Couple in a Hug Pierre Mathieu

Artist born in 1964 in the south of France. Son and grandson of political emigrants from Spain. For a long time he searched for his place on earth, the first one was a business school, then travels around the 3rd world countries and Latin America. At the age of 28 he started to paint. In 1996 he traveled to the USA and exhibited in many art galleries - in Washington, Santa Fe, Chicago and New York. He left the USA after the assassinations of September 11th and returned to the south of France. Since then he has been a full-time artist, mainly painting. He leaves France after 6 years and goes to Maputo, Mozambique. Now, if I understand correctly, he lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. His idols are Azger Jorn, Rauchenberg, Kooning, Cy Twombly and Basquiat. He says of his art (it is my rather free translation) that he paints to exist in things. He rejects banality and ways imposed from above. He wants to talk about the world and people living in it with fury and conviction. His art feeds on chaos, tension and intensity of the moment. His art is most influenced by Africa defined as beauty, violence, color, light, chaos, noise and death. His art seeks an uncertain balance between these contrasts. This is best seen in his paintings. Africa is always present there.

The offered bronze represents a couple in a hug. It is cubistic in form and I think it is far from his painting. It is signed and numbered. I found the bronze from this series at one of the auctions offered for $2200. Height 35 cm, width in the base 16 x 10 cm.