L’AURIGE PHILIPPE HIQUILY

EXHIBITIONS

• Philippe Hiquily " Iron 1954-1958 ", Galerie JGM (Paris), from September 26 to October 25, 1997Mobiles, solo exhibition at the LOFT Gallery, from November 10 to December 16, 2000
• Philippe Hiquily and Wang Keping : Sculpture and Sensuality, LOFT Gallery, from May 14 to 17, 2009 Salon des collectionneurs, Grand Palais (Paris), from September 11 to 20, 2009
• Philippe Hiquily, exhibition for the centenary of the Hotel Lutétia, Hotel Lutétia, Paris, Oct. 2010

PUBLICATIONS

• Hiquily - Bronzes and furniture, Pierre Cabanne, Ed. de la Différence, 2005, p.28 (color)
• This work is listed in the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist (vol. I, page 375), under the reference number: 553 - 97.Scu.Aur.PU.Lt.140

After the island of Java and Canton, Hiquily plunges us into the heart of ancient Greece. The artist presents an Aurige, a chariot driver in Antiquity, here bisexual. The work is obviously a reference to the Aurige of Delphi, one of the best known and best preserved ancient statues to date (Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Greece). The evocation is made both in the choice to suggest the chariot by the cut links, thus referring to the ancient piece, victim of the same lack, but also by the expressiveness of the face, rather rare in Hiquily, thanks to its hollowed out eyes, its nose and its mouth. The choice of the artist to show the wheels of the chariot as well as its bisexuality directs us to another ancient inspiration, that of Hermaphrodite, son of Aphrodite and Hermes possessing both male and female genitalia, such as this

Aurige of Hiquily. Like almost all Greek deities, Hermaphrodite is distinguished by characteristic attributes, one of which is a chariot drawn by swans.