Simone Boisecq (1922-2012) was a French sculptor born in Algiers, known for her non-figurative work combining influences from the primitive arts and modernity. Fascinated from childhood by North African, Brittany and Oceanic cultures, she developed a sculptural language inspired by plant, mythological and architectural forms, while incorporating an anthropomorphic and symbolic dimension. She moved to Paris after the Second World War and met Karl-Jean Longuet, to whom she married in 1949. Together they frequented major figures in modern art such as Picasso, Brancusi and Zadkine, as well as artists from the Nouvelle École de Paris such as Vieira da Silva, Étienne Hajdu and Roger Bissière. Boisecq exhibited at the Jeanne Bucher gallery and took part in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and the Salon de Mai. Her sculptures, described as ‘savage’ by the critic Henri-Pierre Roché, reflect a cultural synthesis and formal simplicity. Her iconic works include Totem (1957) and Soleil Césaire, a tribute to the poet Aimé Césaire. She also carried out public commissions such as Stèle sans âge III for the École nationale d'administration. Her works are held in several French museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar and the Musée de Brest. 

This work belongs to the first so-called ‘sauvage’ period, during which Simone Boisecq developed a whole plastic vocabulary inspired as much by the Algerian landscapes that surrounded her as a child as by the Breton chapels she discovered in the summer.

La Forêt is a highly architectural work that foreshadows the Cities period that was to follow.”

Anne Longuet Marx

“I was marked by the motif of the cross, raised in an atmosphere of piety and Breton calvaries. That's what I had in front of me from my earliest childhood: calvaries and wooden crosses carved by my father. This rhythm has stayed with me.

My sculptures often have their arms raised. The arms of a tree. A tree is like a character. It's a living being.’ 

Simone Boisecq