Isabelle Waldberg (circa 1937). © All rights reserved


This site is dedicated to Isabelle Waldberg, an original sculptor if ever there were one. Indeed, sculptors who are recognised for their value and who have developed discretion and concealment as she has are rare. There are no instances of formal excess in any of her works as a sculptor. Her work advocates a great freedom, and a distanced beauty. Isabelle Waldberg is an intellectual and so is her sculptural work: it seems to us that this is not incompatible with large sculpture.

She put her artistic imagination to effect in the innovative 'clearing' of lightweight Constructions, and also in a return to the material that had had the capacity to shock deprecatory members of the viewing public. They were left to wonder: her sculptures that had turned into bronze, tangible and well-anchored in space, remained 'unrealistic'.

Paradoxically, her bronzes, small though they may be, are all monumental. They became monuments as soon as they were thought of, conceived and built for closeness. The original idea, made in plaster then bronze, well and truly occupies the unlimited space. This is the uncurtailed, unadulterated result of her contemplation, her thought and her inventiveness that she offers us to view and understand.

Isabelle Waldberg talked about her sculptures as the absolute Other: 'In any case, once we find ourselves in an open space, in the world at large and in nature, sculpture loses its reason for existence. Instead we pave roads, we build towns, forts, we create mountains, we cultivate bits of forest, hills, we create views. (…) Whereas when we are near to a sculpture, we are in dialogue with it: it becomes the other.'

Isabelle Waldberg possessed a rebellious humor, lacking any egocentricity or any harshness that could be too fixed on others and the world, that allowed her to share while maintaining self-control. This humor remains the ultimate distinguishing feature of her sculpture, so varied and so wise, for those of us who look at it today.

Quotation by Marcel Duchamp. © All rights reserved'Isabelle sculpts, examines, conceals and exults' – Marcel Duchamp
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