Jean-Marie Foubert

6 September – 6 November 2014

exposition Jean Marie Foubert - Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste - Sculpture en grès

Jean-Marie Foubert. Sculpture en grès. H. 52 x 38 x 25 cm. Photo Pascal Vangysel.

Born in 1955, Jean-Marie Foubert’s extensive studies led him initially into mechanical engineering in the ceramic industry. In 1991 he decided to buy an old tilery which he restored to working order transforming the space into a place for artistic creation. From 1998, following his meeting with the editor Francis Delille, he rapidly began to make a name for himself by accompanying famous artists in the production of ceramic pieces: Corneille, Buren, Orozco, Miotte, Zao Wou-Ki and many other visual artists have passed through the Treigny Tilery in Yonne.

Parallel to this, he developed his own ambitious and painstaking work in sculptured clay. The work is anti-figurative and anti-fictional. It is abstract work close to Constructivism and Minimalism. The harmonious atmosphere of the pure and uncluttered dense forms that make up the eighteen pieces (14 volumes & 4 mural reliefs) presented at the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste bear witness to his unique mastery of texture, colour and glaze.

With Jean-Marie Foubert the simplicity displayed in the volume reflects the shape more than the material. His savoir-faire allows him to go beyond material issues. His technical control, so obvious that it becomes invisible, is such that for the artist it would seem vain to be satisfied by it, or to draw any glory from it. Clay for him is more a tool than a matter. It simply allows him to best express his sculptural intentions.
Stéphanie Le Follic-Hadida, Doctor of Art History
Interview with Jean-Marie Faubert, exhibition catalogue.

Technician without equal, master of colour, Jean-Marie Foubert is a key figure in ceramics today.
Francis Delille, editor

A selection of Jean-Marie Foubert’s works