Caille Pierre

Pierre Caille was a Belgian artist, born in Tournai in 1912 and died in Linkebeek in 1996. He was active as a ceramist, painter, printmaker and jewellery designer. He trained in the studio of Joris Minne at La Cambre in Brussels (1929–1930). He initially worked as a painter, but under the influence of H. Van de Velde, he resolutely turned to ceramics from 1935 onwards. He possessed a rich imagination, drawing on the bizarre, the poetic and a form of spiritual naivety that always appeared fresh and unexpected. He designed, among other things, mural ceramics and sculptures for the Casino in Ostend (1953). He was friends with G. Grard, later also with Ch. Leplae and P. Delvaux. In 1961 he created his first bronze sculptures. In the early 1960s, he resumed painting and created a world of strange creatures, humorous figures and dream animals. He also designed theatre sets, jewellery, polychrome sculptures, assemblages, collages and etchings. His work breathes poetry and testifies to a playful imagination. From 1948 to 1977, he was a ceramics teacher at La Cambre in Brussels. He exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1945) and at the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam. Retrospective exhibitions were held in Tournai and Knokke-Heist (1983). His work can be found, among other places, in the Botanique metro station in Brussels and at the Casino in Ostend. Listed in BAS I and Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists (Piron).