Jacques Ibarra was born in Paris in 1929. He works across different mediums from ceramics, engraving to serigraphy. When he was 17, he started a ceramic apprenticeship which lasted 3 years, and took drawing evening classes. He then started to work, did his military service, met his wife Jeanine and a few year later they decide to buy a house in the charming village of Mirmande in the south of France.
After 5 years of hard work, they finally finished restoring their house and established his atelier in 1961. The fact of settling in a practically abandoned village and establishing the family’s living space around the workshop was a deliberate and determined choice. The place and the architecture were both confusingly favourable for the purpose sought and today considered successful.
He started to produce bowls, plates, pitchers using wheel-throwing as a way to subsist. In the 70s he started to do cats, lions, birds and sheeps made of earthenware or stoneware.
During the summer of 2022, we had the chance to meet Jeanine and Jacques in their house in the village of Mirmande, and were able to exchange and share a moment of life with them. We had the opportunity to question the almost omnipresence of the cat in Jacques’ work. For him, the cat has always been a companion, since his childhood in Paris and especially since Mirmande. The cat has an aesthetic appeal, harmonious to look at, pleasant to caress and it is independent.
Jacques has always been free to make his own choices and to work alone in the studio creating unique pieces. His wife Jeanine has always been at his side to support him, but also by acting as a link between his creations and the admirers of Jacques’ work.
They still live and work in Mirmande, and love having visits in their dedicated gallery.
