Marsh, Jan – THE LIFE OF FIORE DE HENRIQUEZ – 2014

cm. 23,5 x 15,5, pp. 276, brossura, in ottime condizioni.

The sculptor Fiore de Henriquez led a double life in more sense than one. Born in Italy, she became a British citizen with an international career and, until her death in June 2004, divided her time between London and the Italian province of Lucca. Born and raised as a girl she developed male characteristics at puberty, at which time she accepted a unique intersexual identity that she celebrated as hermaphrodite.

Her sculpture reflects this duality. Her work encompasses two main fields that of expressive portraiture, combining masculine strength with feminine sensitivity, and that of semi-abstract figures featuring twinned bodies, ambiguous creatures and legendary beings that inhabit more than one realm. At once highly public – Fiore’s sitters included HRH Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, President Kennedy, Margot Fonteyn, Igor Stravinsky, Vivien Leigh her emotional life was difficult, tumultuous and at times explosive, for her passion and rages were as powerful as her personality.