Publications

Les Machines Singulières de Pierre Andrès

Preface by Catherine Hubert, Fleurus, 1986.
Editor : Fleurus
Collection : Fleurus idées. Savoir créer

This book is currently out of print.
Available secondhand on Rakuten

Pierre Andrès et ses Machines Singulières

The life of Pierre Andrès, like his wooden machines, is unique. Colette Chantraine-Zachariou recounts it in this book, which is biographical, of course, but also, and naturally, from an artistic perspective. Originally from Alsace, after a career as a teacher in the Lot region, he developed his creations for more than twenty years in Pont-Salomon near Saint-Etienne.

At a time when kinetic sculpture in the 1970s to 1990s was powered by electricity, with artists such as Jean Tinguely, Takis, Nicolas Schöffer and Pol Bury, the poet Pierre Andrès built sculptural machines in which ‘the rolling ball’ provided the energy necessary for movement. How did this artist, after a first life devoted to educating young children, develop his poetic and mechanical ideas?

With the help of testimonials and numerous documents, the author reveals this to us page after page. The photographs confirm the gradual evolution of his creations. Pierre Andrès' works are now part of major art collections around the world, after having been exhibited at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the children's workshop at the Centre Pompidou, and elsewhere.

In 2006, the Cahors Museum dedicated a large and beautiful exhibition to him, in his presence, where his friend Steve Waring, a great collector of his works, came to pay tribute to him in song: ‘He's a sculptor, this guy, who makes poems out of wood...’

Pierre Andrès et ses Machines Singulières,
éditions édicausse 64 pages - many illustrations.
15€ (excluding shipping costs).

Where to buy:
Editor's website : edicausse.fr
Calligramme bookshop in Cahors
Livre Books & Company in Montcuq