Monsieur Fernand Martin du Magny of Amboise

Le Garage, Amboise

There is an absolutely wonderful exhibition on at Le Garage Art Centre (ends 30 June 2021) in Amboise. Absolutely wonderful. A real treat. It stirs the senses, emotions even, on so many levels.

The town is proud not only of Leonardo, who was born in Italy, Max Ernst, who was born in Germany and Alexander Calder, who was born in America, but also of Fernand du Magny, its very own home grown artist born In Amboise.

M. du Magny, who was born in 1934, must surely be familiar, maybe influenced by Leonardo’s Lion at Château du Clos Lucé, the Max Ernst Fountain and Calder’s Crinkly in the garden of le Garage.

Lion, M. du Magny

His Lion, built from a 2CV engine, has shock absorbers for the front legs. His duck sculpture Le canard enchaîné could be mistaken for Ernst’s. It’s M. du Magny’s tribute to Jean Cabut’s cartoon about the (alleged) Gaddafi financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.

Tribute to Jean Cabut’s cartoon, M. du Magny

Asked how he works M. du Magny said: I look at photos, DVDs, and then I do everything with my head. The artist James Whistler, by his own account, paid good money in Paris to learn how to do just that.

Alexander Calder trained as an engineer but his soul was in sculpture. Du Magny trained as a coach builder but was by heart a sculptor. Just as Calder did with Crinkly, he bends, twists, paints and assembles pieces of sheet metal, except in his case, it’s scrap metal.

How heartening that Life has turned full circle for M. du Magny. Not only is the garage where he worked with his father now an art gallery but he was invited to exhibit his sculptures made from recycled car parts found in his garage during the reconstruction.

Bull, M. du Magny

He said of his magnificent Bull Slaying a Matador: ‘The bull was made with pieces from the paint booth in the garage. The horns and the tail are car exhausts’.

Picasso and Ernest Hemingway would love it. M. du Magny’s creations bring images to mind of works by Dali, Jeff Koons, Max Ernst and especially Marcel Duchamp.

For his first commission M. Du Magny transformed a bicycle wheel into a flower.

‘In 1913’, said Duchamp: ‘I had the happy idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn’. He called it Bicycle Wheel. The result is considered by art historians as an important turning point in art.

Senegalese Riflemen, The Hairy, M. du Magny

The human depictions are clearly expressions of M. du Magny’s view of the world. For example, his hilarious Donald Trump has yellow cartoon feet but on a more serious note he pays tribute to Senegalese Riflemen who defended Amboise in 1940.

The Hairy, M. du Magny

The Hairy is a tribute to M. du Magny’s grandfather. A WWI soldier was affectionately nicknamed ‘the hairy’, slang for brave. His shoes and weapons case belonged to his ancestor. He plays with the word ‘hairy’ by adding hair and beard which he made with the hair of his dog.

Here you will find: Adolf Hitler; Grace Jones, once the face of Citroën; an awesome Owl, a tribute to the owl he raised in the garage; a Gaul to represent the tribe of Turones who settled in Amboise and the towering figure of Mick Jagger standing in front of his Château Fourchette in Pocé sur Cisse. Fourchette means fork in French which is why Sir Mick’s hair is made up of forty-eight forks. Wouldn’t the old rocker just love that for his posh pied a terre.

Mick Jagger, M. du Magny

Fernand du Magny’s work is wonderful. But is it art? Well of course there is no agreed definition of art but some include: the expression of creative skill and imagination; any activity done with a communicative or aesthetic purpose, something that expresses an idea, an emotion or a world view; a creative activity that expresses imaginative or technical skill which produces an object; a diverse range of human activities in creating visual artefacts expressing the author's imaginative mind. The product is a work of art; activities involving creative imagination to express technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.

Let Marcel Duchamp have the final say. ‘An ordinary object...is elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of the artist.’ By his definition, what Monsieur Fernand Martin du Magny creates is most definitely art.

A perfect end to the story of this fascinating son of Amboise would be for his sculptures to be displayed here permanently. It just feels so right for that to happen. The Mayor and his merry men and women will just have to find the money from somewhere to build another art gallery.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.