George Jouve
Born in the Parisian suburbs in 1910, Georges Jouve, after brilliant studies at the Ecole Boulle and the Académie Jullian, became an interior designer and specialised in theatre sets.
He took refuge in Dieulefit during the Occupation and it was there that he began the profession that was to be his life's work, imposed by the vicissitudes of the war.
The 50's are, for the ceramist, a decade of intense activity.
George Jouve's collaborations with the best designers of the time gave rise to happy encounters: for his friend, the decorator Mathieu Matégot, he signed ceramic works that accompanied his famous furniture in perforated sheet metal.
In contact with these universes and these currents of modernity, Georges Jouve's vocabulary becomes more radical. Anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or abstract, his work, enhanced by the beautiful black enamel, is reinterpreted in purity.
The year 54 marks a decisive stage in the itinerary of the Jouve family, who decide to settle in Pigonnet, in the countryside of Aix-en-Provence.
In the continuity of the Parisian years, new research led the ceramist to conceive a series of wall lights called “Lyre”, “Butterfly”, “Bone”, “Top”.
This was followed by major pieces that were more austere, more architectural, and which were also the most accomplished in terms of the balance of volumes.
This formal simplification does not distance Jouve from the repertoire of useful forms.
The return to the usual and functional object is concretised in a serial way in the cylinder vases, models sold at the Steph Simon gallery alongside works by Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Serge Mouille and Isamo Noguchi.