Piet Stockmans was born in October of 1940, in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. He now lives and works out of Genk, Belgium. For the last 10 years he has worked with his daughter Widukind and her husband Frank Claesen incorporating their designs into the business.
"Sonja" Piet Stockmans design while at Royal Mosa, sold over 30 million
The Piet Stockmans Philosophy ~
HOW NICE IT IS TO BE CREATIVE
How nice it is to be creative
with a simple material such as clay
I have done it my whole life
and still have new ideas
How wonderful to express myself
every day
with this white gold
as porcelain is called
Always
in the same philosophy
of tactility and vulnerability
and my own harmony
Porcelain and cobalt bowl set
He received his formal education from PHIKO Hasselt, www.kunsthumaniorahasselt.be/ in 1963, and from there went to work for Royal Mosa in the Netherlands, as a Designer. In 1969 he became a professor of Industrial Design to the department Product design at the Design Academy in Genk, Belgium. In 1983 he became a professor ceramics design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Since 1989 he has also been a freelance designer.
Beaker Set
As you can see he works with a limited palette of porcelain white and cobalt blue. It is a definite signature for him. He has a brand to his design work called "Stockmansporcelein". It is a very clean and sterile look. Something that I identify with a lot of Nordic art.
His company produces many things for everyday life that could be made of porcelain, including tableware for residence and industry, jewelry, urns, tiles, lights and vases, and a whole lot more.
Champagne Bucket
Fine Art designs
Piet also does a lot of fine art. From what I can see he loves the female figure(Don't we all!). Really, I think he loves form. He is very much into repetition. In all of his work, from fine art to industrial design he is big on making multiples, either standing next to each other or stacking into one another. While they are multiples, each has its own unique identity. Little differences separate them but allow them to work as one. There is a connection between that idea and the human body. We could analyze that deeper and deeper if we wanted.
Fine Art Repetition
I am a new fan of Piet Stockmans.
A quote from him ~ "Creation is the result of activity and not of thinking. It is activity that generates ideas which, themselves, give rise to other ones. It is a process in the course of which decisive choices are made in a mysterious way. It is the automatism with which the farmer ploughs the fields, a phenomenon that can be compared to the way prayers are used, mantras recited or everyday gestures repeated. It is a quest for simplicity, peace, physical well-being."
Amen brother!
I personally really enjoy his Porcelain and cobalt bowl set, mainly because you can tell that they are handmade. They are almost perfect and imperfect at the same time. That is, the bowls nest well in one another and the craftsmanship is obviously there, but the spacing between each bowl varies, as well as the rims of the bowls. This gives the piece a sense of movement. It reminds me of water and waves, probably in part due to the color choice, as well as the form.
ReplyDeleteIt blows my mind how thin some of his pieces are, especially the cups and the bowl set. This thinness almost makes his cups and bowls look like they are manufactured, but I think the crooked lips on these vessels give them a handmade quality.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I really loved Stockmans philosophy "how nice it is to be creative", it's always amazing hearing the artist talking about how much he loves what he creates! I also think that it's fascinating that he only chooses to work with these few colors! It is a great way to be remembered by!
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