Giuseppe Penone Admitted Into Académie des Beaux-Arts

Giuseppe Penone b. 1947, Italy Follow +

Penone, aged 76, was appointed by fellow artist and French sculptor Jean Anguera and presented with an academician’s sword carved out of wood by Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari.

Based between Paris and Turin, the artist joins 62 existing members and 15 foreign associates at the Académie founded in 1816 as one of five arms of the Institut de France, with nine disciplines.

‘There are coincidences in life that reinforce the idea that our existence follows a predetermined path ... It is what I feel today in your presence today in this prestigious place that has an important value not only for France, but the entirety of Western culture,’ Penone says. ‘As an Italian artist, it represents a huge honour and reward.’

Active since 1967, the Arte Povera artist is best known for large-scale sculptures and installations modelled after trees and his own body, which explore the relationship between humanity and nature with materials ranging from wax to leather, marble, wood, and bronze. In addition to sculpture and installation, the artist’s expansive body of work also includes performance, works on paper, and photography.

The appointment follows the artist’s awarding of the 2017 McKim Medal from the American Academy in Rome, the 2014 Praemium Imperiale art prize for sculpture by Japan Art Association, and the 2001 Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts worth USD $60,000.

Giuseppe Penone Impronte di luce / Empreintes de lumière Gagosian 16 October–22 December 2023
rue de Ponthieu, Paris

Penone’s work has shown at four editions of documenta and five Venice Biennales, and exhibited at London‘s Tate Modern, New York‘s MoMA, Los Angeles’ MoCA, and Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, among other places.

The artist currently has new work on view at Gagosian in Paris, who co-represents Penone with Marian Goodman Gallery, and a retrospective at Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands until January 2024. —[O]

Main image: Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Edouard Brane.