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Fact Sheet |
Léopold L. Foulem, Ceramic Artist,
Caraquet, New Brunswick And Montréal
Léopold L. Foulem is part cultural anthropologist, part flea market junkie, and part aesthetic purist. In his relentless search for answers to the many artistic challenges he has set for himself during his long career, he has remained faithful to his opinion that his "ceramics are about art and ceramics, and ultimately about ceramics as art."
Originally from Caraquet, New Brunswick, Foulem is internationally renowned in the contemporary ceramics world. He grew up in a community rich in music and theatre, but lacking in significant visual art activities. He initially set out to become a chef, but eventually turned to ceramics after taking some evening ceramics courses while at cooking school. Foulem eventually received his M.F.A. from Indiana State University in 1988, specializing in ceramics.
While Foulem says his visual arts influences were few as a child, he does recall that from very early on he collected objects such as stamps, rocks, baseball cards and buttons with slogans. These collections soon gave way to scouring flea markets and junk stores around the world for ceramic objects that Foulem began to find intriguing. "I have a passion for egg cups," he admits. "I am amazed how one simple object can have so many different interpretations." Foulem has collected thousands of them!
Foulem creates provocative works that challenge stereotypes and explore the fringes of respected ceramics traditions. His ceramic objects combine erudition and humour to create a vocabulary indisputably his own. His unique "convergence" style has been there from the beginning, he says, but is more obvious now. Even though his objects appear to be functional, they are not. "They are about function, but are not functional," he says. "I am more fascinated with the idea of an object, than with its function."
Teapots, for example, are a favourite ceramic form for Foulem. He finds they have an intrinsic generic connection with the ceramics tradition, and to him they are the basic figure of ceramics, as is the human figure in sculpture.
Foulem does, however, have more than one approach to his ceramic work. He says his work goes from yin to yang, from extremely austere abstraction to very baroque. He usually works in series and sets a challenge for himself with each new collection. "The work is done for intellectual pleasure," states Foulem. "I am always trying to solve a new problem."
For Foulem, his greatest challenge as an artist is the preparation for a new show and the ideas and energy that go into that process. He gets tremendous satisfaction from exhibiting his work and has had 28 solo exhibitions. Foulem's work has been shown extensively across Canada and in other countries, namely Denmark, England, France, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States. His ceramics career, which extends over more than 30 years, was recognized in 1999, when he received the Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award.
Foulem's work is also represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Shigaraki Museum of Ceramic Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Musée du Québec, the Musée des arts décoratifs in Montréal and the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto.
Foulem is not only a world authority on Picasso's ceramic work, he considers Picasso his favourite artist. Foulem has collected considerable documentation on Picasso over the past 25 years, and his research has resulted in a number of lectures and publications
In addition, Foulem taught ceramics programmes for more than 20 years at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal. Since 1994, he has taught art at the CÉGEP de Saint-Laurent. Foulem feels that teaching forced him to be very clear about what he said and did as a ceramic artist. "I can be a real bitch at times," he says, "because I am strongly opinionated, but my students don't copy me, because I've taught them a way of thinking...not making!"
Léopold L. Foulem is the first Saidye Bronfman Award recipient from the Atlantic Provinces. He divides his time between homes and studios in Caraquet, New Brunswick, his hometown, and Montréal.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"Ceramics is an independent and autonomous art form with its own laws and specific vocabulary. It is within that context that I intentionally locate and construct the propositions for most of my formal explorations. In order to achieve a correct understanding and accurate interpretation of the true meaning and significance of my ceramics, these facts must be acknowledged and pondered seriously.
I believe that genuine art is about concepts and indisputably neither about medium nor style, nor even about making. My ceramics are about ideas. My artistic output is never about self-expression or the pursuit of beauty. I consider myself some kind of composer and theoretician instead of a virtuoso."
Léopold L. Foulem
October 2001
PRIX SAIDYE BRONFMAN AWARD PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE STATEMENT
The Selection Committee is pleased to confer the 2001 Prix Saidye Bronfman Award upon Montreal ceramist Leopold L. Foulem and to add his name to a list of distinguished individuals who have made a major contribution to Canadian culture through their craft. Leopold L. Foulem is originally from New Brunswick, where he still spends his summers and produces new work.
In bestowing this important and prestigious award, the Committee wishes to recognise Leopold L. Foulem's extraordinary career as a world-renowned ceramic artist whose work is represented in important public and private collections in North America, Europe and Japan. Although the conceptual base of his practice originates from within a craft tradition, it deals primarily with contemporary issues of post-modern aesthetics, thus elevating the current discourse about ceramics and challenging generally held perceptions of what is considered craft.
