BIOGRAPHY

Colette Delozanne was born near Paris, in Le Bourget, on January 8, 1931. She received a scholarship and graduated from the Lycée Lamartine in 1950. She wanted to study at the École du Louvre, but the difficult post-war years led her to enroll at the Centre National d'Enseignement Touristique. In Spain, she worked as a secretary, learned Spanish and met Eloy Silvio Pomenta, a Venezuelan medical student who became a psychiatrist and writer. The couple married and settled down in Venezuela in 1955; they had two daughters: Corina and Sandrah Silvio Delozanne; and one granddaughter, Maïa Guespin Silvio. Years later, she began her interest in ceramics, taking courses at Sinai Ovalles Free Art Atelier, and Gustavo Lafee Atelier.

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In 1968 and 1969 she began to show her work, participating in the XXVI Arturo Michelena Salon, Valencia, and in the XXX and last official Venezuelan Annual Art Exhibition, at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. In 1970, she held her first solo exhibition at the Banap Gallery. One year later, she obtained the National Fire Arts award in its first edition at the Ateneo de Valencia, which unleashed a controversy that died out very soon. At the time, clay sculpture was very rare and confidential, in Venezuela it was unheard of: for some it was not ceramics, for others it was not sculpture... After other important exhibitions, Colette represented Venezuela in the First U.S.A. International Ceramic Symposium held in Memphis (1973) meeting then ceramic sculptors from other countries, which were very few at that time. Shortly after, she was awarded with the Julio Morales Lara Prize at the XXXIIe Arturo Michelena Salon (Valencia)

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Her status as a sculptor, already pointed out by the Venezuelan poet Aquiles Nazoa in 1970 is, from now on, strongly affirmed and recognized by art critics and gallery owners. In 1976, while exploring other materials, she began bronze casting in Hugo Daini's workshop, and at the same time created the Enclosures (magical, perforated, communal spaces), later followed by the Towers and Sacred Spaces. In 1977, she received the First National Sculpture Prize at the IV National Sculpture Exhibition (Valencia), with the work Con el rostro poblado de espacios (With the face inhabited by spaces).

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The 1980s saw an increase in the creation of monumental sculptures (between 6 and 12 feet high), often composed of several elements and using mixed media (bronze, iron, cement, fiberglass, artificial stone); more than thirty will be part of public and private collections in museums and public places in Venezuela and other countries.

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In 1981, she presents the major and very successful individual exhibition Signs and Premonitions at the Galería de Arte Nacional in Caracas. Sonia Sanoja, a prestigious Venezuelan modern dancer, creates the choreography Signo-graphy with the work of Colette Delozanne; a dialogue with the sculptures of the exhibition. The costume was created by Delozanne and herself, the music was composed by Emilio Mendoza. In relation to the large format pieces that she exhibits on this occasion, the artist declares:

“Since foundry in bronze is so terribly expensive, I sculpt in clay. When the clay has the consistency of leather, not too dry or too wet, we cut the work into pieces (I say “we”, because my husband helps me) to be able to cook them in the oven. When all the pieces are cooked, I glue them with epoxy and various materials, and finally I paint the sculpture with acrylic”.

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This is the technique she will always use for her large format sculptures. At the end of the seventies, due to the volume and complexity of her work, and the challenge posed by a larger format and the monumental, Reinaldo Garmendia Silvio, her husband Eloy's cousin, began to work as her assistant in her studio. More than 40 years of collaboration and a mother-son relationship, as befitted Colette's personality. She trains Reinaldo, who complements her scarce physical strength and assists her in the tasks that these formats impose. Reinaldo accompanied her, at home, until her last day, and today, he is an expert of her work and handles the techniques of restoration.

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Some people, who accompanied her career, deserve to be mentioned, not only for their contribution, but also because they developed an intimate family relationship. For them, and for family, many artists and art lovers, Colette's house and studio were always open as places of teaching and exchange. An essential figure was Teresa Serrano, who began as a nanny and became a member of the family: second mother to her daughters, sister to Colette, and fine observer of her art; she passed away four weeks after Colette's death, as if they had decided to go away together…

