JEAN LERAT (1913-1992) - Lot 83

JEAN LERAT (1913-1992) Folds Vase with poly-lobed and flattened body. Stoneware proof; partially glazed. Signed J. J. LERAT towards the base and marked 688 in felt-tip underneath. Height: 19.5cm Provenance: Galerie Capazza, Nançay: Galerie Capazza, Nançay. Important: This work will be included in the catalog raisonné of the work of Jean and Jacqueline Lerat currently in preparation. Exhibition: Jean et Jacqueline Lerat, une vie sur terre - Galerie Capazza, Nançay, from September 29 to December 2, 2012. Our work exhibited at this event (n° 32). Bibliography: Bernard Noël - Jean et Jacqueline Lerat, une vie sur terre - Catalogue of the exhibition held at Galerie Capazza, Nançay (September 29 - December 2, 2012), Éditions Galerie Capazza, Nançay, 2012. Our work referenced under catalog number 32 and reproduced on page 55. Alongside his wife Jacqueline, née Bouvet (1920-2009), Jean Lerat remains one of the major pioneering figures in the revival of French ceramics in the second half of the 20th century. In 1941, Jean settled in La Borne, a Berrichon village with a rich pottery past - Jacqueline joined him in 1943. The couple, both artists, drew inspiration from local traditions, nourished by utilitarian forms and popular figurative imagery. Very early on, their research oscillated between figuration and abstraction. Marked by the upheavals of the war, Jean Lerat developed a vast bestiary, in which birds - such as roosters, hens, peacocks and turkeys - became symbols of human resilience, a theme shared by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Henry Moore (1898-1986). His figures of horses, as well as cyclists, footballers and fishermen, evoke the renewed vitality of everyday life and the leisure activities of the Popular Front. From the 1950s onwards, the couple moved towards simplifying their forms. When they moved from La Borne to Bourges in 1955, their works were structured around elementary geometries - line, triangle, square - giving rise to major architectural pieces. Although Jean Lerat never totally abandoned figuration, his research also explored the fragility of the body, represented without a face, sometimes deformed and marked by suffering. Always linked to nature and materials, Jean and Jacqueline see ceramics as a mirror of existence, where gesture, earth and fire bear witness to "the flesh of time". Jean and Jacqueline Lerat's work, both human and timeless, embodies a quest for meaning that goes beyond mere representation to reach the universal.