'At Last Colour Came...' It is important to note that potters benefited from the popular demand for key items for the home; from the fruit bowl that stood on the dining table or on the dresser, the ashtray , that provided an opportunity for a splash of colour, the 'vide-poches' (a small dish in which to empty one's pockets upon arriving home), the pitcher for serving drinks in style (complemented by the 'service à orangeade' ) and, of course, the vase ; often presented to the woman of the house on her birthday, her 'fête' or as a 'souvenir de vacance', upon return from holiday. All these objects added significant touches of colour to the home décor in which it was often lacking; from the humblest 'vide-poches' by Lunetta (green), Luc (x2 blue, yellow + pink), Louis Giraud (white and small black), Les Argonautes (dark brown), Vercéram (glossy): to vases (all anonymous): Dishes, bowls and platters produced in Vallauris during t

From humble domestic object, the pitcher acquired a new status as a decorative object for the home and inspired varied experiments by studio potters working as 'artists'. Thus, this humble, but extremely elegant, pitcher  Aegitna , from the studio of  Saltalamacchia , hand-turned and decorated with a traditional green glaze on an earthenware body, provided  a challenge for artistic expression, inducing artists to create pitchers that could command attention as 'objets d'art' for the living room ; alongside vases, fruit bowls, candle holders, ash-trays, and pictures: Today, this humble pitcher has recovered a new capacity to function  aesthetically:  as an expression of a rural aesthetic. By contrast Robert Picault reinvented the pitcher — and all other kitchen ware —  enabling them to function both as pitcher and as decorative object; fulfilling William Morris ideal.   Alongside domestically functional objects, artists like Alexandre Kostanda produced purely decora

Whilst developing from and incorporating  traditional  Mediterranean forms, the new ceramic modernity also borrowed from fine art artistic styles such as Cubism and Abstraction . In the case of the vase on the right by Kostanda (c. 1953), this modernity involved using a different clay, the re-shaping of regular, hand-turned forms, truth to material and the development of decorative motifs inspired by fine art.     Robert Picault extended his revitalised culinary range by developing decorative motifs that harmonised and fitted with decorative objects stylistically: In a different vein, stimulated by Abstraction Lyrique some potters such as Michel Ribero (below left) combined asymmetric forms with dark, dramatic, runny glazes that evoked a lava flow. The studio of Jerome Massier , led by Alain Maunier (from 1960) [on the right, below], produced a series of  modern abstract glazes that combined gloss and matt layers on clay bodies that were hand built like sculptures ( sculptural versi

  P icasso ’s charismatic visits, from 1946 on: to work at Madoura — where he produced one-offs for art collectors, as well as limited editions for a wider public — established Vallauris as a trendy holiday destination where Art blended with sea-side culture .  The presence of other artists — Pignon, Miro, Chagall, Ozenfant, Léger, Cocteau, etc. — affected the practice of potters who adopted and developed modern painterly styles that brought Art into everyday life through the mediation of affordable ceramic objects. Thus, many of the workshops that had produced humble cooking ware since the eighteenth century, progressively re-opened to produce ‘poterie d’art’ , that emphasised the  ‘fait main’ or ‘décoré main’ (as was often inscribed on the base of hand-turned or slipcast pieces), made in series and retailed at affordable prices. Initially, some artists shared a workshop, where they worked individually; sharing expenses, assistants equipment, and know how’s. According to the old

  VALLAURIS: Earthenware . One important site of the ceramics revival in France, from the 40s onward, was Vallauris , a traditional center for the production of hand-made cooking pots and table ware since the eighteenth century: With the industrialisation of ceramic production in large factories (Sarreguemine, Longchamp, etc.), the demand for the heavy and more fragile  ‘terres vernissées’  declined, and many workshops closed-down; turning the place into a ghost town. Till newcomers arrived with new ideas and new life styles that contrasted with and puzzled the few remaining exponents of the old tradition. In  Vallauris , unlike in  Saint-Amand  and  La Borne , the postwar ceramic revival was stimulated, in part, by domestic ceramics that offered  Robert Picault  a challenge for revolutionise the design and manufacture by craft means of cooking and  table ware   that could co-exist on the dining table without shame.  Thus, hand-painted cooking pots, dishes, plates, salad bowls, fruit b