Jean-François Fouilhoux
Ceramic Sculptures - Celadon, the Captive Light
23 September 2005 - 30 October 2005
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Following on from the “Celadon - Ceramic Treasures of China” exhibition (29 April to 21 August 2005), which presented the history and development of Celadon in Zhejiang province over more than 2000 years, the Baur Collection is pleased to present ceramic sculptures by Jean-François Fouilhoux. The exhibition is organised in association with the 9th edition of the “Carouge Ceramic Itinerary” (Parcours Céramique de Carouge).
Jean-François Fouilhoux has undertaken his own artistic research based on traditional Chinese glaze. For more than twenty years he has passionately explored the potential of “Celadon” glaze when used on resolutely contemporary sculptures.
The exhibition is divided into two parts:
- The first room evokes the artist’s early research on glazes that were applied in visible and tangible thicknesses on pieces made out of moulded and assembled slabs. The colours are bright and shiny and the multi-layering is rich in pictorial effects.
- After this spectacular work on glazes Jean-François Fouilhoux began to follow in the footsteps of the Chinese potters in an attempt to reproduce the Celadon of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1275) which fascinated him, and he devoted all his research to this end. In the other rooms, a selection of sculptural pieces in various shapes declines all the shades of this thick and unctuous glaze named fenqing (blue or powder green) by the Chinese. The reliefs, the sharp ridges over which the glaze thins allowing the clay to show through, lend presence to the shapes. The Celadon is transformed into substance; it takes on form and life.