In addition to maintaining a rigorous studio practice, Leopold L. Foulem has been teaching, lecturing in Canada and abroad and extensively writing on contemporary ceramic practice and craft theory. Foulem is also a highly respected authority on Picasso's ceramics.
The Committee is grateful to the generosity of The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation for providing it with the opportunity to recognize and honour Leopold L. Foulem's career and contribution to the development of fine crafts in Canada.
16 June 2001
PEER ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Joyce Chown
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Former head of the textiles department at the Nova Scotia College of
Art and Design
Martha Henry
Calgary, Alberta
Glass artist
Michael Massie
Kippins, Newfoundland
Silversmith, 1999 Saidye Bronfman Award finalist
Paul Mathieu
Vancouver, British Columbia
Ceramist
Stuart Reid
Owen Sound, Ontario
Directeur/Curator
Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery
SAIDYE BRONFMAN AWARD RECIPIENTS 1977-2001
1977 Robin Hopper, potter, Metchosin, British Columbia
1978 Lois Etherington Betteridge, metalsmith, Guelph, Ontario
1979 Monique Cliche-Spénard, quilt maker, St-Joseph-de Beauce, Quebec
1980 Louise Doucet et Satoshi Saito, potters, Ayer's Cliff, Quebec
1981 Joanna Staniszkis, fibre artist, Vancouver, British Columbia
1982 Micheline Beauchemin, fibre artist, Les Grondines, Quebec
1983 Wayne Ngan, potter, Hornby Island, British Columbia
1984 William Hazzard (1933-2000), wood carver, Regina, Saskatchewan
1985 Michael Wilcox, bookbinder, Woodview, Ontario
1986 Bill Reid (1920-1998), metalsmith and wood carver, Vancouver, British Columbia
1987 Carole Sabiston, fibre artist, Victoria, British Columbia
1988 Lutz Haufschild, glass artist, West Vancouver, British Columbia
1989 Harlan House, potter, Marysville, Ontario
1990 Dorothy Caldwell, textile artist, Hastings, Ontario
1991 Susan Warner Keene, fibre artist, Toronto, Ontario
1992 Walter Dexter, ceramist-potter, Metchosin, British Columbia
1993 Michael C. Fortune, furniture designer and maker, Lindsay, Ontario
1994 Daniel Crichton, glass artist, Toronto, Ontario
1995 Louise Genest, bookbinder, Montreal, Quebec
1996 Steven Heinemann, ceramic artist, Richmond Hill, Ontario
1997 William (Grit) Laskin, guitar maker, Toronto, Ontario
1998 Marcel Marois, tapestry artist, Quebec City, Quebec
1999 Susan Low-Beer, ceramic artist, Toronto, Ontario
2000 Peter Fleming, furniture designer, Toronto, Ontario
2001 Léopold L. Foulem, ceramic artist, Caraquet, New Brunswick and Montreal
SAIDYE BRONFMAN AWARD
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Saidye Bronfman Award is Canada's foremost distinction for excellence in the crafts. Instituted in 1977 by The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation to honour the 80th Birthday of Saidye Bronfman, O.B.E., a long-time supporter of the arts, the Award provides leadership in recognizing and honouring the high levels of excellence achieved by Canadian craft artists. The $25,000 annual award is one of the largest individual arts prizes in Canada. In addition to the cash prize, works by the recipient are acquired by the Canadian Museum of Civilization for its permanent collection.
The Saidye Bronfman Award recognizes the excellence of the work of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the development of the fine crafts in Canada. The peer assessment committee which adjudicates the Award considers all aspects of aesthetics, including creativity, innovation and technical mastery, as well as the nominee's contribution to the development of the fine crafts in Canada over a significant period of time. The nomination and adjudication processes are administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Among the 24 previous recipients are Quebec City tapestry artist Marcel Marois; Toronto ceramic artist Susan Low-Beer; master bookbinder Louise Genest of Montreal; the late Bill Reid, a Haida goldsmith and wood carver from British Columbia; and the 2000 laureate, Toronto furniture designer Peter Fleming. The active participation of these artists in the Canadian and international fine crafts communities, through exhibiting, teaching and writing, has inspired a new generation of craftspeople. Drawing freely upon this country's cultural resources, Award recipients have blended and adapted established traditions to their own Canadian experience.
The Saidye Bronfman Award is presented by The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, in association with the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
