Roland Daraspe, silversmith and Master of Art, was born in 1950. He lives and works near Bordeaux. Boilermaker by training, then aeronautical mechanic, glassmaker with an American artist, and finally goldsmith! Roland Daraspe made jewelry and then continued with metal since he had originally learned this technique. Then there was natural evolution, constantly challenged. The uncertainty of creation, but the certainty of being … In 1992, a fifteen-year retrospective of his work was presented by Jacqueline du Pasquier, chief curator, at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Bordeaux. This recognition increased his motivation tenfold and the increasingly demanding orders that followed spurred his imagination, forced him to constantly push back his limits, to strive for more research and achievement.
The same museum crowns the work of maturity in 2008. Numerous prizes and reception at the Academy of Sciences, Belles Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux punctuate the career that his peers have recognized as that of a contemporary artist. Now we recognize his style – a balance between momentum, lightness, and strong evidence. Something rather timeless, too, without his consciously seeking it out.
Roland Daraspe’s work is based on creation, and it goes through multiple phases, drawings, certainties, doubts, research, and the most varied failures. He knows he has to accept that before carrying out the project he wants to be beautiful, superb, he will go through phases of austere labor, deafening pounding as the days go by. The certainty of getting there makes him go beyond these repetitive, demanding sides. For him, art is work, not concept. Over time there are places for him an irreducible strength and assurance and he knows that the magical side of the transformation will come into play, that it will become euphoric. The physical phases are unavoidable, they are there to be overcome, the material must be tamed, it must be entered into, it is a clinch, a fight in which man must triumph. He believes in the therapeutic value of the concrete. He likes a piece that is to the point, well finished, functional, durable, pleasant to the eye and to the touch. Goldsmith’s must be like that. But the visual pleasure is not enough for him. Like the violin, the object must have a soul. It can only be born from the meeting of concept, matter and the hand of man, who with his sensitivity will integrate love. From the demanding shaping of metal, something vibrant remains in the object, a part of yourself is there, visible, present. And that’s what those who choose her designs feel and love.
Expositions personnelles (sélection) :
2020 Parenthèse Enchantée, Group show, Galerie OΔK, Toulouse, France
2018, 2019 Collectible Group show, Galerie OΔK, Collectible Design Fair, Bruxelles, Belgique
2017 – The Living Treasures of France, Tokyo National Museum Hyokeikan
2014 – Collect : The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects, Saatchi Gallery, London with The French Craft Project.
2013 – Le Grand Atelier’s food and design pop up at HARRODS, London
2012 – Maîtres d’Art au magasin Lafayette Maison, boulevard Haussmann, Paris
2012 – Exposition collective des Maîtres d’art « L’univers de la création au Clos Lucé », Parc Léonard de Vinci à Amboise
2012 – Hyundai Arts Center, Ulsan, Corée du Sud
2011 – Art Nocturne Knokke, Baskania expose des oeuvres de Daraspe.
2008 – Exposition rétrospective Roland Daraspe – De La Feuille à La Courbe, Bordeaux
2003 – SOFA Chicago Galerie AAF
1997 – Musée du Louvre, conférence sur son travail
1996 – Galerie Nachtergaele – Gent, Belgique
1992 – Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Bordeaux
1989 – « Les Maîtres de Demain » SEIBU Art Forum, Tokyo
1987, 1988, 1989 – Musée de Fukuoka, Japon
Récompenses :
2006 Mention du Prix Liliane Bettencourt « Pour l’Intelligence de la Main » 2006 Label EPV Label (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, confirmé en 2012
2003 Membre de l’Académie des Sciences, Belles Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux
2002 Nomination au titre de Maître d’Art par le ministère de la Culture
2000 Lauréat de l’artisanat et des œuvres d’art pour le millénaire – The Dunhill Club
1996 – 1er Prix – National « Dunhill Prestige International »
1994 – 1er Prix – National Arts and Crafts – section Contemporary Design
1991 – 1er Prix – Regional Arts and Crafts – SEMA/INMA 1991
1990 – 1er Prix Country Arts and Crafts – SEMA/INMA 1990