ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) - Lot 109

ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Egyptian Key, 1970 Soliflore vase. Glazed stoneware; brown, blue. Signed and dated JOULIA (19)70 under the finial. Height: 15cm Provenance: Galerie des Docks, Nice. Exhibitions: - Céramiques françaises des années 50 - Galerie des Docks, in collaboration with Mouvements Modernes and UAF galleries, Nice, March 28 to April 25, 2002. Our work exhibited at this event. - N6-N7 - Les Nationales de la Céramique - Écomusée de la Bresse bourguignonne, Château de Pierre-de-Bresse, from April 4 to December 20, 2015. Our work exhibited at this event. Bibliography: Philippe Chambost, Pascal Marziano et Arnaud Serpollet - 1947-2017, 70 ans d'expression céramique française - Éditions Les livres de l'îlot, Neuvic, 2020. Our work reproduced on pages 6 and 206. ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Initially trained as a fresco artist, Élisabeth Joulia discovered ceramics with Jean Lerat before settling in 1949 in La Borne, a stoneware mecca of which she would become one of the leading figures. Rejecting convention, she developed an instinctive, organic practice, based on direct work with clay, modeled exclusively by hand. Her work is rooted in a sensitive abstraction that resonates with nature and the body, often the female form. Through emblematic series - Chestnuts, Hatching, Almonds - she explores the essence of forms and living things. From the 1970s onwards, her volumes gained in breadth and sensuality, then became purer with the introduction of white stoneware. A key figure in post-war ceramics, her work, nourished by spirituality and travel, tends towards the universal.