Camille Virot
Born in 1947 in France-Comté, Camille Virot studied ceramics at Besançon Beaux-Arts and then at the ‘Arts Décoratifs’ in Strasbourg. In 1972, he opened a workshop in Haute-Provence where he practises Raku. Since 1976, the artist has divided his time between educational work (courses and interventions in art schools) and the pursuit of a personal plastic expression which is based on the traditional criteria of Japanese Raku. In 1985, along with Pascaline Virot-Marini he created the Publishing ARgiles. He has also published books devoted to reflections on contemporary ceramics, in 2009, “L’atelier Camille Virot”(Camille Virot’s workshop) and “Huit artistes et la Terre” (Eight Artists and Clay) a publication which is today considered to be one of the major writings on ceramic art.
Instigator of a programme of meetings supported by the Minister of Culture (1991 – 1995) between European ceramists and African potters, Camille Virot was responsible for the itinerant exhibition ‘Poterie Nègre’, which reassembled as a collection has, now, been integrated into the documentary data base of the Confluence Museum in Lyon.
Since 1990, Camille Virot has been combining other materials with clay.
… Thus an artist’s lifetime can be spent with one obsessive idea, the forms will gradually be born one from another, interlinked one to another. One lives only through feelings and not at all in the world of ideas. It is the fate of the ceramist.
…And so in the doing new forms arise by chance and interact with each other as the words in a poem.
In the imagery of ceramics, the ground and the underground are very much in evidence , there is the world of moles, and the world where our feet and the foundation of cathedrals rest : this hidden mineral world is our obsession.
The hidden exists, the invisible radiates.
The other stimulation imposed by this tradition that we venerate: the ceramic object is attached to action, to worldly use, and is a response to the needs of life.
Thus we are constantly stimulated by these two things, the stone and the flesh.
Camille Virot, Extract from « 8 artistes & la terre ».
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
2021
- “Le Monde dans un Bol – The World in a Bowl“, solo exhibition, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste
- “Les Flammes. L’Âge de la céramique”, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris
- “Par le feu, la couleur”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
2020
- Maison de Brian, Simiane la Rotonde (Alpes de Haute-Provence)
- “Ensemble -Together-Part 2”, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy (F)
2019
- “Contemporary ceramics”, musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (F)
- “Naître de la terre”, solo exhibition, Galerie Atelier 28, Lyon (F)
2018
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste (F)
- Musée de Salagon (F)
- Ancienne Poterie de Gradignan (F)
- “15 Têtes & 50 états transitoires”, Parcours de l’Art, Eglise des Célestins, Avignon (F).
2016
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy (F).
2015
- Galerie Geneviève Godar, Lille.(F)
- Maison de Brian, Simiane la Rotonde (F).
2014
- Galerie Artes, Troyes (F)
- Galerie 22, Coustellet (F).
- Galerie Erskine Hall & Coe, Londres.(UK)
2013
- “Huit artistes et la terre”, Ariana Museum. Geneva (SW).
- Galerie 22. Coustellet (F).
- “Huit artistes et la terre”, Erskine Hall & Coe, London, (UK).
2012
- Exposition “Blanc” à la Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes. Paris (F).
2011
- Hart Gallery, London (UK).
- “Regard sur la céramique contemporaine”, Galerie Libre-Choix avec la Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Brussels (B).
- “Terres d’Afrique, Retour d’Afrique”, Musée national de Sèvres (F).
2010
- Holstein Gallery, Bremen (D).
- “Circuit céramique à Sèvres. La scène française contemporaine”, Musée national de Sèvres (F).
2009
- Galerie 22 Jamoz, Cabrières (F).
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy. (F).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- “Camille Virot réinvente le raku”, Connaissance des Arts, N°802. Avril 2021.
- “Le Monde dans un Bol – The World in a Bowl”, catalogue of the exhibition, published by Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, 2020.
- “Camille Virot, la terre et la chair” Connaissance des Arts. N°747. Avril 2016
- “De la terre à l’esprit” L’OEIL. N°689. Avril 2016
- “Camille Virot”, in “Circuit céramique à Sèvres. La scène française contemporaine”, Edition Sèvres, 2010.
- Maurice Lambiotte & Carole Andréani, “Céramique contemporaine, collection de Maurice Lambiotte”, Ed. Norma, 2007.
- «Camille Virot – Maisons dans l’univers », Revue de la Céramique et du verre – N° 124 mai-juin 2002.
- 1985 creates the “Dossiers d’Argile” published in episodes and devoted to a reflection on contemporary ceramics.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS of Argile Editions
- “Camille Virot 2018”
- “La Tête” in 2016
- “1 Artiste et la Terre, Claudi Casanova” in 2015
- “La poterie africaine” en 2005 ;
- “atelier Camille Virot” et “8 artistes & la terre” en 2009. – Ouvrages en vente à la Galerie.
- “atelier Jean-Nicolas Gérard” en 2011
- “Le raku sans Frontières”. Acte du colloque et des 2ème Journées Internationales de la Céramique de Giroussens en 2013.
- More…
DISTINCTIONS. PUBLIC and PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
- Special Prize for the Turned Piece (Biennale of Vallauris, , 1977).
- FNAC Paris, France.
- Musée des Confluences Lyon, France
- FRAC Alsace et Normandy, France.
- Musée d’Art contemporain de Dunkerque, Nord Pas de Calais, France.
- Musée de Villeneuve d’Ascq, Nord Pas de Calais, France.
- Darmstatt and Stuttgart Museums, Germany.
- Musée du Cinquantenaire, Bruxelles, Belgium.
- Musée de Gand, Belgium.
- Ariana Museum , Geneva, Switzerland.
- Numerous private collections amongst whom , Charles Adrien Bueno, Maurice Lambiotte, Françoise and Arnauld de l’Épine.