French Celadon Ceramics

Jean-Francois Fouilhoux, (b. 1947) of Montpres-Chambord, is known for the Chinese-influenced celadon glazes he uses on his ceramics. We usually associate green, a vegetal color, with celadon but the term denotes a transparent glaze developed by the ancient Chinese and given its common western name, given by its early French admirers in the 18th century.

The glaze, also characterized by its crackled surface, is well-suited to other pale, evanescent shades, as the blue pieces here show, especially the group portrait at top.
Fouilhoux's work places itself in a long line of ceramics decsended from the Chinese, much of it created by persons whose names are lost to us.

Even a relatively static shape, like the blue pleated bowl, suggests movement from within, like the living vegetal forms his pieces evoke. The blue bowl and the enfolding green bowl on a tiny pedestal appear as alternative moments of one being, breathing in and breathing out.

Even the formal Ovoid Vase hints at movement, perhaps fixed as in a photograph, like ice melting down the side of a tree. It is the formality of Fouilhoux that links his work to the Art Nouveau of 1900.

Images: Works by Jean-Francois Fouilhoux from the collection of the French National Ceramics Museum, Sevres.

Photographs by Martine Coppola-Beck.