Denis Monfleur - People of Stone

Exhibition catalogue Denis Monfleur. People of Stone, presented at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux (2 june 2023 – 7 jan. 2024).

Juxtaposing powerful and monumental sculptures, made in quarries and weighing several tons, with smaller, more intimate and domestic pieces, Denis Monfleur tirelessly experiments and never retreats from a challenge. He freely explores contrasts of textures and weight – lightness/density, power/fragility, smooth/rough, balance/instability. Often scarified, his works bear scars like stigmata, whether rough-hewn or chiselled, left by his tools, which includes angle grinders, burins, tungsten drills and diamond disc blades.

People of Stone reveals the artist’s interest in the human figure, which runs the gamut of art history, from figuration to abstraction, accessing a universal and timeless dimension. His work is far from fashions and trends as wellit eludes conventional aesthetic categorisation. Some of his works (Christ, Anges [Angels], Prophètes [Prophets], Vanités [Vanitases]) are imbued with a spiritual resonance.