October 2024, n°841
Ceramics, riding a new wave?
Daniel Pontoreau, Pierre en suspens, 2020, terracotta, feldspath,
115 x 85 x 35 cm, courtesy Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès.
2024, the year of ceramics
2024, the year of the 26th Vallauris International Biennial, was a busy one. ‘Hey! Céramiques’ took over the Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris in an explosion of atypical international ceramics, often flirting with art brut or singular, with the little green characters by Finnish artist Kim Simonsson (galerie Nec). Miquel Barceló has populated Gaudí's Casa La Pedrera and Parc Güell in Barcelona with his four thousand most visceral ceramics. His wildest earthen marine grottoes can be admired at the Villa Paloma in Monaco, until October 13th.
Daniel Pontoreau is a ceramic sculptor in a class of his own. After a sublime retrospective at Keramis in Belgium in 2023, in an immense journey of poetic minimalism, he has just exhibited works of great intensity at the Berthet-Aittouarès gallery in June.
Last but not least, in January, under the patronage of Johan Creten, Brussels organised Europe's first Ceramic Biennial: Ceramic Brussels. A Biennial for a much-criticised technique - what a success! The event featured all the artists mentioned above, as well as a sample of the thousands of facets of this material, from some sixty international galleries. Some, like Pierre Passebon's, took a step to the side, apparently abandoning furniture and historical design in favour of ceramics! Frédérique Fleury's strange, large sculptures, often combining fabric and ceramics, were a great discovery. A must-see! Has the fact that we now have our own fair brought the ceramics market up to the level of the big names? In any case, dealers' appetites have been whetted. Questions abound. Will ceramic tastes remain nothing more than food for avid collectors in the face of a slightly saturated contemporary market? Or will it be the consequence, both positive and negative, of a reaction to artificial intelligence, too many social networks, currency crises and other virtual markets? A niche still synonymous with freedom and anti-bourgeois radicalism? A machine to take the imagination out of the equation? A banal desire for change, or a simple desire to imagine oneself with one's hands in the earth, this earth that is said to be so sick? Nothing is decided yet.
Elisabeth Védrenne