Roger Guerin - Stylized Pelican - Art Deco Stoneware Sculpture (from Bouffioulx), Ca. 1925

Art Deco salt-glazed stoneware sculpture of a pelican, created by Roger Guérin around 1925.

Bibliography:
This sculpture is reproduced on page 80 of the book "Au gré du grès – De l'Art Nouveau à l'Art Déco – Roger Guérin & Edgard Aubry" by Stéphane Pignolet, Cécile Schaack, and Inge Taillie, published in 2007 by the Le Clockarium Museum.

Biography:
Roger Guérin (1896–1954) was a renowned Belgian ceramist (Bouffioulx) of the 20th century, particularly of the Art Deco period, and a friend of Edgard Aubry.

He was born in Belgium in 1896 and showed a keen interest in ceramics from a very young age. He enrolled at the Charleroi vocational school, where he took pottery classes with Willem Delsaux.

Moving from the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco period (between 1915 and 1945), he created vases and sculptures in "high-fired stoneware" in a single firing (1300°C). He thus skillfully navigated both artistic styles of his time.

His work is comparable to that of French ceramists such as Auguste Delaherche, Pierre Adrien Dalpayrat, Emile Lenoble, Léon Pointu, Ernest Chaplet, Decoeur, Paul Jeanneney, and Jean Carries.

From 1934 to 1939, he was appointed Professor at the Higher School of Decorative Arts of La Cambre in Brussels. Perfect in his creations, he was sought after for numerous artistic collaborations and produced pieces for renowned artists and sculptors (Belgian and foreign) such as Marcel Wolfers, Cris Agterberg (Amsterdam School in the Netherlands), Thierry Van Rijswijck, Domien Ingels, Cris Lebeau (Amsterdam School in the Netherlands), and Angelo Hecq.

Vases with wrought iron mounts are the result of a collaboration with Fernand Carion, creator of light fixture mounts and lamp bases for the French crystal manufacturer Muller Frères Lunéville.

He participated in numerous exhibitions and notably won the silver medal at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925. His international recognition led to his work being featured at the Jensen Gallery in New York in 1947.

His preferred forms are timeless: the spherical vase, faceted vases, geometric vases…