Phillipe Hiquily (1925-2013) was an iconic sculptor from France, whose works are collected by top museums like the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris. He was also tasked with making three sets of the 12-meter-high powered landscape art Girouette Monumentale , an iconic combination of Chinese culture and modern art concepts to celebrate the Universal Exposition of 2010 in Shanghai.

During the mid-1960s, Hiquily accepted requests from many famous collectors in Europe, and used his mastery in modern applied aesthetics to develop a series of sculptic furniture pieces. To this date, his creations can still be seen in high-end apartments in New York City, royal residences in Brussels and castles near Paris. He used copper and silver as his materials, with curved surfaces and smooth textures, and sleek silhouettes to work with marble or glass. His designs are elegant and calm, celebrating the owners' extraordinary taste while become collectables recommended by iconic interior designers like Ekaterina Fedorchenko, Pierre Yovanovitch and Cullman & Kravis.

Hiquily was born in 1925 in Paris. During World War Two, he moved with his father to live in the Indochina Peninsula for two years. His contact with Asian culture there would shape his creations throughout his life. After his return to Europe, he entered the École Supérieure des Beaux-Art de Paris, where he studied sculpture and expanded his network of friends in the artist community. In 1953, he won a prize in sculpture, and his unimaginably radical works in subsequent exhibitions won him fame across the Atlantic Ocean in the United States. In 1959, the Guggenheim Museum took his works into its collection, and he met several contemporary pop artists during his visit to the US, including Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns. In 1976, he married his beautiful muse from Tahiti, Meei Meei Yen Hiquily, a Cantonese decedent who inspired photography artist Man Ray (1890-1976). From the photographs he kept in his workshop and the sculpted jewelry he made for her in earlier days, we can see how devoted the handsome artist was towards his wife.

During Hiquily's years of studying, he used to visit Musée de l'Homme often, and was inspired by the archaeological objects discovered in the Mediterranian Sea. In particular, the Venus sculpture from the Paleolithic Age, which features a chubby figure that emphasizes the fertility of the female body, became the artist's starting point for his creations. Though Hiquily's style has changed over the decades, he maintained the concept of female bodies as the origin of natural beauty throughout his life. The artist lightened the muscles and curves of the human body, making the torso flat and filled with a sense of mass, while the limbs are thin, like the smallest branches of a tree. Without following the classic aesthetics, he was able to achieve a harmony between the elements. When the visual balance extends in its own pace, achieving the rhythm both when static and dynamic, the core of the work is filled with the artist's relentless quest and breakthrough towards true beauty.

In the 1990s, Hiquily developed the Couple Series, in which he interpreted the passion and playfulness between lovers. The auction item this time is the L'Ambigüe copper sculpture, which is a very iconic piece from the series. Between June and September, 2019, the local government of Éguzon-Chântome, southern France invited Hiquily's artist committee to assist in a three-month review exhibition. In the exhibition, another cast of L'Ambigüe from the same year, attracted press attention, who considered it as representing the artist's concept. In the piece, the figure raised their one arm and foot, establishing an attitude that resembles both looking afar and dancing tango. The two-sided body represents a man on one side and a woman on the other, like a pair of lovers sitting back-to-back, unable to see each other and left to guess each other's thoughts. This situation resembles the unpredictable nature of love, in which lovers have expectations, but are also afraid of getting hurt. The base piece erects the center, making the sculpture looks like it floats above the ground. The simplified body silhouette extends from the flat, curved chunk, creating a sense of agile motion. The reflective quality of metal makes the piece interact with external illumination all around, changing the shadows and shades according to the time and place it is placed. The simplicity and diversity are the most intriguing quality of Hiquily's works, which lingers around the viewer's mind and inspiring further contemplation.