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Josep Llorens Artigas (1892-1980) is considered one of the great European ceramicists of the 20th century. Artigas signed his pieces, at times even giving them poetic, suggestive names. He worked with timeless, universal shapes, always in unique colours. Artigas’ solo career, in workshops in Paris, Barcelona and Gallifa, and with renowned artists such as Raoul Dufy and Joan Miró has been recognised in major museums and galleries around the world.
The shape is a vessel for the glaze; the glaze is where I channel all my creative abilities
Josep Llorens Artigas
Pinyol d’urani: an exceptional piece by Josep Llorens Artigas
This vase, created in 1949-1950 by Josep Llorens Artigas at his workshop in Barcelona, is one of a kind. Precisely documented, we know it was shown in March 1951 at Galeries Laietanes.
The vase stands out for its yellow tones, created using uranium oxide. This material is very rare, expensive and extremely difficult to control in traditional wood-fired kilns. To preserve its vibrant colour, it was fired very carefully at a very high temperature (1,280 degrees) in a hermetic chamber to prevent any contact with the flames and smoke, which would have affected the colour. This yellow, rarely found elsewhere in Artigas’ work, reflects his skill in creating unique glazes that can’t be repeated using complex combinations of natural chemical elements.
Beyond the colour, the piece stands out for its clean, harmonious, svelte lines, emphasising the artist’s essential elegance. This vase, with its vibrant yellow and stylised shape, is a masterpiece that encapsulates the very essence of Llorens Artigas’ art, both in technical and conceptual terms, and is a unique attestation of his career in the post-war art world.
But rarely the yellow seen on this vase, which is difficult to achieve as it uses uranium oxide, an expensive material that is also difficult to control in wood-fired kilns. To achieve these tones, the piece had to be fired very carefully in a hermetic chamber away from the flames and smoke, which would have made it turn grey. Artigas made very few known pieces with this uranium yellow, “a yellow with heart”, and none with these proportions and harmoniousness.
Check out this exceptional piece in 3D
