For Paris Design Week 2014, the Galerie Maeght is honored to host French designer, Olivier Gagnère. The designer has created an unprecedented series of ceramics, vases, and cups, created in the workshops of Parigi at Sesto Fiorentino in Italy.

A multi-talented designer, interior decorator, cabinetmaker, and ceramics artist, Gagnère draws his inspiration from the savoir-faire and secrets of the world’s master craftsmen, ranging from Murano and Arita to Quimper and Limoges. For thirty years, he has created works with intensity, refinement, and unrestraint for the largest design publishing houses and today his collections live in the world’s most reputable museums. For Paris Design Week 2014, the Galerie Maeght exhibits an ensemble of pieces that were created this spring at the workshops of Sergio and Mauro Parigi in Sesto Fiorentino.

A contemporary passion for ceramics

Olivier Gagnère is among the contemporary designers who have challenged the forms and the codes of ceramics. Claiming the influence of Gio Colucci, like Gio Ponti, his work on forms feeds on experimental research on technique, whether the material is porcelain, faience, or mixed land. In 1989, he created a collection of ceramics for the Henriot Manufacturer to celebrate the tercentenary of Quimper faiences. In 1992, at he invitation of the Galerie Maeght, Olivier Gagnère created a collection of ceramics and porcelains at the Fukagawa d’Arita Manufacturer in Japan. Those works are showcased in the collections of the greatest museums. In 1997, the Reunion des Musées Nationaux commissioned a collection of ceramics, which he created in the workshop of Robert Picault. In 1998, he returned to Vallauris for the premiere edition of “A Designer in Vallauris” at the Musée Picasso to showcase models created in the Gerbino workshops. In 2012, he collaborated with Claude Aiello on an unprecedented and exceptional series of terracotta works. After years of recognized talent and innovation, Olivier Gagnère is now counted amongst the greatest contemporary ceramists.

Each of his creations is the result of a narrow dialogue between the master craftsman and Olivier Gagnère, “an exercise that is similar to that of the composer who wrote the score while playing with the sensitivity of interpreters. Drawing preparatory work of the mold, the game of matter and enamels, the density of matter and the work of fire needed to push the limits, requiring adaptation, while reserving wonderful surprises. I love above all the density of color that allows the ceramic, and the challenge of balance that represents each form,” explains Olivier Gagnère. The technique is sublimated by the desire of the designer, who accepts the constraints to give rise to wonders of form and balance.

A bold and sculptural reinterpretation of the great classics: the vase and the cup

The graphic vocabulary of Olivier Gagnère associates the classic with the modernity of form. Sensible in the way that they have function, he creates these objects with pleasure and emotion. Pure lines and strong colors give his creations a unique personality. Blues, reds, mauves, blacks, whites, coupled with the rich mystery of the process of the artist come together to give each piece its personality. The subtle elegance of these objects, designed to sublimate the everyday, emphasizes the brilliance of the line work and the magic that has come from earth and fire.

Varieties of Form

Convex and concave shapes form the poetry of this collection. These elements capture the light and with each angle the creation takes new form. The strips are responsive and evoke the gentle sounds of the rain. Synonymous with simplicity and sophistication, Olivier Gagnère creates a dialogue of line and curve, of white and color, of the delicateness of a goblet and the density of a challis. Gagnère has created a world of new shapes, sometimes in several parts, with exteriors and interiors differentiated by their colors and elements that add uniqueness to the form. Double-walled vases bring an inventive quality to the composition of floral arrangements. The elements relate and vary based on height and sensory differentiations. Olivier Gagnère has conceived a remarkable and joyous ensemble composed of complex, pure pieces and strong, differentiated rhythms.

This exposition includes several objects whose reproductions are limited to eight copies. These are then accompanied by a clash of drawings and preparatory studies, combining all of the elements to be a compilation of ceramics and works on paper.

The ties between the designer and the Galerie Maeght date back to the 1980s. In 1989, Olivier Gagnère created for the Galerie Maeght a collection of Murano glassware. After, in 1992, he created the prolific collection of porcelains from the Fukagawa d’Aritq Manufacturer. Following the exhibition of the Murano glassware in 1989, Maeght Éditeur published a collector’s edition (only 70 copies were in circulation) of Keichi Tahara photos.

“This collaboration with Galerie Maeght gives me a great freedom; each piece is the result. On the one hand, I enjoy the confidence of Isabelle Maeght, her passion for art and her knowledge of ceramics. On the other, I offer a step back in time, experimental, to imagine, try and take risks in the workshop with ceramicists, and my experience requirement. Together we share a goal: to create. It is the human and artistic passion.

Each piece, constructed by hand, carries with it the whole story - with that little grain of madness, so typical of a very close relationship with the artisans. That is the difference of work of this nature, editing in a gallery of art: together, we find the exceptional, the lightening,” explains Olivier Gagnère.

All of the pieces were created in the workshops of Sergio and Mauro Parigi in Sesto Fiorentino, an Italian city in the province of Florence in Tuscany known for their strong tradition in ceramics.

To celebrate the new collaboration, the Galerie Maeght is also publishing a set of original silver jewelry made by Alain Stern.

All images © Galerie Maeght, Paris