Coffee Table In Enamelled Lava, By Robert Et Jean Cloutier, France, Circa 1958

Rare coffee table in lava enamelled with the famous Cloutier red enamel, decorated in recess with an ideogram.
The top simply rests on the lacquered iron base, and can be used as a wall decoration.
Width: 23.6 inches
Lenght: 23.6 inches
Height: 11.8 inches

Biography: Robert (1930-2008) and Jean Cloutier (1930-2015), the twin brothers of ceramics.
Born in Paris in 1930, French ceramists and sculptors, they enjoyed a long career together until Robert’s death in 2008.

At the École de Céramique de Meaux, they learned the rudiments of ceramics and stucco. This was followed by a period of apprenticeship in various Parisian workshops. They both worked at Lafourcade, before Robert joined Georges Jouve’s studio and Jean Michel Rivière’s. Pol Chambost, a well-known sculptor and ceramist, then hired them.
In 1955, they opened their own ceramics workshop in Paris, where they created utilitarian ceramics such as crockery, pots, vases, lamps, ashtrays and cubbyholes with strong decorative potential. The pieces are decorated with anthropomorphic figures such as men’s and women’s heads, couples and children, or zoomorphic figures such as bulls, hens, owls, roosters and ibexes. They invent hybrid figures such as a mermaid or a half-bird man, reminiscent of mythology. The theme of music is also frequently represented by the lyre. The influence of Georges Jouve and Marie Vassilieff is palpable, but the Cloutier brothers create their own poetry, a dreamlike world. They use a variety of materials: ceramics, glazed earthenware and lava, porcelain, terracotta, stoneware and plaster. They use intense colors in sober productions using only one or two of them. It was during this period that they developed Rouge Cloutier, a red enamel that met with international success and contributed greatly to their reputation. In 1960, they also discovered new firing techniques.
As early as 1956, they exhibited at the Salon des artistes décorateurs and met with great success. They were also present at the Salon des métiers d’art from 1963 and at the Salon des Ateliers d’Art de France. Parisian galleries such as La Demeure and Alain Gutharc show their work. During the same decade, they collaborated with a number of firms, signing exclusive designs for Haviland, a luxury tableware manufacturer based in Limoges. Mitsukoshi, a major Japanese retail chain, also placed several orders with them and invited them to Tokyo in 1970. They were thus part of the ceramic revival of the second half of the twentieth century.
The Cloutier brothers took on a number of interior architecture projects, adding their own touch with wall decorations, tables, glazed tiles and claustras – highly aesthetic partitions with a system of openings that let the light in. They worked for Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Air France and the Maison de l’Iran on the Champs-Élysées.
In 1972, Robert and Jean moved to the Yonne region before settling permanently in Marsillargues, Hérault, in 1978. They sell their creations, more decorative than ever, in a store in Lunel.
Robert died in 2008 and Jean in 2015, leaving behind a body of work full of surprises and poetry. Two tribute exhibitions have been organized, one at Galerie Z (Aigues-Mortes) in 2015 and the other at Galerie Thierry Carretero (Nîmes) in 2016.