César, La Rascasse, 1993, white plastic, 32 x 45 x 10 cm, inv. no. 4864, National Gallery of B&H

César Baldaccini

(Marseilles, France, 1921 – Paris, France, 1998)

Studied at the École des Beaux – Arts in Marseilles and then, between 1943 and 1948, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1950, he collected industrial metal to make sculptures. He participated at the Documenta in Kassel (1959, 1964 and 1968). As of 1960, his began producing so-called Compressiones Dirigées – the bodies of vehicles, or other objects pressed into the shape of cubes. He was one of the members of the group New Realism (Nouveau realisme), founded in 1960 in Paris by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein. In 1970, he became a professor at the École Nationale Superiore des Beux – Arts in Paris.