Jules Agard (1905-1986) - Goose Monkey - Picasso Ceramist For 22 Years

Jules AGARD (1905-1986) GOOSE MONKEY Ceramist, French painter from the 1950s in Vallauris and "Picasso's official turner" for 22 years. Born in Vallauris on December 4, 1905, Jules Agard has the reputation of being one of the best turners of the Golden Age of the village of a hundred potters. He began his training at the age of 16 in the Jérôme Massier house. The apprentice got a good education there, working with the house's many turners, each specializing in a particular type of shape. In a few years, thanks to his gifts as an observer ("this profession cannot be learned, it can be seen"), young Agard became a seasoned turner. “He always lived in symbiosis with the earth, his land, and one has the impression that he learned everything he knew through dialogue with it.” At the end of the 1930s, culinary pottery was in crisis. Jules Agard lost his job but found a position as a shape turner in April 1939 with Suzanne Ramier, at the Madoura workshop. From 1947, Picasso worked regularly in the workshop and needed a dedicated turner. Agard naturally gets the job. He remained "Picasso's turner" for 22 years, solving all the technical problems posed by the unbridled imagination of the master and other painters who would later frequent the workshop (Chagall, Brauner, Matisse...). Jules Agard left Madoura in 1970 and devoted himself until the end of his life to personal production within the Poterie des Noisetiers, in the Vallaurian countryside: vases, dishes and especially bestiaries. Works turned, skillfully distorted and covered with varied and colorful slips that characterize it. From 1961 to his death, the ceramist continued to work as a painter in parallel and participated in numerous exhibitions. 1962: Palissy gallery, Vallauris 1963: Léopold gallery, Cannes 1967: Honorary prize at the International Riviera Biennale in Cannes (Casino). 1971: Michelangelo foundation, Venechio (Corsica). 1972: Norton Gallery and School of Art (Palm Beach, USA). 1975: La Colombe Vallauris gallery, Hôtel du Lion Belfort. 1977: exhibited at the Grand Prix International d'Art Contemporain, Monte Carlo, and won 4th prize the following year. 1978: Mannheim (FRG), La Courtine gallery, Saint Paul de Vence. 1979: Lac Nernier museum, Haute-Savoie, and exhibition in Geneva.