ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) - Lot 112

ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Untitled, 1981 Sculpture. Stoneware. Black-stained oak base; made by the artist. Signed and dated JOULIA (19)81 on the stoneware base. Ceramic alone: Height: 10cm - Length: 16cm With base: Height: 13.5cm - Length: 16.5cm Provenance: Olivier Harlingue Collection: Olivier Harlingue Collection. Bibliography: Philippe Chambost, Pascal Marziano and Arnaud Serpollet - 1947-2017, 70 ans d'expression céramique française - Éditions Les livres de l'îlot, Neuvic, 2020. Our work reproduced on page 206. ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Initially trained as a fresco artist, Élisabeth Joulia discovered ceramics with Jean Lerat before settling in 1949 in La Borne, a major stoneware center, where she would become one of the leading figures. Rejecting convention, she developed an instinctive, organic practice, based on direct work with clay, modeled exclusively by hand. Her work is rooted in a sensitive abstraction that resonates with nature and the body, often the female form. Through emblematic series - Chestnuts, Hatching, Almonds - she explores the essence of forms and living things. From the 1970s onwards, her volumes gained in breadth and sensuality, then became purer with the introduction of white stoneware. A key figure in post-war ceramics, her work, nourished by spirituality and travel, tends towards the universal.