Cedro di Versailles, 2000 - 2003

Basel 2019
Cedro di Versailles

Gagosian

Sculpture
Cedar wood (sculpture); 630 x 160 (diameter) cm
Internationally renowned artist Giuseppe Penone emerged as a protagonist of Arte Povera, a seminal art movement in Italy in the late 1960s. In sculptures, drawings, photographs, and installations, Penone manifests the subtle dynamic between man and nature. Approximately 194 years old, Cedro di Versailles was a historic cedar tree from the park of Versailles, where it was struck down by the forceful storms that hit France at the end of 1999. Now part of a well-known series of sculptures started in 1969, Penone carved into this monumental tree, revealing its internal structure and returning it to a form from an earlier stage in life.