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Success in ceramics always reveals a harmony
between the clay, the shape, the surface.
The celadon precludes a décor;
it is the surface but a profound surface
which introduces one to the shape. The
surface can be
then the decor and the Chinese did not
hesitate to make it that, hollowing the clay
to create numerous motives which appear
under the colour, half-concealed,
half-revealed by the celadon. Fouilhoux does
not give himself to these disruptions
juxtaposed to each other, drawing the eye
towards that which is not essential. He
works the clay as a mass, twists it, breaks
it, severs it, as a tornado would bend it,
he hollows it as the wind would hollow water
to create waves in a storm. The celadon does
not follow the movements, but accompanies
it, makes it its own and every torsion
underlines the beauty of its surface. And
then Fouilhoux creates surfaces which become
one with the clay, smooth 1ike a lake in
fine weather; the shore conjured up by the
rim of the form on which the enamel gently
settles. The surfaces are sensual but not
soft; in his hands the clay can become
sharp, a sword, a rapier with its point
penetrating the deliberate form; again the
sharp rim renders the celadon surprisingly
subtle.
Antoinette Halle
 
Jean-Francois Fouilhoux is a sculptor who
sculpts with determination, jubilation and
ambition causing the outcome of a resolute
confrontation between two universes which he
opposes or combines to well up and erupt．
Of the two worlds he opposes one is
external, rough and forceful, apparently
robust, while the other is internal,
smoother and more fragile but sometimes with
a vivid and sharp tone.
Man and His Paradoxes.
The exterior is an exact image of the
movement which created this piece. A
movement performed entirely within the
material, blindly, without any sensation
other than that of a shape being traced in
an empty space with a very special tool, a
long flexible and sharp blade which compels
that artist to a nimble、swift
and infallible stroke. A movement which is
profoundly anchored in memory, which must
live until it reaches culmination.
Jean-Francois Fouilhoux’s movement is
skilful, determined, strong and leaves no
scope for second thoughts.
The interior is completely different: shapes
with bumps, shifting, polished, enriched by
the celadon which covers them, which is
enhanced by the vivid ridges, almost
transparent, or some great blazing blade.
Recently, Jean-Francois Fouilhoux has
been favouring the transition between these
two universe, passing imperceptibly from a
world inspired by a heavy sensual
roundness-swollen lip of a loving woman to
another world, more tense, which emerges and
comes to life before blossoming and fading
into the void, along the almost intangible
line of a long curve.
...on his path through life.
The shape is amply sculpted, more
constructed and more refined, a means for
its creator to best express this tension
which he wishes to have erupted from the
contrast, burning to master it and
materialize the principle it embodies.
The sculptures by Jean-Francois
Fouilhoux are wave and vessel at the same
time, a vast shell where the ocean murmurs
and against which it breaks and which rocks
in its swell, the sail so majestically
outlined that one feels the wind living in
and sliding through it, like a great taut
astral wing..., all in green and blue,
soaked and inundated by this famous green,
this famous blue...
…Jean-Francois Fouilhoux has converted to
the celadon as others convert to a religion,
one could almost say he has become
immersed..., so great is his belief, his
tenacity, his urge to know and his urge to
do that he has been led to want everything,
to try everything and to dream of
everything...until this light, which would
make the sculptures luminous and alive in
themselves, hag been obtained.
Daniel Dufournier
  
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