FEATURED ARTIST | Marc Ricourt

FEATURED ARTIST

EXPANDING BOUNDARIES:

MARC RICOURT'S WOODTURNING

Organic forms, deep colours, fluidity of lines, nature-like textures: the sculpture in wood by French turner Marc Ricourt (Evreux, Normandy, 1963) distinguishes itself for the mastery of his technique, the pronounced edges of his vessels, and the overall feelings of strength and passion rising from his series.

On one level, each of Ricourt’s wooden objects comprises a finite universe; on the other, the completeness of his corpus of works is an elegy to diversity in Nature, presenting a spectrum of pieces in oak and walnut of different energies and dimensions.

Sourcing the wood from the bucolic surroundings of Dijon, he usually turns on a traditional lathe whilst the wood is still green, and then intricately carves and treats the surfaces through sanding, bleaching, and dying until the original vessel is barely recognizable. More recently, he has also been experimenting with dried firewood taken from the heart of the tree, to create highly textured rugged surfaces that heighten the sculptural aspect of his work.

"Ricourt deeply carves, sometimes incising grooves so deep that they break through the walls of the vessel, allowing peep-views of the interior. In other sculptures, he carves spiraling grooves that swirl around the vessel, lifting and energizing the piece."

Capturing the interconnectedness of all living and natural things, tradition and innovation in craft making, Ricourt’s materials are worked in such a way so as to appear as something else; in the case of the Rust series, for example, the artist applies ferrous oxide to the surface of the piece providing the wood with both visual and tactile qualities of materials like corten.

In his works, there is no attempt to hide the tool marks. The roughness belies the control required to make such consistent cuts, emphasizing the aesthetic balance between shape, colour and texture.

Although the history of woodturning reaches back to the dawn of mankind for the production of both ritual and functional objects, only during modernity did artists return to woodworking to highlight the potentiality of such material in the fields of contemporary art and design. One of the sources of inspiration in Ricourt’s artistic process is the ancient utilitarian object, the vessel, one of the most fundamental forms in craft, which has for so long been an essential metaphor for understanding the universe and the afterlife.

While exhibiting extensively in the UK and internationally, Ricourt works and lives in the region of historical Burgundy in east-central France, where the wine-growing landscape is beautiful and there are abundant forests. Surrounded by his personal art collection of many traditional Pacific and Tribal art forms made from hard and soft wood, including anthropomorphic masks representing spiritual ancestors, his research on wood focuses on developing the relationship between geographically remote and distant civilizations.

“Useful, yet mysterious, the closed vessel symbolically holds all secrets of the human soul. I strive to find the perfect harmony between wood, shape, texture, and colour.”

Ricourt's artworks and the new Molteni&C Outdoor Collection.

A selection of Ricourt’s pieces from the Scorched series embellishes the new Molteni&C Outdoor Collection campaign settled in the beautiful setting of a historical villa in the Tuscan area of Maremma, immersed in dense and wild woodland, within the sounds and scents of the nearby sea.

Establishing a harmonious dialogue between art and design, architecture and nature, the decisive lines and forms of Ricourt's sculptures meet the new design creations presented by Molteni&C. Pure raw beauty emanates from each unique and dramatic vessel, originating in the natural world's inspiration and the artist's masterful interpretation.