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Monday, 21 January 2008 | Levent OZLER
New Work by French Sculptor Ingrid Donat at Barry Friedman
New Works in Bronze
 New work by contemporary French sculptor Ingrid Donat will be on view at Barry Friedman Ltd, February 21 through March 15, 2008. The exhibition will feature Donat's richly textured, limited edition, cast bronze furniture. An opening reception will be held on February 21st at the gallery's new Chelsea location at 515 West 26th Street.
Donat's aesthetic combines tribal, classical, and Modern sources, recalling the stylistic influences of colonial Africa, Central and South America, and Oceania on French artists and designers of the 1920s and 1930s. Visible too, are the influences of mentors Sylvia Berndt, a sculptor and companion of André Arbus, and Diego Giacometti. Donat, however, has her own distinctive artistic vocabulary.
"I draw inspiration from the everyday," said Donat. "This inspiration can be naturalistic, mechanistic, industrial, or cultural. I am inspired by specific surfaces: reptile skin, Samurai armor, tattoos, etc. My work represents a spiritual evolution, transforming an 'ordinary' object into something more artistic, sophisticated, and refined."
Donat's new furniture pieces are heavily textured and sensuously tactile. The dark bronze surface of Commode Primitive (2007) recalls a rough, scaly reptilian skin, with rectangular areas of small organically shaped squares highlighting its two deep drawers. The impression of a skin is enhanced by the slight upward curve at the base of each rectangle, creating built-in handles. Donat uses parchment; a material not used in furniture making with regularity since the 1930s, in pieces such as the low, double-decker Table de chevet engrenage (2007). Here, she stretches it taut to create a smooth, supple surface for this table's bottom shelf. A circular motif creates a cobbled surface across the tabletop, reminiscent of Mayan imagery. The motif is carried down to the buttress elements that ornament each leg and connect the two shelves.
The corporeity of Donat's work reflects her background as a sculptor. Initially working in clay, she began to explore bronze after meeting Sylvia Berndt. At first Donat sculpted wax figures to cast, leaving evidence of her hand in the seemingly malleable surface of the finished pieces. It was not until befriending Diego Giacometti in 1980 that she began to design furniture. Now, she sees herself as "a sculptor who integrates art into everyday life, or everyday life into art." Donat personally supervises the casting of her work-each piece is part of a limited edition of eight-at the Blanchet-Landowski Foundry. She engraves each piece; sometimes adding painted upholstery, parchment, or burned wood by hand in the finishing process.
 Donat's work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Galerie Bernard Dulon, Paris; Galerie Cazeau-Beraudiere, Paris; Pavillon des Antiquaires et des Beaux Arts, Paris; International Art & Antiques Fair, Palm Beach, Florida; Parc de Saint Cloud, L'Art du Jardin et de la Sculpture, Paris; and Carrousel du Louvre, Paris. This is her fourth exhibition at Barry Friedman Ltd. Top architects and designers, such as Peter Marino, Robert Couturier and Juan Montoya, seek out her work to use in residences and showhouses internationally.
Ingrid Donat was born in 1957 in Paris into a family of artists. Her grandfather was an architect and her father a painter. Raised in Sweden, she returned to Paris in 1975 to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. She lives and works outside of Paris.
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