much as nature, pushing artists to rethink their practice and surpass themselves by exploring new creative territories.

Drawing on extensive experience since the late 2000s, Galerie Loft has recently specialized in the development of monumental sculpture projects. For Art Paris 2020, our leading artists, Wang Keping, Yazid Oulab, Francesco Marino Di Teana, and Philippe Hiquily, will be highlighted through unexpected or familiar works that are always surprising and captivating because of their extraordinary scale.