Whilst, in the public imagination, Vallauris pottery is primarily associated with the extravagant, colourful pieces that filled tourist shops in the 1960s, for connoisseurs, Vallauris was first and foremost a hotbed of great potters who gathered in the town around the figure of Picasso from the 1950s onwards.
Claude Aïello is helping to revitalise contemporary arts and crafts in Vallauris, the cradle of ceramic production in France.
Claude Aïello, born in Italy, comes from a family of potters spanning three generations. From the moment he settled in Vallauris, he was drawn to contemporary design. Driven by a desire to give new forms to the ceramic objects he creates, he made contact with designers, offering them his expertise and technical solutions to meet their requirements.
Together, they combined their talents to produce functional and original pieces that stand out from standard ceramic production. A godsend for Claude Aïello, who has managed to stand out from the competition. Today, this renowned ceramist works with leading designers: Ronan Bouroullec, Florence Doléac, Christian Ghion, the Belgian Nicolas Bovesse and Mathieu Lehanneur, one of France’s most innovative designers, with whom he was awarded the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for craftsmanship.
Claude Aïello
A few dozen metres from the Vallauris Ceramics Museum on Rue Hoche lies a small, barely visible workshop: that of Claude Aïello. The town is known for its historic ceramics industry and the pieces created by Pablo Picasso at the Madoura workshop.
In 1998, with the aim of promoting this local tradition that was on the verge of dying out, a public initiative (Deux designers à Vallauris) sought to bring together craftspeople and designers. Over the course of a few editions, designers François Bauchet, Ronan Bouroullec, Pierre Charpin, Olivier Gagnère, Patrick Jouin, Jasper Morrison, Radi Designers, Frédéric Ruyant, Martin Szekely and Roger Talon have alternately revisited and revolutionised the local pottery tradition.
Of the few craftsmen involved in this venture, only Claude Aïello went on to turn this type of collaboration into a fully-fledged profession in its own right. Through word of mouth and without any other form of advertising, Claude Aïello is now recognised as a leading figure in the turning of design objects and sculptural pieces.
In 1964, Calogero Aïello (known as Claude) was 13 years old when he arrived in Vallauris with his parents and six brothers and sisters. His father, from a long line of potters, had fled the crisis in the utility ceramics industry that had struck the village of Patti Marina (in the province of Messina, Italy). At the age of 14, Claude Aïello was taken on as an apprentice at a local workshop. From that moment on, his destiny was inextricably linked to that of traditional Vallauris ceramics. By 1998, it would also be intertwined with that of French design. His exceptional craftsmanship, perfectionism, unwavering determination and hospitality attracted some of the discipline’s leading names and rising stars to his studio. By winning, in 2010, the Grand Prix in the ‘design’ section at the Vallauris Biennale and then the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for ‘intelligence of the hand’ in the ‘dialogues’ category (both with Mathieu Lehanneur for ‘L’Âge du Monde’), he has now captured everyone’s attention. In fifteen years, Claude Aïello has become a legend in the fusion of design and ceramics.
