HOMAGE TO CLAUDE VICENTE
9 MARCH – 2 JUNE 2019
Born in Oran, Algeria, Claude Vincente was the successive director of the Fine Arts Schools of Oran, Tourcoing, and then Douai. In parallel, he collected information and testimonials on popular arts and traditions, and undertook creating a collection of Berber and Kabylian ceramics which he continued to add to when he arrived in Tourcoing, patiently scouring jumble sales and flea markets in northern France and southern Belgium, looking for stranded objects as family collections were scattered during the important North African immigration into his adoptive region. The homage paid today by La Piscine to this beautifully discreet and reserved individual endeavours to evoke the passions of the teacher, the collector, and the artist who kept a part of himself in memories of Algeria.
The exhibition opens with an homage by Mahjoub Ben Bella who was a student of Claude Vincente’s in Oran and in Tourcoing.
