Elle

Elle

Elle

By: Yvette Gastauer-Claire, 2000
Medium: cast bronze
Size: 110 x 107mm
Cast by: Butzon & Berker GmbH
Edition: 21

Category:

Yvette Gastauer-Claire is a Luxembourg sculptor and medallist. Born in 1957 in Esch-sur-Alzette, she studied fine arts at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers, Luxembourg, from 1974 to 1979. Since 1975 she has participated in group exhibitions in various countries, including Luxembourg, Germany, France, and Belgium, and has exhibited at FIDEM exhibitions since 1985; her first solo show was held in Dudelange, Luxembourg, in 1995. Her first medallic commission came in 1978, when she created a national trophy for the Luxembourg Ministry of Physical Education and Sport. Later commissions for medals have included a number for the country’s Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, beginning with the commemoration of the millennium of the church of Saint-Michel in Luxembourg in 1987. Her sculptures include Wou dat roud Gold gegruewe gouf, inaugurated in Dudelange in 1992. Amongst her coin designs is a silver coin issued to mark Luxembourg’s year as European city of culture in 1995; the effigy of Grand Duke Jean that appeared on this was retained for a new series of currency coins. She has won two prizes in the competitions for designs for the euro, and in 1999 designed the national side of the Luxembourg euro coins. In the following year she created the coins issued to commemorate the accession to the throne of Prince Henri of Luxembourg. About her BAMS medal, Elle, the artist writes: “A woman offers the beauty of her body, and her female form excites the observer. But her hands and feet enfold the curled up body, as if offering her protection. At the same time her hands seem also to hide her emotions, her feelings and her dreams, concealing them from the inquisitive look of the stranger.”