Claude JUSTAMON

As close as possible to purity...

"Eliminating individuality to reveal a more profound personality,
eliminating all signs of identification until achieving almost-perfect harmony between masculine and feminine.
Starkness, humility,
leaving no vestiges of decoration on oneself in order to be as close as possible to purity, truth, this long inner path...

We can all experience a feeling of calmness as we contemplate a serenely-balanced, irrefutably-harmonious shape. It is undoubtedly intended to reflect something more than itself, some common meaning, a dialogue between consciences, a resonance hidden in the very depths of beings but whose perception is particular to each individual." Claude Justamon

Claude Justamon's androgynous figures, undifferentiated human beings, evoke the feeling of a possible elsewhere, a possible otherwise. They are bearers of dignity, strength, purity and serenity, but also of questioning.

Whilst not losing sight of the plurality and finiteness of human beings, the artist's aim is to express what we have in common, our similarities, what brings us together and seems fundamental and timeless.

These beings, which are intended to be beyond the reach of the whirlwind of a world where agitation and sometimes superficiality reign, without actually being disconnected from it, lead to us reflect, propose us an attitude, a line of thought, a positioning in relation to the world that surrounds us, a point of view.

Maybe they succeed in conveying something buried in the continuity of the human experience to us...

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Claude Justamon was born in 1960 in Marseille and now lives on the high plateau in the Ardèche, a wild and windswept natural setting, exposed to harsh climatic conditions in winter which, rather than serving as simple surroundings, constitutes a way of life and a source of inspiration.

Her initial approach to working with clay was ceramics, via modelling, slab construction or even press-moulding and above all the Raku technique. This ancestral Japanese firing technique, closely linked to the Zen philosophy, settles for simple-shaped pottery stripped of any superfluous sophistication.

Claude Justamon combines this technique with a personal search for telluric, volcanic shapes and textures, allowing her works to acquire a natural and visible strength, due to the violent thermal shocks undergone during this "trial by fire".

For the last fifteen years or so, Claude Justamon has taken an interest in contemporary figurative sculpture, with this same concern for sobriety; she is now fully dedicated to it, giving another appearance to this clay that she models but keeping the same objective in mind: purity.

Bronze casting allows her to overcome the fragility of her earthenware sculptures, giving them the texture, strength and sheen of metal.

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Claude Justamon's works are exhibited in several galleries in France

Recent exhibitions in France
2014 Art3G Bordeaux
2012 Festival Armen – France
2011 SIAC Marseille
2011 Trans'Art – France
2011 Le Carrousel du Louvre – Paris
2010 SIAC Marseille
2010 Salon de printemps – Lyon
2010 Art en Capital – Grand Palais – Paris

Recent exhibitions abroad
2014 AAF Maastricht – Pays Bas
2014 AF'sH Rosmalen – Pays Bas
2013 AAF Milan – Italie
2012 AAF Bruxelles – Belgique
2012 ART Innsbruck – Autriche
2012 Exposition Barcelone – Espagne
2011 Salon Primavera – Pays Bas
2010 Art by Genève – Suisse
2010 Open Art Fair – Pays Bas
2010 LineArt – Belgique