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From the beginning, the writers and poets Aquiles Nazoa, Rafael Cadenas, Antonia Palacios and Elizabeth Schön, accompanied and encouraged her; Colette chose their verses as the title for several of her works. Several artists also played an essential role at some point in her career, such as painters Hugo Baptista, Humberto Jaimes Sánchez, Ramiro Najul and Oswaldo Vigas; sculptor Francisco Narváez; and the Venezuelan dancer Sonia Sanoja and her husband, the poet Alfredo Silva Estrada, both had a close and daily relationship with Colette. Other collectors or art critics have played an essential role: Bélgica Rodríguez, Rafael Pineda, Juan Calzadilla, Rafael Briceño, María Teresa Castillo Otero, Perán Erminy, Roberto Guevara, Enrique Viloria, Nelly Barbieri, Pedro Rendón et Luis Felipe Faría.  Thanks to the initiative of Marie Christine Dufour, the book project on Colette’s work (2004) was launched through the French Embassy in Caracas. Finally, the documentalist Yabajana Contreras made an invaluable inventory of the works done between 1967 and 2009.

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The following friends faithfully accompanied Colette for the last two decades or more and today help her daughters and Reinaldo to preserve her legacy. Ceramist Fabiana Vernile, who accompanied her as a daughter and restoring works in her studio. The artist and goldsmith Christian Gramcko Rivas, who made a jewellery collection with her. The filmmaker Rafael Straga, who is working on a documentary about Colette thanks to years of filming. The art collector Luis Felipe Faría, the great friend, another spiritual son. And finally, art critic, historian, and curator (specialist in Latin American art) Bélgica Rodríguez, who has been, from the very beginning, a central figure; author of the book Colette Delozanne. Escultora (2004), she is today the main expert on Colette’s art, they were like sisters. 

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In 1982, Colette participates in the Sculpture Exhibition, held as a preamble to the National Sculpture Biennial; both at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Francisco Narváez (Margarita). The National Council of Culture acquires eight sculptures and with three more recent works, she integrates the collective exhibition at the Museo de la Cerámica de Coro (Falcón). The same year, she participates in the exhibition Esculturas en el Parque at Parque del Este (Caracas); one of these sculptures is selected for the Museo Abierto Andrés Pérez Mujica permanent collection (Valencia). This year, the Venezuelan State awards her with the prestigious “Andrés Bello Order” Medal.

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In 1983, she creates in situ Santuario Selvático (Jungle Sanctuary) in iron and concrete, for the I Simposio de Escultura de las minas de Aroa (Yaracuy). In 1984, the bronze Ritual de lo entrañable (Ritual of the endearing), is installed in the Caño Amarillo Underground Station (Caracas); while the five elements sculpture in bronze Los Seres Esenciales (The Essential Beings), is placed in the Caracas Botanical Garden, and afterwards in the Parque del Este. The next year, she participates in the major exhibition Sculpture 85, organized by the sculptor María Cristina Arria for various spaces in the country's capital, exhibiting La Gran Tríada (The Great Triad), an artificial stone, three elements sculpture; since then, this work has been on display in front of the Teresa Carreño Theater, Caracas, as part of its permanent collection. Colette continues relentlessly her creative work; she exhibits in different galleries, and has an important individual exhibition: Entre Esplendores Sagrados (Among Sacred Splendours), at the Durban Gallery (1988, Caracas)

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The 1990s are the decade of bronze and she continues with the conception and design of monumental sculptures integrated into the architecture. She makes a large number of models and dreams of building structures, passageways, small towns that cohabit with the vegetation, where humans and animals can pass through, rest, spend a moment. The Arte-Hoy Gallery organizes Bronzes with three sculptors, where she exhibits seven works. In 1983, she participates in the Camille Pissarro's First Biennial, with Alianzas Primaverales (Spring Alliances), a medium-format bronze with three elements, whose version in large format is acquired by the National Oil Company PDVSA and placed in Tamare, on the eastern coast of Lake Maracaibo.

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In 1995, she presents in a major solo exhibition of seven large-format sculptures at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, donating to this institution Fervor Caminante I (Walking fervor I). She was also a special guest at the VII National Sculpture Biennial, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Francisco Narváez, Porlamar, and at the XXI Salón Nacional de Artes del Fuego, Valencia. The same year was published La Casa del Señor (The House of the Lord), a book about her work with a text by the writer Enrique Viloria Vera. The nineties end with collective exhibitions in the city of Pontoise, France; in the Trazos Gallery of Caracas and at the II Salón Internacional de Artistas Independientes, related to the BCN Art Direct of Barcelona, Spain.

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In the late nineties, Colette Delozanne began for the first time an artistic pas de deux with her friend, the talented artist and goldsmith Christian Gramcko Rivas, who, upon meeting her, felt an artistic connection (both using texture in their work) and proposed to her to make the jewellery she would designe. At almost seventy years old, Colette throws herself enthusiastically into this new challenge: from the monumental to the minuscule!

