1926-2008 & 1933-2010,
France
Jacques et Dani Ruelland are French ceramists, a couple in the city as well as at work. They created plenty of pieces, perfectly mixing asymmetrical lines and secret glazes. Their pure shapes and vibrant colors have made their reputation.
While Jacques Ruelland studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Danielle Dupin studied sculpture at the Grange School of Sculpture. Jacques and Dani’s brother were friends and the two artists began a romance. The couple wanted to share more than love so they started an artistic project together. Their first studio was in their native land of Versailles, but early later Jacques and Dani Ruelland decided to move to the 6th arrondissement of Paris, rue de Buci. A year before their marriage and the birth of their daughter Dominique in 1951, the couple made a trip to Vallauris. This city was -and still is- known for their ceramics and it appeared to them obviously: they devoted their work to this medium.
Each person had their specialty: Dani drew and sculpted; Jacques modeled and glazed. The first one gave life to forms with an eloquent purity: she loved asymmetry and she preferred the hand-work rather the wheel she never used. The other one was in charge of molds & materials: from clay to glazes, he developed special recipes, still remained secrets, conferring to their creation mystery vibes. He developed manganese-based glazes that give their ceramics wavy, deep and spirited colors.
The words of Antoinette Faÿ-Hallé about the production of the Ruelland couple are eloquent: “it remains forests of bottles, stacks of bowls, greens singing like trees in spring, orange of urane shining like suns, yellows sunflower way, deep blues like the sea in Spain, brown that we would eat like chocolate … The art critic is powerless to say the sensuality, the incredible richness of this dazzling colors.”
From 1970, the couple settled permanently in Les Angles, near Avignon, in the south of France and continued their work, contributing to the ceramics fame. Their colors became lighter and more shaded without losing their intensity. Jacques and Dani Ruelland remain brilliant ceramists: they never stop creating and loving each other, in four-hands-art with two beating hearts.
