Valentine Schlegel

Valentine Schlegel studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montpellier, where she started practicing painting. She worked for the first festivals in Avignon as an assistant costume designer, prop master and head stage manager. In 1945, she went to Paris and discovered ceramics, first with Frédérique Bourguet and then with her sister Andrée Vilar. In the early 1950s she decided to go solo, and created many ceramics out of clay soil, including clay-coil vases.

From 1960 to the 2000s, she extended her passion for the art of fire by creating numerous plaster fireplaces for private clients. Her sculptures à vivre (sculptures to experience) are rooted in her native land, and more broadly in atmosphere of the Mediterranean. In her free time, she experimented with local materials like wood, leather, shells and cork to create smaller-format objects, working on them with friends.

Alongside her plastic production, she founded the modelling centre for the under-13 workshops at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where she taught from 1958 to 1987, inventing a different kind of education for children. One of her students, Frédéric Sichel-Dulong, became one of her future assistants. After an invitation from François Mathey in 1962, Valentine Schlegel participated
in the exhibition Antagonismes 2, l’objet at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where she subsequently exhibited her work several times. This was followed by invitations from Guy Resse at La Roue gallery in 1955, Denise Majorel at La Demeure gallery in 1975, and Pierre Staudenmeyer at Mouvements Modernes gallery in 2005.