ETIENNE ALLEMEERSCH (1926-2002)

WORK

MARC BANKOWSKY 

BIOGRAPHY

When violence renewed the beds of men on earth,
A very old tree, with dry leaves, resumed the thread of his maxims ...
And another senior tree rose from the already large underground Indies
With its magnetic leaf and its load of new fruits.
Saint-John Perse

After studying at the National School of Decorative Arts and the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, Marc Bankowsky first practiced painting. His meeting with the painter José Fabri-Canti lead to found in Corsica Cyrne Arte, a phalanstery bringing together visual artists, actors and musicians. Sculpture, ceramic, mosaic, brassware and ironware workshops, settled in the village of Balagne. He learnt the fresco and mosaic and kept its course while participating in the organization of the first Corsican music festival.

In the 70’s, Marc returned to Paris after a visit to Switzerland, where he discoverd and learnt weaving. Huge hanging cocoons, the "Platforms", borned of his imagination, met a huge success, especially in the biennial of tapestry in Lausanne. Museums and Culture Houses exposed his work. For its opening, the Centre Georges Pompidou commissioned a monumental work installed at the entrance. His taste for modeling lead him in the 80’s to work bronze, which he vows since, reviving its mythological roots. Peter Marino then asked him to make stools and goldsmith objects for Christian Dior.

The forces of nature, through the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms, become furniture and bronze, plaster and resin objects, seducting renowned designers as well as private clients in USA, Europe and Asia.

WORK

PAOLO BUFFA

WORK

MARC CAVELL (1911-1989)

BIOGRAPHY

WORK

JEAN DESPRÉS (1889-1980) 

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1889 in Souvigny, Burgundy, from glass blower parents, Jean Després starts his apprenticeship with a Parisian goldsmith, friend of the family, in 1905.

First an industrial drawer for the military aviation during World War I, he took over his parents’ shop in 1920 and launched his goldsmith and jeweler workshop. He revealed himself to be an innovative creator with a unique way to work metals, and with new drawn shapes never seen before. He participated to his first show in 1926 at the Salon des Indépendants. Many shows and exhibitions then followed, such as the Salon d’Automne, the Salon of Decorative artists, and the Tuileries Salon.

Jean Després chooses massive shapes rather than the classical goldsmith ornaments and avoids the use of precious gemstones in his jewel collection. His jewel production is defined by necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings where metals are combined with ivory, lacquer, ebony, onyx and sharkskin.

His goldsmith pieces are inspired by the aviation aesthetic, crafted using hammered metals, and ample, generous and modern shapes. In the 1940’s, Jean Després is nominated President of the Goldsmith Syndicate, after receiving the Legion d’Honneur, in 1938. The artist’s works will be collected in France and worldwide, even after his death in 1980.

ARTWORK

MARCELLO FANTONI (1915-2011)

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Florence in 1915, Marcello Fantoni starts his artistic career in 1927 when he subscribes to the Art Institute of Porta Romana. He begins to follow the ceramic class of Carlo Guerrini, the artistic director of Cantagalli’s famous manufacture. 

 After his graduation in 1934, he starts to work as the artistic director of a studio in Perugia, before settling in Florence and creating his own ceramic workshop. His production of edition and unique pieces meets a great success from 1937 with the Arts and Crafts exhibition that made him well-known throughout all the country and beyond. 

After the war years, spent in the Resistance, he comes back to his artistic activity with fever, developing his workshop’s production and increasing his collaborations. His success grows in the 1960’s and 1970’s: his unique sculptures adopt both a very contemporary aesthetic and historical references, such as the Etruscan ceramics, to which he gives a new approach of the material, colors and enamel. 

In 1970, Fantoni founds the International School of Ceramic Art in Florence. It is there that he will pursue his work, production, and will teach, until his death in 2011.

Today, his pieces are part of the most important museum collections, such as The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Tokyo’s Museum of Modern Art.

ARTWORK

ARRIGO FINZI (1890-1973)

WORK

FONTANA ARTE

WORK

PIERO FORNASETTI (1913-1988)

BIOGRAPHY

Graduated from the Academy of Brera, this multicard artist, painter, sculptor, writer, stylist, designer inspired by ancients but also by Chiric, works from the 30's with Gio Ponti, until the 60's. He released a surreal furniture that gives Fornasetti a place quite apart in the Italian design of the 20th century.

