Pots, Gyn Gausserand & Robert Auguste

Pots, Gyn Gausserand & Robert Auguste -Gyn Gausserand and Robert Auguste met in 1948 at the Fontcarrade pottery school in Montpellier. They shared the same studio for the rest of their lives, first in Vallauris, with the whole gang (Capron, Derval, Kostanda, Picasso of course, Picault, Ramié, etc.), then in Millau, and finally in Pouzilhac, where they settled in a studio house to work more and better, to create their world.

This book sheds light on a pottery workshop that was active for almost seventy years, from the early 1950s to 2017, highlighting its technical, ideological and cultural aspects. In Vallauris, their production is already polymorphous: the resolutely modern and free approach of the duo formed by Gyn and Robert is remarkable, and each also works in other workshops. Gyn creates decors for their neighbor Jacques Lignier, while Robert works as a turner for Odette Gourju Naumowitch and her husband Ljuba (parents of Jacques Innocenti), at the Grand Chêne workshop. Their creations, signed RGA Vallauris, RGA, R et G Auguste, RA, GG, Gyn, reveal culinary pieces as well as pots with sculptural allure and panels with painted decorations that take on a truly artistic dimension, beyond the mere sense of use. They also succeeded in thinking about their autonomy when they left Vallauris. The most important thing was to make themselves available for encounters in their workshop, where they work and sell their wares. The talent of these two potters, who have always been allies, lies in their ability to develop throughout their lives a vocabulary of highly identifiable shapes, present from the very beginning of their activity. This fidelity to their style is confirmed by numerous archive images and signatures from all eras, featuring minute variations in decoration.

The charismatic Robert and Gyn had very different personalities, conscious of their complementarity, choosing an alternative lifestyle that echoes today’s revival of earthen crafts.

This publication includes excerpts from interviews, selected pieces, photographic and written archives (letters, drawings, poems, chemical formulas, accounting records), as well as contemporary in situ photographs of the pieces remaining in what was their last workshop.