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The two artists work in total harmony, the choice is made for the "lost wax" technique. Colette designs and, at first, tries to mould the jewellery in wax, but she hates working in this material: "It's a mess, it's constantly melting", she says. They then decide that Colette will make the models in clay. Because of the complexity of the work, Christian constantly advises her: "It's not easy to work with the tiny, Christian always corrects me", always said Colette joking, as a child. But now, the clay models were too thick. Christian then reworks the models to obtain finer wax pieces and brings them back to Colette, who signs them after retouching and texturing; afterwards Christian proceeded to make the silver jewellery. A four-hand collaboration that will result in a superb collection with necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, rings. To each one, of course, Colette will give a name.

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Between 2000 and 2015, Colette lived a period of intense creation, in complete freedom. She revisits all the forms of expression of her beginnings, as if in a synthesis, and creates others, such as cuts and winged swirling structures. During this period, she achieved a new technical feat: the double structures, where a closed outer element contains a complex inner structure, to which it is connected by an intricate system of bridges and buttresses.

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This is a period of very great individual and collective exhibitions. She was invited to the first Andean Biennial of Sculpture (2002) at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Cuenca, Ecuador, where she received a prize for her work Ascender con el Alma (To Ascend with the Soul). In 2004, Colette donated her large-scale sculpture Advent (1988) to the French Embassy in Caracas, where it adorns the gardens of the residence. The same year, under the auspices of this embassy, a second book was published: Colette Delozanne. Escultora, a profusely illustrated work written by Bélgica Rodríguez.

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Three very important solo exhibitions are: the one at the Art Center La Estancia (2008); the great retrospective Tiempos de devoción (Times of Devotion), organized by the banks BOD and CorpBanca with the French Embassy (2010); and the tribute exhibition Colette Delozanne: story of a sculpture (2012), at the French Alliance in Caracas, about the realization of her large-scale sculpture Gran Lugar del Alba (Great place of the Dawn) for this institution. In 2008, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) awarded her the prize "Consecrated Master" and in 2009 she was named "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterrand.

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Between 2017 and 2021 Colette Delozanne's health progressively deteriorated and her artistic activity was considerably reduced. In 2019, she participates in the collective exhibition Masters of the Arts in Venezuela, at the Freites Gallery. In 2021, she receives the "Francisco Narvaez" National Award (CIANE Awards).

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Colette Delozanne died in Caracas on June 29, 2021, at the age of 91, after 55 years of an uninterrupted and very prolific career, she left about 1,300 works and models, not counting the drawings. She was a tireless worker, always experimenting with glazes, oxides, new materials and techniques. In Colette’s work are technical feats that allowed her to build very complex and large structures that did not deform when fired, even allowing her to cut monumental works into pieces and then glue them together after firing. We could say that her art is global: Colette kept a diary, large drawing blocs in which she drew, comment each project, or wrote her thoughts; on the other hand, she named her sculptures with poetry from many authors, as well as with her own poetry, rich in references to mythology and to the primitive cultures of Europe and Latin America.

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Colette, who was 1.60 m tall, had an insatiable quest for knowledge and was often like a child: joyful, deeply sensitive and constantly amazed by every discovery, by everything around her. Kind, generous, deeply spiritual, always present for her family and friends, and enthusiastic about every new creation, small or monumental, no matter how hard it was. Her work, her friends and her family were her passions, her priesthood, part of her resolutely spiritual universe: the sacred, the invisible, nature, humanity, mythology, the blending of primitive cultures of America and Europe. All these worlds, elements and beings that are interconnected. The universality.

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“There is an essential term that is like a guide in my work: the Latin term religare [to connect], from there comes the word religion. I am not interested in a particular religion, but with what religare means: everything is interrelated. That's why there are so many hollows in my work, there's emptiness inside; this emptiness is a mystery that is also populated: altars, pillars, windows, doors, signs, bridges, stairs that symbolize ascent…”       Colette Delozanne.

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Sources:

Rodríguez, Bélgica. (2004) Colette Delozanne Escultora. Armitano Editores.

Rodríguez, Bélgica. (2010) Colette Delozanne: Tiempos de devoción Catalogue. BOD.

Silva, Carlos. (1988) Entre esplendores sagrados, Colette Delozanne. Catalogue.

Other texts and translations: Sandrah Silvio Delozanne – Corina Silvio Delozanne.

 

 

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