Jacques Blin, Vase

Jacques BLIN (1920-1995)
Vase with flattened body and truncated conical neck with stylized animal decoration

Embossed earthenware with engraved decoration and oxides
Signed on reverse
France, circa 1955-1965

Free-form vase with a broadly flattened and flared body, resting on a small circular heel and topped by a narrowed truncated conical neck. Two small circular side handles, symmetrically arranged at shoulder level, give rhythm to the silhouette and accentuate the plastic dimension of the whole.

The surface is entirely animated by a decoration engraved with a point in the slip, organized in a continuous frieze around the body. This represents several stylized animal figures arranged alternately in a fluid, rhythmic composition.

The treatment of the animals, reduced to essentials by incisive, linear drawing, is fully in keeping with the artist's graphic vocabulary. The silhouettes, with their slender legs and simplified bodies, evoke the bestiary characteristic of BLIN's works, where the animal motif occupies a central place.

The background is covered with an engobe in nuanced blue-green tones, punctuated by speckled effects and chromatic variations obtained through the use of oxides. The engraved drawing, enhanced in dark brown, stands out with great legibility, creating a subtle contrast between the depth of the background and the finesse of the line.

This type of vase, combining an assertive sculptural form and continuous animal decoration, corresponds to one of the most accomplished expressions of Jacques Blin's production in the 1950s-1960s. In them, the artist develops a singular plastic language, halfway between drawing, writing and symbolic narrative.

Bibliography:

Christine Lavenu, Jacques Blin, céramiste et porteur d'histoires, Paris, 2019;

Yvonne Brunhammer, La Céramique française des années 1950, Office du Livre, 1986;

DIANE CHATELET - IMPOSSIBLE GALLERY
General antique dealer
Expert in Furniture and Works of Art with the Chambre Européenne des Experts-conseil en Oeuvres d'art (CECOA)

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