Mithé Espelt

The life of Mithé Espelt, an avant-garde ceramicist born in 1923, is a real saga made fascinating by the appearances of famous characters that were part of her everyday life. People such as Jean Hugo, Louise de Vilmorin, Valentine Schlegel, Frédéric Mistral, Francois Desnoyer, Emilie Decanis, Line Vautrin, Jaime Sabartés...

Despite being a modern classicist, this woman cannot be described as mundane. At the end of the war, she chose not to sign her work in order to reject narcissistic rivalries and better preserve her freedom. She adopted this unusual attitude as a very young artist, and this enabled her to create all the brilliant pieces she wanted for almost half a century.

Focusing on the feminine universe, in 1947 she set up an extravagant carousel in which swirl a myriad of small mirrors and secret chests filled with jewellery that glitter under a pure gold rain. Her objects question desire and seduction, envy and gluttony, reality and illusion. Amidst bird song and flowers, her works deliver a message bursting with optimism and love. Camouflaged as useful objects and lacking a signature, these accessories have all too often been neglected and scattered to the four winds.

However, her work fascinated Antoine Candau, who has unveiled the incredible life of an artist who did not want to be known. Written in collaboration with Mithé Espelt, his book, far from being reserved for experts, can be read like a novel. Additionally, he sheds an innovative light on French post-war ceramic art and encourages us to take a new look at all the beauty around us.