César (born January 1, 1921, Marseille, France—died December 6, 1998, Paris) was a French sculptor who was at the forefront of the New Realism movement with his radical compressions (compacted automobiles, discarded metal, or rubbish), expansions (polyurethane foam sculptures), and fantastic representations of animals and insects.
The son of Italian immigrants, César quit school at age 12 in order to work, but three years later he enrolled in evening classes at a local art academy. In 1943 he won a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. With his artistic vision shaped by poverty, he utilized the most economical of materials for sculptures and became a founder of the New Realism movement, which blended elements of the Arte Povera movement of Italy—a group that emphasized raw and unprocessed materials—and the French Matiéristes, who focused on “found objects” (objets trouvés). His first solo art show was in 1954 at the Galerie Lucien Durand in Paris, and his first compression was exhibited in 1958.
César used a hydraulic press to form many of his compressions, and he occasionally used a welding torch or sledgehammer. One composition featured thousands of crushed counterfeit Cartier watches that had been seized by customs officials. His sensational gigantic Sein was modeled on a cabaret dancer’s breast and molded in pink polyester resin. One of his more widely available works, reproduced in many sizes for commercial sale, was a representation of his thumb; Le Pouce, a 12-metre (40-foot) version, was erected in the Parisian quarter of La Défense. César’s most massive work was a 520-ton barrier of compressed automobiles erected at the Venice Biennale in 1995.
His work bore influences of Pablo Picasso, French sculptor Germaine Richier, Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, and the loosely geometric abstract creations of British artist Anthony Caro. Because his creations were often interpreted as critiques of consumerism, César’s consumer-waste sculptures were sometimes compared to Andy Warhol’s Pop art. César, however, refused to be grouped or unduly influenced by the categorizations of the art world.
In 1975 the French film industry commissioned him to design its annual award, the César, a compression-styled gold statuette quite distinct from its older American cousin, the Oscar. He became an officer of the French Legion of Honour in 1993, and in 1996 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for sculpture.