Sculptor and wood carver Julian Schwarz works at the intersection between the fine and decorative arts. The Englishman has lived in France since 1990, and spent the confinement in Burgundy, where he currently lives.
The artist, who received the Bettencourt Award in 2010, favors a traditional practice in his craft, working entirely by hand without the use of any machines. Consequently, his pieces are usually made over long periods of time and in somewhat isolated conditions. But this period was exceptional because, anticipating a lengthy confinement, he chose to revisit an unfinished work he began six years earlier. Three projects remained to be completed : a pair of large urns made from the same portion of an oak trunk divided in two lengthwise, and a smaller urn in cherry wood. These pierced containers with columns posed a number of technical problems but, “compelled to mark this period with a return to these earlier projects,” Schwarz coaxed magnificent sculptures from these pieces of wood, which he says he appreciates for its silence.