Robert Juvin

Robert Juvin was born in 1921 in Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine. He attended the École supérieure de dessin in Paris, and in 1941 went to the École des Beaux-arts in Paris. He also studied at the École régionale des Beaux-arts in Nantes.[1] During World War II (1939–45) he fought in the French Resistance. Later he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.[2] He was attached to the military government in Germany for administration of artistic recovery. Juvin was professor of sculpture at the French School in Koblenz, Germany.[1]

Juvin founded the group Mur Vivant (Living Wall) which set itself the goal of re-integrating the visual arts with architecture. He prepared reliefs in asbestos-cement.[3] Juvin was commissioned to create one of the sixteen haut-relief sculptures for the Mémorial de la France combattante at Fort Mont-Valérien, opened in June 1960. His sculpture, entitled Narvik, commemorates the departure of the French expeditionary force from Narvik, Norway on 3–8 June 1940. It depicts a longship pierced with arrows, but still afloat.[4] His Allégorie de la Loire, made around 1960, is mounted in the wall of the Quai Mayaud of Saumur.[5]

In 1962 Juvin created a bas-relief Bienheureuse Vierge de la Merced for the facade of the Église Sainte-Jeanne-de-Chantal in Paris (16e).[6] Early in 1964 Juvin's work was displayed in the Biennale de la Sculpture at the Rodin museum in Paris.[7] Juvin was commissioned to create the facades of the Musée de La Poste.[8] Juvin's sculpture Couple (1987) stands in the gardens of the Palais Carnoles, Menton's Museum of Fine Art.[2] A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Palais Carnoles from 22 February to 19 May 2003.[9] Robert Juvin died in Menton in décember 2005.[1]

Awards given to Juvin included:[1]

• Prix de la Fondation Florence Blumenthal, 1954
• Officier des Arts et Lettres, 1961
• Prix du Jeune Travailleur Intellectuel – collaboration architecte-sculpteur, 1962
• Grande médaille d’argent de la Ville de Paris, 1963