“Cet animal qui est plus qu’un animal, dans et après la forme...”: l’hybridité dans l’œuvre de Germaine Richier

Abstract

Germaine Richier's work is crisscrossed by a bestiary composed of creatures at the crossroads of the human, the animal and the vegetable. Although the term "hybrid" was frequently used to evoke her work, it reflects an ambiguity that this article seeks to unravel. Starting with Germaine Richier's use of the term in one of the few texts by her, this essay proposes to analyze the meaning of the notion of 'hybrid'. It takes as its starting point the definition offered by her companion, the writer René de Solier, in his own theoretical essays, and then looks at the modulations of its use in the critical reception of Richier's work, and finally attempts to understand the meaning that the artist may have given it within her creative process. From beasts of the end of time to creatures of an emerging world, from repulsive figures to possible alter-egos, we will see how, behind the question of the relationship between man and animal in Richier's work, a series of dualities are at play, of which the hybrid is the symbol.