La Concorde, 1969, by Gudmar Olovson (Swedish, 1936 - 2017)
Bronze, from a limited edition, cast under strict regulation and issued with a certificate from the Estate.
Height 145 x Length 135 x Depth 100 cm (Height 57 x Length 53 ⅛ x Depth 39 ⅜ inches)
La Concorde is one of Gudmar Olovson’s most evocative celebrations of movement and harmony. The young woman appears caught in the very instant of departure: body pitched forward, one leg extended, arms trailing like a wake of air. She is balanced on the edge between earth and flight, a poised, tensile moment made permanent in bronze. Her form is slender and streamlined, echoing the dynamism of the supersonic aircraft whose name she shares, yet her expression and gesture remain entirely human, intimate and tender.
In 1969 Gudmar Olovson invited the French sculptor René Babin to work with him in his Montparnasse studio, and the two sculptors shared the same live model. The model for La Concorde was a woman named Danièle, described as a former trapeze artist or dancer, whose training gave her the ability to hold the extreme, elongated pose that defines the sculpture. Babin used Danièle for his own, parallel piece L’Étoile (The Star), a rawer, more fragmentary interpretation of the same suspended moment.
Olovson spoke through the language of the body, and here he distils the idea of “concorde” – harmony – into a single, continuous line of motion. The figure seems to move between places and people, as if carrying an invisible thread that connects continents, cultures and lives. Seen in the round, the sculpture shifts with every step of the viewer: from one angle she is almost airborne, from another she is firmly grounded, striding into an unseen future. The 155 cm height intensifies this presence; she stands not as a distant monument, but as a near life-size companion in motion, inviting us to imagine the journeys, risks and hopes contained in one decisive step forward.
A cast of La Concorde stands on the seafront promenade in Cagnes‑sur‑Mer on the French Riviera, installed there in 2015. Another cast is part of the Falsterbo Open Air Museum in Vellinge, Sweden, alongside Les Deux Arbres, Prélude, Les Deux Soeurs and Femme‑Oiseau Blessé.
The next cast of La Concorde is being cast currently and will be on display in London from June. Get in touch for an early preview.
