Voila! Vallauris
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V O I L A ! V A L L A U R I S !
Article by Sally Hook
Last Autumn I took up an offer of a two month Artist In Residency at A.I.R. Vallauris, on the Cote d’Azure, France. Leaving Australia to work there was a turning point. I have been working solely in my bush studio for many years – venturing out only occasionally to see what the world looked like, so getting an invitation from Dale Dorosh – Director of A.I.R. Vallauris - to live and work in France was a small revelation.
H I S T O R I C V A L L A U R I S
Vallauris is old by any standards. It was an area settled by early potters for its rich malleable terracotta clays and has seen countless lives engaged in the activities of modeling, moulding, spinning, firing and glazing pottery wares. For fifty centuries successive populations came and went – sometimes fleeing marauding raiders, sometimes through plagues (le Peste) and also through slow evolutionary cultural adjustment and inclusion. The industry thrived, garnering skills through its own technical development and incorporating the techniques and styles of the surrounding pottery cultures of the Mediterranean. Down through the centuries and into the pre-industrial nineteenth, the widespread use of household pottery was a guarantee of constant work. The potters suffered a decline of their fortunes by the twentieth century, however, enduring two devastating wars and the inexorable rise in the use of plastics. In the post war period there were still 60 potteries in Vallauris, plying their traditional trade in stylistic, highly decorated ceramics when a random visit by an artistic genius changed their ideas and their fortunes.
P A B L O P I C A S S O
In 1946 Pablo Picasso arrived in Vallauris one July day to visit a Pottery, Flower and Perfume exhibition, where he met Georges and Suzanne Ramie of the Madoura Pottery. In their workshop he made two small bulls and the head of a faun and the rest, as we know, is ceramic history. His permanent return a year later to work as a potter throughout the following decade revolutionised Vallauris’ old style craft into one of contemporary design.
In fact, Picasso modernised ceramic art altogether. He had fifty years of development of his own unique aesthetic that he instinctively applied as a maestro onto ceramic surfaces, often forgetting to eat and drink. He used implausible new techniques in altering and combining traditional cast ware into innovative new shapes, glazing under and over engobes and using wax resist patterning. His loose painting style of subjects such as the bullfight, ancient Greek mythology and sexual imagery was fused on with an audacious once-firing technique wholly new to the potters. It seemed that everything he made worked and worked wonderfully. One of his assistants, Jean Derval who still creates imaginative ceramic sculpture in Vallauris remarked later, “It was tiresome to work besides someone who was successful at everything”. Until his life ended Picasso continued to incorporate ceramics into his art with a prodigious output, making over 4000 unique ceramic pieces.
THE RESIDENCY – A.I.R. VALLAURIS
In Vallauris today, the main street has a French provincial charm and vitality, its many pottery shops stacked with highly decorated earthenware and sculpture made locally and imported from Spain and central Europe. For contemporary art exhibitions AIR Vallauris’ Aqui Siam Ben Gallery and the Espace Grand Jean in the Vallauris Art School present new ideas and workshops to the community. This is a stimulating cultural exchange and is beneficial to both the visiting artists and the wider arts community of southern France. Within the established exhibition circuit of Vallauris, dedicated ‘regulars’ attend the shows, including some of the original potters from Picasso’s time who continue to be interested in world trends.
In my application to A.I.R. Vallauris I proposed a series of sculptures of the women of the village. This decision, taken before my arrival in France, caused me consternation later as I grappled with style and thematic considerations. My work is very often of a figurative nature, so as I had proposed, I drew and photographed subjects, collecting and recording impressions and beginning the work with marquettes to help me develop a strategy. I had found the majority of the A.I.R. Vallauris collection to be mostly contemporary, strikingly lacking figurative content. As the weeks passed, I resolved to ignore this and to follow my instincts to do the work my way.
The women of Vallauris proved to be a mixture of cultures; French nationals, Algerians, North Africans and European retirees – a diverse range but essentially, typical of women anywhere. They were engaged in the universal activities of home making, raising families and working in their own culturally appropriate ways.
My ground floor studio was in a cobbled laneway in the oldest part of the village. The whitewashed stone walls felt crypt-like but it was a good workspace and I liked its ancient wooden door and vaulted ceiling. The other residents would drop in often on their way to or from their studios; Tanis Saxby - thrown and altered vessels, Dierdre Aine Eustace - interactive café’ installation, (both Canadians) and Alex Hibbitt -contemporary ceramics – an English professor of ceramics, currently Head of Ceramics at the Ohio School of Art. We had many wonderful times together and saw much of the surrounding cities, towns and countryside with numerous historical sites.
F A E N Z A
There were many exhibitions in Vallauris and along the Cote d’Azure. Cannes, Antibes, Nice and scores of picturesque ancient villages were a constant but welcome distraction. Daphne Corregan and her partner Gilles Suffren gave us a tour of her studio at their home in Draguignan. After an impulse we drove to Faenza to the International Ceramic Art Museum for the Ceramica d’Arte Contemporanea 2005. This museum’s collection of some of the world’s best contemporary ceramic art from the 20th century and earlier was memorable. The collection is extremely varied with objects of extraordinary virtuosity. One wing is devoted to Sueharu Fukami sculpture – presented reverentially in a dramatically lit grand hall. A past winner of this award, his ‘floating’ forms were inspired by Japanese iconography. Of the 2005 competition, Australian ceramists were represented by Lynda Draper who carried off the Second Prize, Andrea Hylands the Lions Club Gold Medal, with Susan Robey and Titania Henderson in the final selection. This ancient Italian town which first inspired the word ‘faience’ as a synonym for majolica was an unforgettable visit.
“Les Femmes de Vallauris”
My exhibition opened on December the 9th with a fair attendance of the faithful. The work was presented as an assemblage of approaches, using locally-sourced orange, tan, black and white clays, utilizing lace fabrics and wire, with burnished, unglazed surfaces. In the end, I am satisfied that the work was indicative of my impressions and happily found appreciation within and beyond the village community.
My time in France was a transforming experience. It was fascinating to live and work in this place and to participate for a time with its changing but ancient culture. I learned that Australia may be isolated geographically, but as the world ceramic community has become enmeshed through our communicative abilities with internet and email, this distance is no longer insuperable. A.I.R. Vallauris has made it possible for me to experience a time in which I have gained great new friends, insights, connections and a wider perspective to become a world citizen with clay as the connective element.
About the Author
Sally Hook is ceramic artist from Australia. She has been working with clay for twenty six years and has been represented in a score of International ceramic art awards, is a holder of the Hiroe Swen Award for Achievement in Ceramics and is the first Australian to be invited to work and exhibit in AIR Vallauris, France.
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