Métamorphose II, 1951-1952

Bronze, 47 x 29 x 29 cm.

Winner of the French Prize 1952 of International competition : Unknown Political Prisoner.

Exhibited : Musée d’Art Moderne Paris, Tate Gallery, London 

“The Unknown Political Prisoner”

He is that universal and anonymous figure who represents the man imprisoned for his opinion rather than for his actions… thus the protagonist of unmerited suffering for spiritual freedom.

The symbols of today our fund of common image, is derived from the remotest myth of the vast (first 2 letters missing in transcript) and the speculative thought of the future. As a means of communication they are referred by each individual to a common experience and thus are universal.
This constant voice throughout the ages has been the direct expression of idea as distinct from the indirect communication by language.

This sculpture is an ambiguous structure which can be seen as the metamorphosis from a bound figure to a free-flying movement… from chrysalis to butterfly… earthbound Briareus, the many armed tree to Daedalus as flame… the unconquerable spirit, the liberating power of thought that can be neither imprisoned or restrained.

The image begins  from a winged animal form; Pegasus bound… the centaur (Chiron, the tutor of Hercules, symbol of wisdom and the liberation of the spirit by thought).
It emerges into a struggling tormented figure, Prometheus chained for having stolen men, or as in some myths the sculptor who made man of clay and breathed life into his puppet.

This is not a monument to the dead.
It is the reassertion of the constant living insistence on freedom, in which those people to whom it is dedicated believed, and for which they died.