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Norbert Bézard, ceramist
In the last years of his life (from 1945 until his death in 1956), Norbert Bézard worked as a ceramist and painter. Among other works, he produced a series of ceramics for the Chapelle de Ronchamp. His ceramics reflect his temperament and his favourite themes: fauna, flora, fishing, etc. Le Corbusier was unfailingly supportive of his artistic practice, as evidenced by the rich correspondence between the two men.
(...) From one day to the next, having never thought about it, he became a ceramist. In direct contact with the craft, dazzled, happy and passionate, he creates admirable dishes and plates. And he owes nothing to anyone. The material, the substance, the shape in his hands, an immediate maturity. Completely new and personal ceramics. He owes nothing to anyone. But Mr Nobody only knows how to live and breathe from references! (...)
Extract from Le Corbusier's preface to the Bézard (Arts) exhibition on 29 September 1955
For the 5th edition of the Quinzaine radieuse (22 June - 07 July 2013), all of Norbert Bézard's ceramics to date were on show to the public. The exhibition was the subject of a catalogue.
(....) The forms are moulded or modelled: the plates are probably stamped in an impression, the containers modelled (jug, pot, soup tureen), giving them an air of slouching full of life since the expression of strength is pushed from within the volume, as are his zoomorphic sculptures (eels). His crab-shaped bowl is a great success. There is Carriès in him, a Carriès mixed with Palissy. His forms and iconography are part of the old French tradition of imagination: we think of his Zodiaque series, where the symbols of the signs are pure Romanesque. He brought to it the freshness of a naïve repertoire that appealed to the purists. His sensitivity is matched by a hunter-fisherman's sense of observation. Drawn from this experience of nature, his natural breeding ground, the animals or plants that are friends of the gatherer, such as mushrooms, are captured in an attitude, a pose characteristic of their species. The only difference is that the colours are bright, whimsical, often unrealistic, and enhanced - almost mirror-like - by a high-gloss varnish that densifies the whole. The plates are heavy, dense and full. Nothing to take away, nothing to add. A perfect egg: the transition from nature to culture (...).
Anne Lajoix, Extract from the exhibition catalogue Norbert Bézard, Céramiste d'art, 2013
NORBERT BÉZARD, CERAMIC ARTIST
Texts Anne Lajoix, Interview Daniel Le Couédic / Jean-Marie Bézard.
Extracts from the Bézard / Le Corbusier correspondence.
Photographs by Coralie Moulin, Lucien Hervé.
21 x 21 cm, 112 pages, 90 colour photographs
Co-publishing: Somogy, Piacé le radieux
Publication date: June 2013
