Ref. : 3679-10-en

 

Fance Franck (1931-2008)


« Three Principles  » Bowl

 

Origine

France, Paris, 1975

H : 6 cm / 2.4 in.
Ø : 22 cm / 8.7 in.

 

Description

Hand thrown and sculpted stoneware bowl. In relief decor "three principles" under iron oxide celadon light-blue enamel glaze. Adorned with a single spot painted with gold.

Design and realization by Fance Franck (1931-2008).

Unique piece.

 

Signature

Marks and labels under the bowl  :
At the center : round paper collection label (inventory label?) with inscribed : "D.2.7" (in blue) and underneath other collection paper label (inventory label?) handwritten with inscribed : "L-36" (in blue).
On sides : paper collection label (inventory label?) handwritten with inscribed : "XIII.FII2" (in blue), paper collection label handwritten with inscribed : "Castellane" (in blue), second handwritten paper collection label with inscribed : "Castellane" and below, third paper label with inscribed :  "Bordeaux. 58" (in purple). Other Inventory (?) handwritten paper label with inscribed : "stp 6" (in red) and round inventory (?) handwritten paper label  with inscribed : "78 " (in black).
Monogram stamp signature of Fance Franck :  "FF" (in a hollow cartouche).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

Notes

Unique piece.

Provenance : The Countess Diane de Castellane Collection, France.

This bowl was exibited a first time in the Exhibition: FANCE FRANCK, Pottery and Porcelain from 1968 to 1976, Museum of Decorative Arts of the City of Bordeaux, Lalande Hotel, 39, rue Boffard, exhibition 22 November 1976 - 15 January 1977, p. 37, notice n° 58, and a second time in 1980 in: Ceramics by Fance Franck, Organized and Circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C. 1980, notice n° 45.

The creations of Fance Franck are present in the most prestigious private collections of ceramics of the world and in museums such as the Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan, Saga Prefectural Museum, Arita, Japan, Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, the Museum für Kunst and Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany, the Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany, the Museum of des Arts Decoratifs de Paris (MAD), the Musée de la Céramique de Sèvres, the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, United Kingdom... the Baur Collection of Geneva...


Short Biography

Fance Franck (1931-2008) American ceramist.

Fance Franck begins studying English and French contemporary poetry at Harvard University and opens her first workshop in New York in the Village where she attends Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, John Cage, Merce Cunningham ...
In 1950, after experiencing earth sculpture during her first stay in Paris, she studied at the Boston School of Fine Arts.
In 1957, she met Francine Del Pierre with whom she founded, three years later, the workshop of the rue Bonaparte.

In her beginnings she is strongly inspired by the work of Francine Del Pierre. Their pieces are, as a "rule", made from coils of clay or handbuilt and sculpted and not thrown or stamped as most of ceramists use to do and achieved with these process a very high degree of refinement.

In 1968, after the untimely death of Francine Del Pierre, Fance Franck began to emancipate herself by practicing a constant research of new shapes and glazes, strongly inspired by the Arts of the Far East.

As an accomplished technician, she works a lot on enamels and perfects her mastery of artisanal porcelain by collaborating in France with the Manufacture Nationale de Sevres and in Japan with the Manufacture of Arita.

In this second part of his work, Fance Franck creates many "ternary" pieces with Trinitarian geometric motifs ...

 

Selective Bibliography

Revues :
Desroches , (J-P.), « Fance Franck », dans Connaissance des Arts, n° 533, Paris, novembre 1996, p. 62-65.
Gournay, (A.), « Francine Del Pierre, Fance Franck, L'art du potier, l'expression d'une vie », dans Sèvres, revue de la société des amis du musée national de céramique, 2006, n°15, p. 111 à 123.
Stierlin, (H.), « Fance Franck, une alchimie des formes et des couleurs », dans Connaissance des Arts, n° 495, Paris, mai 1993, p. 64-71.

Exhibition catalogues :
Ceramics by Fance Franck, Organized and Circulated by the Internatiional Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C. 1980.
Céramiques de Fance Franck, Ceramics by Fance Franck, Musée National de l'Ermitage, Saint-Petersbourg, 1996.
Franck, (F.), FANCE FRANCK, Poteries et Porcelaines de 1968 à 1976, Musée des Arts Décoratifs de la Ville de Bordeaux, Hôtel de Lalande, 39, rue Boffard, exposition 22 novembre 1976 - 15 janvier 1977.

Book :
Gournay, (A.), Staudenmeyer, (P.), Francine Del Pierre - Fance Franck. Dialogue des céramistes, Éditions Norma, Paris, 2004.