the prouvé of ceramics: georges jouve

Who the fuck is Georges Jouve?

Well, according to the French,

he is a ceramic genius.

I wouldn't go as far as genius,

but he is quite good.

What he lacks in talent, he gains

in post mortem marketing genius,

something the French 20th Century dealers are

(insert G word here) in.

Think about it: 95% of Jean Prouvé's output was

institutional, yet he achieves prices of one-off

masterpieces by greater designers.

I am a huge fan of Prouvé,

but feel his price structure is not inline with his talent.

Same goes for Jouve in my book,

he's a solid mid-century talent,

with a million dollars worth of PR behind him.

Can you imagine if 

Heath Ceramics 

brought tens of thousands of dollars for a single piece?

If a Martz lamp was worth $75,000?

Well, they could be. 

All you have to do is collude with your dealer friends 

and corner the market, leak out pieces slowly at

auction and bid them up, do a couple of shows,

print a hard-to-find catalog

(where all these photos came from),

make sure to build a celebrity 

and Russian oligarch fanbase,

and well, 

there you go.

Listen, don't get me wrong,

Jouvé is way sexier than Heath and Martz

put together

(or is it?)

but you catch my drift....

Enough of my dealer rants.

Let's look at some 

Georges Jouve!

"Altelier des Marronniers"

1962

Georges Jouve getting his weed on.

Dig the pipe Geoerges.

Love this.

Makes me want to give up dealing,

buy some cute kids, and start smoking a pipe.

I already have the haircut and the glasses.

Sexy

Sexier

I also LOVE his tile work.

Great.

Georges was quite prolific....

You know,

American dealers 

almost brought Architectural Ceramics

into the same league.

But then some dumbass 

comes along and starts reproducing

all the designs and fucks it all up.

That says a lot about the way Americans think

vs the way the French think....

Me like!

This reminds me of the Jouve pieces in

"Mon Oncle"

This one is better.

I love that film....

His simple pieces are the best.

I'm not showing you all the other figural

stuff.

Not that into it.

Jouve

Heath

Jouve

Heath

These are great.

This photo looks familiar....

I'll take this please.

And one of these please.

Exposition George Jouve

Jousse Entrerprise

Paris

2005

Ibid

A Jouve collector's home in France.

Dig this stove!

Still life in the same collector's home.

Another collector's pad.

New York City Collector's Apartment

What is that chair?

AH! 

The the gangs all here!

We all know who decorated this place....

Exposition George Jouve, Charlotte Perriand and

Thomas Grünfeld

Jousse Entrerprise

Paris

2002

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