Naturalist "Herbier" ceramic coffee table by Roger Capron

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Naturalist "Herbier" ceramic coffee table by Roger Capron

About the Item

Naturalist "Herbier" ceramic coffee table by Roger Capron.

***
New Vogue for French Free-Form Style
By RICK MARIN
Published: Thursday, May 4, 2000
His brilliantly colored asymmetrical vases, drunken decanters and hand-glazed tile coffee tables have become eminently collectible. Galleries in Europe and New York show his whimsically humanoid sculptures. He receives large-scale public commissions.

But Roger Capron, the 77-year-old French ceramist, would be more impressed with these tributes if he hadn't been through all this before. ''I never turn back on what I have done before,'' Mr. Capron said Tuesday, fresh off a flight from Nice.

Once one of the most prolific and valued artisans of postwar European design, he was, not so long ago, sufficiently unfashionable that a retrospective would have been an unlikely proposition on either side of the Atlantic. But here it is: ''Roger Capron. Art & Design: Postwar to Present,'' opening today and on view through May 31 at Gueridon, a store on Lafayette Street near Bond Street that specializes in midcentury-modern French and Italian decor.

And here was Mr. Capron, with his wife and collaborator, Jacotte, at Gueridon, surrounded by pieces they had not seen in 30 or 40 years. They had come directly from the airport to the store, which was still only half set up for tonight's opening. A compact, vigorous man with wiry gray hair and mustache, he was dressed in his all-denim uniform of jeans, shirt and vest with bright red cravat and bifocals. There was no mistaking his country of origin.

He flipped through the first-ever catalog devoted to his life and work. ''It is like a youthful wind,'' he said in French, as Jean-Philippe Mathieu, one of Gueridon's two owners, translated. ''So many things I had completely forgotten.''

Mrs. Capron's reaction needed no translation: ''C'est formidable!''

In New York, the occasional Capron piece turned up at stores like the rarefied 1950, also on Lafayette Street. But as recently as three years ago, neither Mr. Mathieu nor his partner, Alfonso Munoz, knew anything about this forgotten French master. They belong to a generation born around the time Mr. Capron was at the peak of his renown, the 50's and 60's.

In the well-picked-over period of midcentury modern, he is, Cristina Grajales, the gallery director at 1950, said, ''an unknown hero.''

A little history: Mr. Capron was a charter member of the formes libres (free forms) movement in postwar French pottery centered in Valluris, a working-class town in the hills above Cannes known for its ceramics since Roman times. Mr. Capron came to Valluris from Paris, where he had been an art student, in 1946. Picasso arrived a year later. Both started ateliers. Mr. Capron knew Picasso, not intimately but well enough to refer to him as ''PP'' in his journals and correspondence. PP thought well enough of RP to defend his 1,600-square-foot modernist mural for the Gare Maritime in Cannes, which had been panned when it was finished in 1955. (The building is to be demolished within the year.)

Asked if he was very influenced by Picasso, Mr. Capron exclaimed, ''Oo-la-la! It is impossible not to be influenced by Picasso.''

In 1952, Mr. Capron bought an old cookware factory, and stepped up production while maintaining the handmade process. By the mid-60's, he had abandoned the formes libres style, whose popularity had reached Saks Fifth Avenue and Gimbels. The new phase was devoted to tiles whose ''wildly bright glazes,'' the catalog notes, ''became emblematic of the modern 1960's jet-set lifestyle along the Cote d'Azur.'' But imitation, it seems, is also the sincerest form of pottery. Competition from makers of cheaper, mass-produced tiles shut down the Capron factory. In 1984, he was forced to sell the Atelier Capron name to a rival.

''The black years,'' he recalled.

Mr. Mathieu and Mr. Munoz came across their first Capron piece three years ago -- two pieces of ceramic tile painted with birds -- and made an image of it for a New Year's card. The more they saw of Capron -- who, like Picasso, has gone though enough styles and periods for a dozen artists -- the more intrigued they became. In France, his work was a cliche, thanks to bad imitators. Mr. Munoz said, ''We saw it with fresh eyes.''

Word got back to Mr. Capron that he had fans in New York, and he invited the partners to visit him in Valluris. Mr. Mathieu, who grew up in Nice, did not hesitate. The old master entrusted his young promoters with a cache of his photographs, old catalogs and some rare test tiles.

More than 100 pieces are in the show, not counting the scores of 4-by-4-inch tiles. These multicolored building blocks of much of Mr. Capron's work are being sold off as coasters ($180 for six) or the raw material for customized tables.

In addition, dozens of decorative household objects from the 50's are molded in off-kilter shapes. Essential accessories for what French hipsters might call ''le bachelor pad'' are the bottles marked ''cognac,'' ''vodka'' and ''rhum,'' striped and studded with color in a paraffin technique developed by Picasso. Containers for sugar, rice and tea are adorned with hand-painted bulls. (Prices range from $200 to $2,000.)

Tiled coffee tables ($2,500 to $5,000) were produced from 1958 to 1970. Later, in the late 60's, Mr. Capron started embedding leaves and flowers into clay, then firing it, creating a sort of modern fossil effect in his tiles and tables.

There are a few large, striking wall panels. One is a 5-by-5-foot square of irregularly shaped and angled gold bars ($50,000). Another is a smiling sun ($30,000), one of Mr. Capron's favorite images, from 1971. The sun was a collaboration with another formes libres artist, Jean Derval, but the most visible influence is, again, PP.

''We had a lot of energy then,'' Mr. Capron said. He often worked seven days and nights a week, with no vacation. The hand-painted pieces, of which there are thousands, are all painted by Mr. Capron. That pace has not abated. He is at his studio by 7:30 a.m. and works until 6, six days a week. Sunday he spends making designs for the week to come.

Etienne Sassi, who has know Mr. Capron for 20 years and has sold his work at a gallery in Valluris and the Hammer Galleries in New York, said: ''He is a workaholic. He is always drawing and drawing. I swear, he never stops.''

Absorbed in his current sculptural project, a group of 12-foot-high figures commissioned by Valluris for a new sports complex, Mr. Capron shrugs at the renewed rage for his old stuff. ''I know about it, but I am not interested in it,'' he said. ''The only thing I want to be thinking about is the new sculptures. I never turn back on what I have done before.''

The rest of us will be forgiven for wanting a few coasters.
***

Dimensions:
Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 37 in (93.98 cm)Depth: 17 in (43.18 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Steel
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
Circa 1960
Condition:
Excellent original condition.
Seller Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U0810118184422