CÉSAR, César BALDACCINI, called

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône 1921 - Paris 1998

Moteur #1 et Base pour Moteur#1

Moteur #1 and Base for Moteur#1

1960

welded iron and marble (base)

assemblage

Dimensions (HxWxD): overall: 18 x 11 x 24 ³⁄₄ in.

Acc. No.: 1987.747a, b

Credit Line: Gift of Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine

© Artist : Fair Use (Section 107, Copyright Act 1976)

Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts

www.mfa.org

Provenance

• 1961, New York, purchased from Allan Stone Gallery
• 1987, gift of Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine

Bibliography

• Museum's website, 20 March 2012
• 1960 Van Gindertaël
  R. van Gindertaël, "La sculpture à Marseille", XXème siècle, n°14, VI, p.100
• 1967 Restany
  Pierre Restany, "César en expansion", Galerie des Arts, n°46, VII-VIII-IX, p. 4-9

Exhibitions

• 1960 London
  César Recent sculptures, London, Hanover Gallery, 1960, no. 7
  
  1961 New York
  César Sculpture 1953-1961, New York, Saidenberg Gallery, April 7-May 6, 1961, no. 12, repr.
  
  1962 Williamstown
  Alumni Loan Exhibition, Williamstown, Williams College Museum of Art, May 5-June 17, 1962
  
  1965 Lincoln
  DeCordova Collectors, Lincoln, MA, DeCordova Museum, April 9-May 23, 1965
  
  2006-2012 Boston
  Degas to Picasso: Modern Masters, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, January 18, 2006-June 1, 2012

Comment

• MFA Torf Gallery's exhibition catalogue:
  One of the series of "compressions" César exhibited in 1960, Moteur #1 is a selection of automobile parts that César crushed and arranged on a base. This 'collage' of various elements such as pipes, nails, tubes, and clusters of rods which remain identifiable within the abstract whole, exemplifies a new sensibility in César's art to the machines of modern society.

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