Exploring Igor Mitoraj’s “Asclepius”: Symbolism, Form, and Interpretation

Igor Mitoraj is a world‑renowned Franco‑Polish artist. Born in 1944, he died in 2014 in Paris.

A resolutely postmodern artist, he seeks in ancient statuary a balance of forms that transcends the centuries.

A student of the prestigious Tadeusz Kantor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, he inherited from his master—an influential art theorist—his taste for ancient myths. Mitoraj created numerous monumental sculptures exhibited in London, in Agrigento in Sicily, and in Paris in the La Défense district, where one can admire the fam

ous Grand Toscano as well as the monumental head Tindaro in front of the KPMG tower, and the sculptures Ikaria (Adria Tower), Ikaro (Ernst & Young Tower), and Centurion (Fiat Tower).

Since 1995, his monumental sculpture Thshuki‑No‑Ikari, acquired by the British Museum, has been displayed before the colonnade of the celebrated institution.

This sculpture, titled Asclepius, embodies the spirit of these spectacular creations. As always in Mitoraj’s work, the piece is dedicated to the human body, whose classically perfect form is here exalted.

This incomplete bust, which seems to have emerged from an archaeological excavation, recalls the

fragments of ancient sculpture preserved in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. On the chest, a tenon evokes a structural trace, like the marble element that supports the hand of Michelangelo’s David, in the tradition of the non finito. The bust belongs to a poetic universe of ruin, antiquity, and the unfinished. Slightly lower, an opening reveals a heart, reminding us that behind the memory of a body frozen in bronze, one must recall the living heart of humanity.

This bronze work, with its ochre patina, displays a warm hue reminiscent of leather or ceramic.

The illustrated example is mounted on a white travertine base. Its composition brings it closer to a bas‑relief than to a fully three‑dimensional sculpture, allowing it to stand out against a solid‑colored background and giving it a powerful graphic presence.

If Igor Mitoraj chose to name his sculpture Asclepius, after the god of medicine who could resurrect the dead, it may well be to send a message of hope to humankind.

The gallery welcomes all proposals concerning this artist.