Jean Lurçat’s Sun Dancer, c.1955, is from a range of vibrant ceramics that the French artist produced during the 1950s, many of which are now on offer in Whitford Fine Art’s exhibition Poetry in Motion.
A successful painter of the School of Paris, Lurçat (1892-1966) is probably best remembered for his early work to revive tapestry-making as an art form. However, he also produced illustrations and engravings, and towards the end of his life started working at the ceramic workshops of Sant-Vicens in the southern French city of Perpignan.
During this period he would travel from his home in Saint-Céré to the studio to work, producing master copies which were kept as models for numbered editions. These were covered with images of imaginary or mythological creatures plucked from a wealth of sources. They show his inspirations from poetry, symbolic images and rural life as well as the Zodiac and the biblical story of the Apocalypse.