Nicola L

Nicola L. (born Nicole Jeannine Suzanne Leuthe in 1932 – December 31, 2018) was a Moroccan-born French visual artist. Initially associated with French Pop Art Nouveau réalisme, she quickly developed her own interdisciplinary practice of conceptual art that encompassed sculpture, performance art, painting, film, and design. Themes such as sexuality, activism, political resistance, ecology, cosmology, and spirituality are recurring themes in her oeuvre. Her most famous sculptures include White Foot Sofa and Red Coat (1969). Her work has been acquired by several galleries, including FRAC Bretagne in France and MAMCO in Geneva.

Nicola L.'s work also engaged with radical ideas in feminist politics, equality, and collectivity. She became particularly known for her anthropomorphic sculptures that fused female bodies and domestic objects. As with other women artists such as Carolee Schneemann, Valie Export, Rosalyn Drexler, and Marisol, the nude feminine form became a recurring motif within her career. She described her work as "an ephemeral monument to freedom."

Early years Born in Mazagan Morocco to French parents. Nicola moved to Paris in 1954 to study abstract painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, mentored by the painter Jean Souverbie who encouraged her to "cut the body up in the same way that light was cutting the live model." During this period she befriended Nouveau réalist art critic Pierre Restany and met Alfred Lanzenberg, whom she married in 1956. In 1966 Lanzenberg opened an art gallery in Brussels,

Career In the 1960s, Nicola L. became close to the French New Realist group, which advocated that art should comment on society using existing objects and materials. Motivated by Pierre Restany, the movement also included Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Christo and Niki de Saint Phalle. In 1964, while working between Paris and Ibiza, L. met the conceptual Argentine artist Alberto Greco, who had an important influence on her artistic development. Having recently returned from New York where he had encountered Marcel Duchamp, Greco repeatedly questioned L.'s pursuit of painting.

In 1975, Nicola L. shifted focus to film projects. In 1977 she directed the feature film Les Têtes sont Encore Dans L'île (The Heads are Still in the Island) with Terry Thomas and Pierral, shot in Ibiza. In 1979 Nicola L. moved to New York City, where she continued to focus on film making. (both 2016). L.'s Red Coat was performed in London on the occasion of the work's display at the Tate Modern gallery in 2015.

Influence and legacy Nicola L.'s work has been acquired by international collections, including Centre Pompidou, Paris; FRAC Bretagne, France; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Musée d'Arts Plastiques, Brussels; Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; and MAMCO, Geneva. The Nicola L. Estate is represented by Alison Jacques, London in collaboration with the Nicola L. Collection & Archive.