Sophie Favre was born in 1950 into a family of artists, her mother is a ceramist, her father a graphic artist, painter and designer. After studying Beaux Art in Paris, she learnt to work clay with her mother and soon became passionate for this matter which allowed her to imagine, and give form to, characters or animals, initially at the wheel as the ceramists, and then by modelling. Today, Sophie Favre’s work is internationally renowned, she figures in the greatest collections, and the review ‘Miroir de l’Art’ voted the artist among the “Revelations of the year 2012”.  La Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste has devoted a personal exhibition to her, where her latest sculptures are presented.

Sophie Favre. Le chat qui rit . H. 28 cm. Terre cuite.

“I expect an artist to astound me, to make me waver, to enchant and charm me, to shake me, to embrace me… All these emotions, these aspects that I demand from the artist I receive in abundance in the sculpture of Sophie Favre.  She takes, the representation of beauty from the height of its pedestal from the depth of its chapel and wrings copiously its neck, remodels it, fashioning it according to her laws and when she has finished with it, it is Beauty itself that she has reinvented.  She adds a muzzle, a thickness, a prominent jaw, a rodent’s head, enormous ears, I mean that she adds nuances, confers a new and original grace, an enchantment, a magic. 

Sophie Favre. La barque. H. 26 x 19 cm. Terre cuite.

By her hand, the beings acquire a tender and fragile dignity, they enter into the strange and fascinating world of poetry, we hear their pulse beat producing a music harmonizing with our inner voices.  What renders Favre’s marvellous creations exceptional :  they have the gracious humility to be themselves, delicate subtle beauty in a series of attitudes where delicacy is not even considered but descends as the light of a candle on the head of a disciple.  She is a great fabulist and the curious animals that she conceives carry a stunning lesson in humanity.  Their simple and poignant presence – their gestures, alone engender a dramatic existential reflection.

Denys-Louis Colaux,
Writer
Février 2013.

• CV – Sophie Favre
• For information about the exhibition
• Press release (in French)
• Articles of Connaissances des Arts
• Article of l’Officiel des Galeries et Musées. 

A selection of Sophie Favre’s work