Pous, Jean
untitled
Jean Pous, untitled, between 1962 and 1967, carved stone, height : 30 cm, photo : Marie Humair, Atelier de numérisation – Ville de Lausanne, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Author
Pous, Jean,
(1875-1973), Spain
Biography
Jean Pous (1875-1973) was born in La Jonquera, a Catalan town very close to the French border. He had poor health as a child and didn’t go to school until the age of ten, but soon obtained his school certificate. At the age of twenty, he founded his own company with the help of two of his brothers in Le Boulou, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Pous created his first sculptures at the age of eighty-seven, in the courtyard of his home. He would go for walks in the countryside and along rivers, gathering all kinds of stones – granite, flint, or slate – which he sculpted using simple, homemade tools. Gouging, chiselling, and scraping, he gradually formed faces, animals, plants, and flowers. He would find his initial inspiration in the original shapes of the stones and the grooves or variations in colour they might have. He worked assiduously, carving almost 1,500 pieces. In 1967, at the age of ninety-two, he was forced to stop making sculptures after suffering a heart attack. So he began drawing and painting on salvaged paper and cardboard.
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