Showcase Johan van Loon from: 2008-11-02 until: 2008-12-06 View a selection of objects in this exposition Perfection and Contrasts. Visiting the museum Guimet in Paris in 1969 caused far-reaching consequences for Jean-François Fouilhoux(1947). There in the Calmann-room he saw a Chinese funeral urn from the Song period (12th century) that upset him totally and has influenced his life as a potter until today. Jean-François Fouilhoux was introduced into ceramics already when he was 14 years old through lessons from Daniel Cadot in his free hours from school. Later Cadot sent him to study ceramics to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliquées in Paris (1962-68). Jean-François Fouilhoux is mainly interested in high firing glazes. In the period around 1986 his was already well known for his high vertical vessels with lush dripping glaze compositions, it is also the period when he starts to experiment on celadon. Celadon is his passion and his own celadon’s have at least to equal that of his ancient Chinese and Korean colleagues. To achieve this he makes thousands of test on small quickly kneaded pieces of clay with that surfaces, contours and tears that give expression to all facets of celadon glaze. He is aiming for perfection, his celadon’s are created by trial and error. The funeral urn in Museum Guimet is visited many times namely to compare his test results with the glaze on this pot. He finds out that not only the chemical composition is important but also the measure of the grains of his components. Another important facet is the firing. It proofs that the right celadon’s are reached after applying ten layers of glaze and several firings in between. Jean-François Fouilhoux says about himself: ‘I am a calm person that expresses himself with violence’. A lump of clay is cut into form with some quick movements of the special, self-made flexible steel blade. This very dynamic form is in contrast to the contemplative character of the celadon glaze that is not mat nor shiny, not transparent nor opaque. Celadon is full of life, full of light, it is like jade. Beside it makes the form even more expressive. In April 2001 Jean-François Fouilhoux showed his work for the first time in our gallery, than wide wave like forms with sharp edgy fins and also the bowl like forms he is still creating with a few movements of his flexible steel lame. Recent work is based on a simple hollow concrete cube, this inspired him to the present basic forms such as triangle, cube and lozenge. Forms that by the open character create an emptiness, he is trying to create as much as emptiness with as little as material. showcase exhibition with recent porcelain by JOHAN VAN LOON.