ASTOUL Éric (Born 1954) - Lot 115

ASTOUL Éric (Born 1954) Sculpture with two heads on black raku base. Stamped. Circa 2010. H. 42 cm - W. 63 cm - D. 36 cm (Dirt, one ball loose) History: "Suites récentes" exhibition at the La Borne contemporary ceramics center May 1 to June 10, 2014. Alongside Élisabeth Joulia, Yves Mohy and Jean Linard, Éric Astoul has been perpetuating the tradition of La Borne fire art since the early 1980s. Originally from Morocco, the ceramist worked in several workshops in Saint-Amand la Puisaye, and after training as a turner with Pierre Digan, he settled permanently in the potters' village. Here, he built his Anagama kiln, in which he works with raw stoneware, sometimes unglazed and scarified, separating his pieces with shells whose shapes are molded onto the clay. Spacing his firings out over time, Éric Astoul reflects on his work period by period, renewing his modelling methods and creative intentions, each piece evoking a singular moment in his production. The artist describes one of his most recent creative phases in the following terms: "With 'Suites Récentes 2014', I'm looking at a different firing method and at new series within the constraints of molding, revisited and sometimes destructured, a kind of tumbling, lifebuoy, carcass or discolored hull. I use buckets of engobes, old brushes gorged with enamels and yellows, impolite scribbles."