Jules Agard (1905 - 1986)
A French ceramicist from the 1940s to 1970s, Jules Agard was a renowned potter in Vallauris when Suzanne Ramié founded Atelier Madoura, which he joined to become the technical director.
Naturally, when Suzanne Ramié invited Picasso to Vallauris and suggested that he used the Madoura studio, Jules Agard is appointed to create the pots that Picasso will paint. The collaboration between Picasso and Agard lasted for nearly 22 years, until the latter's retirement in 1971.
Dominique Sassi says of him: "Jules' hands fascinated me when they pressed the ball of clay (...) I understood that Picasso, impressed, respected this know-how ... so many audacious shapes were born from this colossal duo."
While best known as the skilled work partner, Agard is also an artist in his own right: a painter and a ceramicist, who returns to his own studio every evening. The work that we present is a series of terracotta ceramics from Vallauris, in figurative or free forms, sometimes becoming legendary animals giving free rein to our imagination.
Bibliographie : Dans l'ombre de Picasso, Dominique Sassi, Hugo Doc, 2015, p.100.
© Formes Utiles, Nov. 2020
