Jacques Pouchain (1925 - 2015)
Jacques Pouchain is a French painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Paris in 1927. studies architecture before joining the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, a well-renowned private institution, at the beginning of the 20th century and which offers classes in painting and sculpture. In 1951, he leaves Paris before finishing his architectural training and settles in the south of the Drôme where he aspires to become an abstract painter.
He works until 1957 at the Coursange earthenware factory located in Poët-Laval. He is then in charge of the decoration and model making workshop defining the shapes and colors of the production. They produce utilitarian ceramic in bright colors with dishes, cups and bowls that are decorated with stylized patterns reminiscent of nature, such as birds, fruits and suns. This experience develops Jacques Pouchain's taste for ceramics and allows him to learn the basics.
At the end of the 50s, he settles his own ceramic workshop in Dieulefit, a nearby village. This place, very complete, also has an oven and an exhibition room. Jacques Pouchain produces utilitarian pottery and ceramic art. He aims to make his works popular and accessible to all. For the utilitarian pottery, he mainly works with an enamel in brown and black tones on which he engraves figurative motifs. For art ceramics, he uses instead a combination of manganese oxide and white enamel on which the decoration is carved. The patterns are first anthropomorphic and zoomorphic before evolving towards abstraction in the 60s. During the 70s, he addresses themes such
Jacques Pouchain is a French painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Paris in 1927. studies architecture before joining the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, a well-renowned private institution, at the beginning of the 20th century and which offers classes in painting and sculpture. In 1951, he leaves Paris before finishing his architectural training and settles in the south of the Drôme where he aspires to become an abstract painter.
He works until 1957 at the Coursange earthenware factory located in Poët-Laval. He is then in charge of the decoration and model making workshop defining the shapes and colors of the production. They produce utilitarian ceramic in bright colors with dishes, cups and bowls that are decorated with stylized patterns reminiscent of nature, such as birds, fruits and suns. This experience develops Jacques Pouchain's taste for ceramics and allows him to learn the basics.
At the end of the 50s, he settles his own ceramic workshop in Dieulefit, a nearby village. This place, very complete, also has an oven and an exhibition room. Jacques Pouchain produces utilitarian pottery and ceramic art. He aims to make his works popular and accessible to all. For the utilitarian pottery, he mainly works with an enamel in brown and black tones on which he engraves figurative motifs. For art ceramics, he uses instead a combination of manganese oxide and white enamel on which the decoration is carved. The patterns are first anthropomorphic and zoomorphic before evolving towards abstraction in the 60s. During the 70s, he addresses themes such
as femininity and fertility. In parallel, he continues abstract painting.
Jacques Pouchain participates in numerous exhibitions in France but also abroad, whether in fairs, museums or galleries. He is showcased at the international exhibition of contemporary ceramics held at the Cantini Museum in Marseille in 1965 and at the first Biennale organized in Vallauris. He enjoys great institutional recognition in France and abroad. Many museums exhibit his pieces, among which the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, the Service du Mobilier National, the Museum of Valence, the Museum of Marseille, the Marl Museum in Germany, the Museum of Montreal in Canada and Boston University in the United States.
At the beginning of the 90s, he takes advantage of his mission as first deputy in charge of culture in Dieulefit to found the Maison de la Terre with Serge Emiliani. It is an exhibition space quickly accompanied by a training space - called Maison de la Céramique - approved by the National Commission for Professional Certification (CNCP).
He dies in 2015, not without having transmitted his passions to his son Dominique, a renowned ceramicist and sculptor. In 2018, a posthumous retrospective was organized in honour of Jacques Pouchain in Poël-Laval.
