Roseline Delisle

Quadruple, 1988

Roseline Delisle (1952 – November 12, 2003) was born in 1952 in  Rimouski, Québec, and attended the Institute of Applied Arts in Montréal, Québec,  in 1969. After graduating in 1973, Delisle worked as an apprentice under Enid LeGros until 1977. In 1978, she moved south and started her first solo studio in Venice, California. Delisle resided and maintained a studio practice in Santa Monica,  with her husband, painter Bruce Cohen, and their daughter.

Delisle was known in the ceramic community for her large-scale vessel forms, wheel thrown in sections and banded with colored slips. Her older works were constructed from porcelain thrown sections fused together in the kiln, however her more contemporary works are created from  earthenware, and threaded on a metal rod, secured to a weighted base for stability.

For over a decade, she dreamed of making large-scale ceramic sculpture. She first realized her goal in an exhibition of six figurative sculptures in the fall of 1996. Her recent work presents a vision of purity and perfection, a world of balance and symmetry. Their stability and strength complement the precision of the slender, seemingly fragile figures. Bold and graphic, the tall and totemic sculptures are deeply rooted in early twentieth century abstraction. Delisle’s ability to marry these polarities is her triumph.

Although most of her early work was made in the demanding medium of fired porcelain, Delisle turned to an earthenware clay body to realize her ambitious figurative pieces. The years of experience with porcelain proved valuable, as she developed a means of stacking sections of interlocking cylinders to create larger forms. The first six sculptures were made of eight, ten or eleven different elements, fused together in a nearly seamless line. With foot, body, waist and head, these hollow vessels have a human presence. The artist is in control of her elements—line, form, volume and color—yet is able to find a fertile ground for exploration.

Many viewers and writers have noted Roseline’s success in the unification of opposites. It is true that her vertical forms are striped with horizontal bands, the sharp profiles are softened by a smooth, rich surface, and the nearly mechanical precision is offset by their obvious figurative references. Technical and formal concerns are one means of access; another is the presence and historical awareness in these new large works.

Delisle cites as seminal influences the Suprematist drawings of Malevich, the Constructivist theatre and ballet designs of Oskar Schlemmer, and the line drawings of Picasso.Her primary influences in the world of ceramics have been Lucie Rie (delicacy of form, use of line) and John Mason (monumentality, minimalism). Despite her awareness of these historical sources and her relentless reductivist sensibility, Roseline allows some interplay between intellect and intuition.

Recently the artist has begun to group her figures together in pairs and small families. A pair of sculptures, side by side, is quickly recognized as a couple. Delisle delights in pointing out the anatomical signifiers—female and male—and in emphasizing the interplay of negative space between the two. When she adds a third, smaller figure, the “family” resembles her own—mother, father and daughter. Thus, her abstracted figures become immediate and personal.

Delisle died of ovarian cancer in 2003 in Santa Monica, California.

Black Series, 1986

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18 Futuristic Machines 
Imagined in 1940

















I have long been wondering if we, humanity, have gotten better at predicting the future thanks to all the experience we have gained through the millions of years we’ve existed. I mean, in just the last hundred years or so we have gone from primitive technology to advanced microchip technology, and while considering that 100 years is only a fraction of the time we have been on this earth, it’s quite an extraordinary feat. Just 70 years ago we still had a lot of imagination, but we didn’t really predict it thoroughly it seems. We tended to look into the future and pull back things that we still haven’t been able to achieve. Maybe it was the positivity or longing for the future that kept us dreaming up insane, yet plausible machines back then.

A series of images, or propaganda images rather, have surfaced lately thanks to Retronaut. They contain 18 machines that a few brilliant minds back in the ’40s thought we would see in a foreseeable future. They are nothing less than fantastic if you ask me. Sure, they are a little bit out there, but still most of them have been realized in one way or another. Maybe they haven’t become the pinnacle of successful inventions, but they have still been incorporated into our daily lives in one way or another, depending on what profession and lifestyle you have.

