Henri Laurens was a French sculptor, interdisciplinary artist and designer, who predominantly worked in the Cubist style. Known for blurring the boundaries of artistic mediums and having a diverse artistic practice, Laurens defies categorization. He helped to move the two dimensional planes of Cubism into three dimensional configurations and later shifted those same hard geometric edges towards more curvilinear organic forms, associated with classical Cycladic sculpture. This seemed to chart wider transitions in art during the interwar years as interest in new relationships between classicism and modernism were sought.
Laurens turned towards the fine arts relatively early and studied at the École d'Art Industriel Bernard Palissy in Paris between 1899 and 1902, taking evening drawing classes whilst also apprenticing as a stonemason. In 1902 he moved to Montmartre and continued working professionally as a stonemason. During this time he came to know some of the avant-garde of the Paris art scene. He was initially inspired by the works of Auguste Rodin, before an introduction to Georges Braque in 1911 initiated both a lifelong friendship with the artist and a deep-rooted interest in Cubism.
In 1913, Laurens exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris and was soon moving in the same circles as Juan Gris, Amedeo Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso. His work encompassed collages, reliefs, assemblages, painted sculptures, set designs for theatre and ballet productions such as those for the Ballets Russes and literary illustrations such as that of a book of poetry by close friend Pierre Reverdy.
In 1917, Laurens had his first solo exhibition at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie l'Effort Moderne. Over the next decade his work branched into using terracotta, stone, wood relief and bronze. By the mid 1920s Laurens’ practice was less directly Cubist in aesthetic and was responding more to natural forms such as the shapes, knots and textures of trees. This shift continued and alighted more specifically on the female nude, with forms being simplified and reduced.
Whilst he continued to make more traditional sculpture, Laurens’ diverse practice never ceased, still stretching to carpet design, illustration and decorative fountains. In 1937, he made a significant contribution of work to the World’s Fair in Paris and the following year had work in a shared exhibition with Picasso and Braque that toured through Scandinavia. His international recognition grew from here and he was soon exhibiting in New York, Brussels and Venice (twice represented at the Biennale in 1948 and 1950). Laurens missed winning the Grand Prix for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale 1950, but Henri Matisse elected to share half of his Grand Prix for Painting with him in an act of sympathy. 1951 saw a major retrospective of his work at the Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne in Paris. He went on to win the Prize of the IV Centenary of São Paulo at the São Paulo Bienal in 1953. Laurens died in Paris the following year aged 69.