Paco Durrio (real name Francisco Durrio y Madrón), Spanish ceramicist and jeweller. From 1883, Durrio lived mainly in Paris, where he exhibited his jewellery with great success at the 1904 Salon d’Automne. Even though most of his life was spent in France, he is considered as a representative of Spanish Art Nouveau, as his work is strongly imbued with the culture of his homeland.
The human figure has an important place in the work of Durrio. It is used for themes posing questions on the origins of life, about death and silence, all preoccupations present in this Anthropomorphic Pot.
The object combines a phallic shape with an opening suggestive of female genitalia. The character in its foetal position, with wild features, seems to be covering its ears, as if it were trying to extract itself from the world surrounding it in a quest for the absolute.
People at the time would have detected the influence of both Goya and Redon here. Nowadays, it is Gauguin’s name that comes to mind. We know that Durrio became friends with Gauguin when the painter returned to France after his first visit to Tahiti between 1893 and 1895. We also know that Durrio acquired several of Gauguin’s works from a sale at his studio in 1895.
Objects like this perfectly accomplished piece enable us to appreciate these influences.
Durrio is a representative of Spanish Art Nouveau, that is, of an internationally flavoured but nonetheless local version of craftwork. It is revealing that he lived mainly in Paris, where he exhibited his jewellery with great success at the Salon d’Automne in 1904. The elegant line of his creations is without question so full of expressive three-dimensionality that the Catalan inheritance of the artist cannot be denied.