These “posters” come from the innovation design company Bohn which specialized in concepts of the future. Maybe it was a way to help the development and the imaginations of that particular era’s innovators, or perhaps it was just a way to make the future seem a little bit more bright and exciting. I am stunned by the scale of all of these “inventions,” and it seems even back then the concept and perception of things was that “bigger is better.” However, time has proven that we went in the total opposite direction, and now we continuously try to make things smaller. Life is truly hard to predict sometimes, right?

Henryk Tomaszewski

It was in 1979. I was invited to represent Art Center College of Design for the AGI conference (Alliance Graphique Internationale) in Purchase NY. That conference  changed my life, as artist, forever: 21 of the greatest designers of this world, including Felix Beltran from Cuba and Henryk Tomaszewski from Poland were invited to talk about their work, their passion and their philosophy. Beltran had some visas issues (he's from Cuba) and was refused access to the USA.  He had to stay in Montreal for few days of bureaucratic delays. When he finally arrived at the conference, I ask him how was Montreal doing small talk about my origins. He ask me if I can speak french and congratulate Henryk Tomaszewski for the Biennale award he got. So for the last 3 days of the conference I became the translator between Henryk (that cannot speak English) and Felix. I will talk about Felix in a later post but here are some information about Tomaszewski.

One of the finest poster and graphic artists in the world, an illustrator and teacher, pioneer of the Polish poster school.

The strength of his graphic works lies in a simple and intelligent translation of messages and symbols from literary, theatrical, film, music and social themes into a visual language. He himself admitted "a lifetime search for such signs which would be comprehensible to everyone".

In 1934, Tomaszewski graduated from the School of Graphic Artists (where he specialised in drawing and lithography) and went on to continue his education at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Mieczyslaw Kotarbiński from 1934-39. He took an interest in poster art in 1936 and began contributing to "Szpilka", the satirical weekly. He lived in Warsaw under the Nazi occupation and had his drawings printed in the Lublin-based satirical weekly, "Stańczyk" in 1944. He moved to Łódź in 1945 and resumed contributing to "Szpilka". He returned to Warsaw in 1950 and began designing sets for the Syrena Theatre. Two years later, he was appointed Professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, heading its Poster Studio until 1985, educating dozens of up-and-coming graphic and poster artists of considerable renown. Indeed, his Studio attracted young trainees from all over the world and Tomaszewski invariably encouraged his disciples to do things their own way.

Tomaszewski received a number of art prizes and honours in various countries, including five first awards at the 1948 International Film Poster Exhibition in Vienna. His cartoons were printed in various literary reviews, including Przegląd Kulturalny and Literatura. His drawings were published in the volume, Książka zażaleń / A Book of Complaints, in 1961. He designed a number of books and exhibitions, and was a member of many international art societies, including the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). The Royal Society of Arts in London conferred upon him the award 'Honorary Royal Designer for Industry' in 1976.

Tomaszewski, whose debut took place in the second half of the 1930s, brought to the Polish poster the vigour of youth, a freedom in shaping the picture, anda rich imagination. His technique was close to painting. His works, first noticed at the 1939 World Exhibition in New York, used colour spots and synthetic drawing. After World War II, he embarked upon a provocative play with the viewer's imagination, using sophisticated poetic devices and a minimalist form. His superbly designed graphic signs, letters, symbols and metaphors made expressive and apt comments on theatre and opera performances, exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events. He used mental shortcuts and exquisitely synthesised ideas in the form of graphic or painted signs to convey succinct yet sophisticated messages in posters, illustrations and book covers. His works are unique for their simplicity, intellectual precision, extraordinary sense of humour and easy, laconic drawing. They convey general and profound truths by commenting on events that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, and their allusions and understatements invite a creative reception.

Note: Few weeks after the conference, I received from Henryk a signed lithograph (28/150) of the poster  "Kot"  (cat) 26.8 x 19.3 in. The artwork was later used for book cover: Henryk Tomaszewski, graphismes et pédagogie.