The collection of shell works by Breton artist Sam Le Rol saved from the shipwreck

Sam Le Rol's works are exhibited at Auberive Abbey in Haute-Marne.On the borders of kitsch and the sublime, the singular universe of this slightly crazy dreamer is made up entirely of shells.

Fairy-tale castles, scenes from the Far West or the India of the Maharajahs ...Sam Le Rol's works draw their inspiration from childhood dreams.A dreamlike universe composed entirely of seashells.thousands of fragments, cut and assembled, to constitute a real treasure which could have disappeared without the determination of a couple of collectors, passionate about unique art.

There is a bit of Facteur Cheval in the story of Sam Le Rol.In the 1960s, this cabinetmaker, self-taught artist passionate about his region, Brittany, decided to create his shell museum.For eight years near Plouharnel in Morbihan, he will build with his son Alain a replica of a 17th century galleon which will house his shell sculptures.A sum of kitsch for some, works of art in its own right for others, the work of Sam Le Rol leaves no one indifferent: his Palace of One Thousand and One Nights, his underwater paintings and even his village of the Smurfs, made up of thousands of meadows, whelks and other knives, are an invitation to travel and dream.

An exhibition in an abbey before returning to Brittany?

In 2005, for lack of buyer, the shell museum was wrecked.The galleon was destroyed with shovels and the collection sank into oblivion.It is a little by chance that in 2018, Jean-Claude Volot and his wife , great lovers of singular art, come across a sale of works by Sam Le Rol: "We immediately saw the artistic interest that it had.There was in addition the rescue side, this militant side that we a for these forms of expression.It was a challenge ".The former big boss and vice-president of Medef then decided to acquire all of the pieces to exhibit them in the Contemporary Art Center that he created in his Auberive abbey, in Haute-Marne.

Posted Date: 2021-02-13