WORK

ROBERT GOOSSENS (1927-2016)

BIOGRAPHY

WORK

KAM TIN

BIOGRAPHY

WORK

RYAN LABAR

BIOGRAPHY

Raised in Montana, USA, Ryan LaBar studied Biology and Art before working for numerous institutions as a resident artist, such as the Archie Bray Foundation, LH Projects, and California State University.

His projects then started to travel beyond the American frontiers, to China, Korea, or even Poland.

In 2014, Ryan left his hometown for Jingdezhen in China, where he established the Lab Arts, his personal studio and innovation center.

Settled in the historical city of imperial Chinese porcelain, the artist works with clay to create abstract sculptures and volumes where curves intertwine. Ryan LaBar uses the ancient craftsmanship to create important wall installations and sculptures, where movements and tensions punctuate the whole. The artist sees these shapes as complex systems, dense and balanced at the same time.

For LaBar, his creative process is the very foundation of his concept: the shapes he creates regroup individual elements, that in turn communicate, intertwine, and clash the general shape made by these elements brought together.

Nowadays, Ryan Labar appears as a prolific artist, whose creations are found in both private and public collections. Each day, his meticulous production grows, in the heart of the historical hometown of Chinese clay production of the last two centuries. 

WORK

ALESSANDRO MAZZUCOTELLI (1865-1938)

ARTWORK

ANNE-MARIE PAUL (1949-2005)

BIOGRAPHY

1949              Birth in Nice.

1965              At 16, Anne Marie Paul decides to leave school to devote herself exclusively to drawing and painting.

1967              Meeting with Alexandre CALDER and Jo DAVIDSON.

1968              In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, meeting with Joan MIRÓ and Aimé MAEGHT who buys several gouaches.
                     Work in MIRÓ’s workshop.

1969              Join the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
                     Meet Georges MATHIEU who becomes a close friend.
                     Stay at Saché at Alexandre CALDER. he gives her a workshop to work and gives advice.
                     First sculptures made of terracotta.
                     Meeting with CÉSAR with whom she works and participates in the development of certain works.

1970-1973     Sharing the studio of Louis CHAVIGNIER then that of Étienne MARTIN.
                     Participates in the Young Sculpture Salon, at the Salon des Independents and at the Salon de Mai where she meets Claude VISIEUX. He designates her to leave for Villa Medici.

1974-1976     Resident at the Villa Medici of Rome under the direction of BALTHUS, she befriends FELLINI, Sergio LEONE.             
                     Participates in the casts of the Niobides for the creation of the Balthus Fountain at Villa Medici.

1977              Return to Touraine to work and moved to the property of CALDER following his death.

1981              First trip to the USA.

1984              Exhibition of his sculptures in New York and Los Angeles as part of Art Expo.

1985              Exhibition in New York.

1986              Exhibition in Los Angeles.

1988              Appointed at the University of Paris VIII as a teacher and artist where she obtained her own studio.

1989-2003     Exhibitions in the USA and Europe.

2005              Death of Anne-Marie Paul in Paris.

WORK

GIO PONTI (1891-1979)

BIOGRAPHY

WORK

POL QUADENS

BIOGRAPHY

WORK

ROBERTO GIULIO RIDA

BIOGRAPHY

Roberto Giulio Rida was born in 1943 in Milan. Facing a solitary youth due to the many moves of his family, the taciturn child draw and collect small sculpted objects. His aunt, an educated woman and artist, encouraged him to visit museums, churches and historical sites. Later, he attended the Brera Academy where he was a brilliant student. But the necessities of life forced him to take odd jobs to survive until his military service. On his return, he began trading art objects. He moved to Venice as an antique dealer and frequents Murano masters who teached him for eight years the craft of glass. In 1973, he returned to Milan, where he specialized in the Arts of the twentieth century. In parallel, he has created lightings and furniture covered with cut glass and crystal. Today Roberto Giulio Rida is an accomplished and atypical artist. Regardless of the artistics movements, he invites the visitor in a strange world where science fiction collide with the Italian Renaissance and the intensity of a mineral light.

WORK

FODDIS & BAISI

Master glassmakers Foddis and Baisi are among the most promising craftsmen in Italy. After a long training followed in several Italian glass workshops, the two artists settled in Milan, where they founded Effete Vetro. Using materials such as Supermirror Steel and opalin glass from the 1950s, Foddis and BAisi create original pieces designed to adorn the most beautiful interiors.

WORKS