Valérie Goutard, Paternité, 2013

Bronze
57.5 x 41 x 12 cm
Condition: Very good
Edition 6 of 8
Certificate of Authenticity available

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Valérie Goutard, known as VAL (French, 1967–2016), was a French-born sculptor renowned for her bronze, glass, and steel works, often featuring lanky, elongated human figures in precarious, gravity-defying, or structural settings. She was based in Bangkok, Thailand, where her pieces were forged in local foundries.

Paternité (“Fatherhood”) is a figurative work that distills an intimate relationship into a poised, sculptural moment. Rather than staging a dramatic scene, Goutard frames fatherhood as a quiet act of connection: the bond and trust between a father and child becomes the subject, inviting you to linger on the tenderness—and the responsibility—contained in that closeness.

In keeping with Goutard’s broader visual language, the piece reads as both human and slightly otherworldly: elongated forms and open space emphasize emotion over literal detail, so the viewer “fills in” the story through posture, proximity, and balance. The result is less a portrait of specific individuals than a window onto a universal experience—capturing that brief, defining instant when care is communicated not through words, but through presence.

Acquired from REDSEA Gallery, Singapore in 2014.

(Photographed in May 2026)