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Vallauris: The Vase

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 versions of common objects); here (c. 1962) with a biomorphic handle evocative of a snake:
 


In this work (below) made by Le Vaucour an abstract  sculptural form is covered with layers of multi-colored glazes that produced a dramatic effect from the thermic reactions of each layer during the firing:


Alongside works made by artists or studios who cultivated an individual style and approach, Vallauris generated a collective trans-individual style that radically departed from traditional forms and glazes, and came to impersonate a popular ceramic modernity that shared the same characteristics (types of forms and glazes), and simply bore the signature 'VALLAURIS': incised, painted, written, on a paper label, etc..
This expression of collective identity makes identification difficult if not impossible, and the anonymity of the works means that the value  of each piece cannot be easily determined. Given the discrepancy between productions, the challenge for the collector is — like the Japanese masters of tea — to find pieces that, both in design and glazing, stand out among the mass of what the purists regard as debased kitsch: 


This varied anonymous production offered makers, retailers and buyers different levels of experimentation in form and glazing. The vase on the left, with its smooth surface and soft merging of colors, was the most popular with the general public (the least aggressive); and, therefore, tends to be the most widespread on markets; whereas the vase on the right, in its more radical sculptural form and its volcanic glaze, was more challenging to conventional taste.
What is significant is that these vases introduced a form of Modernity into the home, at affordable prices.

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In parallel, many studio potters who developed a personal style, signed their work, and produced craft-based — hand-turned, or slab-built — works of artistic integrity also provided different forms of Modernity, which retailed at affordable prices.
In this context, Vallauris ceramics achieved a truly popular status as an art form.
It is unfortunate that the market inflated the value of some mass-produced items (like Capron's), at the expense of others; fuelling commercial speculation and creating false hierarchies.

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