Jean-Luc Chalumeau

Eric Théret is one of those sculptors, not so numerous today, who work in stone in a way that belies a somewhat hasty remark by Jean-Paul Sartre (in Situations III), according to which “the eternity of stone is synonymous with inertia: it is a frozen present forever.”

Théret’s works are anything one might wish them to be, but inert they are not. An internationally acclaimed artist, who notably received the Grand Prize for Creativity in 2016, awarded by the National Institute of Sculpture in China (Shanghai), he possesses the gift of breathing life into the black granite of India and South Africa, and of transforming Swedish diabase.

Let us listen to him:

“Sculpture is drawing; it is also volume in space. These are the fundamentals of sculpture and architecture. I am a sculptor of monumental works, but it is through small sculptures and drawing that one searches and discovers. I go to quarries to find my blocks; they are fantastic worlds… Some are veritable cathedrals. Whether in Brittany, in Sweden, where the black diabase is found, or anywhere else across the globe… A spellbinding universe… The wonder of the blocks, the volumes, the material… Here, anything is possible; reality becomes unreal. The unreal becomes reality…”

Already in the quarry, Théret has sensed the dynamic potential of the blocks he has chosen. Beneath his chisel, a living present will come into being—a present that will endure forever.