Jacques Pouchain Atelier Dieulefit Stoneware Platter With Incised Fish Motif Circa 1960

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Description

Jacques Pouchain Atelier Dieulefit Stoneware Platter with Incised Fish Motif
Circa 1960

This large oval stoneware platter by Jacques Pouchain … Read more Jacques Pouchain Atelier Dieulefit Stoneware Platter with Incised Fish Motif
Circa 1960

This large oval stoneware platter by Jacques Pouchain (French, 1927–2015) is a signature work of his Atelier Dieulefit, dominated by a boldly incised fish, a recurring and iconic motif for the artist. The creature is rendered not with realism but with graphic, primitive energy: its body is divided into horizontal striations above and vertical bars below, its fins are drawn as bands of sawtooth triangles, and its tail is a single open crescent. The incised lines, filled with a dark oxide, stand out against a rustic, speckled gray-white glaze, creating a stark monochromatic palette that emphasizes the form and texture of the stoneware and treats the ceramic surface as a canvas in the manner of the postwar French studio potters. The platter is pierced twice at the rim and retains an old twine loop for hanging.

Hung from its twine loop, the platter suits a narrow wall on its own or a grouping of mid-century French ceramics; laid flat on a sideboard, console or open shelf, its gray-and-black graphic reads equally well in a rustic or a pared-back modern interior.

Dimensions
Width: 14½ inches (36.8 cm)
Depth: 7½ inches (19.1 cm)
Height: 1¾ inches (4.4 cm)

Marks
Incised to the reverse in script “L’Atelier Dieulefit.”

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good condition.

Historical Context
Jacques Pouchain (1927–2015) trained in architecture and at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière in Paris before settling in the Drôme in 1951, where he headed the decoration workshop of the Coursange faïencerie at Le Poët-Laval until 1957 and then founded his own workshop in nearby Dieulefit, active from 1959 to 1982. Bringing a painter’s and sculptor’s sensibility to clay, he blended modern abstraction with the raw immediacy of ancient art, and his work stands with the best of the postwar French studio ceramics that flourished alongside Picasso’s celebrated engagement with the medium at Vallauris.

Pouchain exhibited at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics at the Musée Cantini, Marseille, in 1965 and at the first Vallauris Biennale in 1968, and his work is held by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Musée de Valence, among other collections.

(Ref: NY10877-kmrx) See less