By Jean-Louis Gaillemin, Art Historian, Lecturer and Art Magazine Editor
With a truly exceptional provenance, scale and structure, this enigmatic piece by French artist Elisabeth Joulia reveals her sensual and mystical approach to ceramics. Made in 1955 and acquired from her La Borne studio in 1978 by Alan Grizot, known as the first ‘archaeologist of the 20th century’, it was later acquired by another great connoisseur of 1950s ceramics, Pierre Staudenmeyer, from the groundbreaking ‘Le Regard d’Alan’ auction at Binoche et Godeau Paris in 1991.
Following the creation of a few utilitarian pieces in her local artisanal tradition, Joulia also ventured into abstract sculpture. According to her biographer Joseph Rossetto (author of Elisabeth Joulia: Faites Entrer l'Infini, 2019), these works can evoke forms by Alicia Penalba or Barbara Hepworth. Her creations are biomorphic silhouettes that occasionally duplicate, playfully interact with one another, are in dialogue, and even confront each other. Some take on the appearance of a binnacle, others have a tripartite composition and act as primitive idols. A pair of eyes and two raised arms suffice to animate the deliberately crude bases.
The present work, at once rough in materiality and soft in form, is undoubtedly the most accomplished expression of this period in the artist’s oeuvre. But the little ‘gaze’ within this interior volume, this torso which ends in a chimney shape, also outlines an oven as a sanctuary for the mysterious alchemy of earth and fire.
This protective totem is a tribute to a secular practice and ritual upkept and renewed by the potters of La Borne.
來源
巴黎 Alan Grizot 收藏(1978年直接購自藝術家本人) 巴黎,Binoche et Godeau,1991 年 10 月 6 日,拍品編號 37 巴黎 Pierre Staudnmeyer 收藏(購自上述來源) Patrick Mignot 收藏(繼承自上述來源) 現藏者購自上述來源
過往展覽
'Pierre Staudenmeyer, la passion céramique', Sotheby's, Paris, 5-15 February 2014
文學
Chloé Braunstein-Kreigel, Les Années Staudenmeyer: 25 Ans de Design en France, Paris, 2009, illustrated p. 147