Francis Marshall
France, 1946
Living on the outskirts of Paris, Francis Marshall’s mysterious practice is inextricably intertwined with his unconventional life. Working over forty years to create a society of more than four hundred figurative sculptures, his oeuvre exists in a world of its own. Marshall’s stuffed objects and figures are made from pieces of wood, rags, old nylons, discarded bicycles, radios, cupboards and debris found on the banks of the river seine. His is the material of the discarded, a world of apparent darkness, filled with dystopian humour. His population is assembled in familiar quotidian scenes that captivates and lures us into spending time in the company of this strangely comforting country cast. Championed by Alain Bourbonnais, the legendary founder of La Fabuloserie, Marshall’s work was first made public in 1973 at atelier Jacob in Paris. Since then he has been exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne (France), at the American Visionary Art Museum (USA) and at Hayward gallery in the Outsiders exhibition in 1979.
