Fance Franck

Fance Franck

Fance Franck (1931-2008) was born in Montgomery Alabama. She began her studies in literature, philosophy and history of art at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Later she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before returning to the United States to study contemporary French and English poetry at Harvard. She found these studies unsatisfying, and in 1950, decided to study sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

After three years of study there, she chanced to enter an apprenticeship at the Greenwich House Pottery in New York, where she finally found her creative niche. Still, in 1956, she returned to Paris to continue her studies in French and literature. A few months after she arrived there, she met ceramacist Francine Del Pierre and became her pupil. She decided to stay in Paris, and in 1960, she and Del Pierre founded a studio together.

When Del Pierre died in 1968, Franck took over the studio. That same year, the Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres organized an exhibition honoring Del Pierre and asked Franck to produce a cup in her memory, which created many new opportunities for her work.

She experimented with red copper glazes, which resulted in her reproducing by accident the imperial "fresh red" of the early Ming Dynasty. Many Asian scholars and manufacturers were interested in this discovery, and she began collaborating with the British Museum, the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics and The Japan Foundation. She started working with the Fukagawa Seiji Porcelain Manufacturing Company factory, where she created about a hundred pieces. When Fance Franck came back to France from Japan, she resumed her work with the Manufacture de Sèvres and continued working in her own studio and with the Japanese manufacturing factories.

Franck died in Paris, on August 5, 2008.

From atelierfranckdelpierre.org

Large rectangular vase
artnet.com

Square vase with horse motif
artnet.com

Flat ovoid vase
artbma.org

Red glazed rectangular vases
elichemodplatre.pagesperso.orange.fr

I recently purchased a plain white porcelain chop plate designed by Fance Franck for Dansk.