What the heck is pique assiette anyway?

Bouquet from the Garden of Eden (Debra Hagen)

Courtyard of George Elhing’s mosaic house

Cheeky Girl (Debra Hagen)

Pique assiette or trencadis is a style of mosaic that incorporates ceramic shards, broken dishes and other found objects into a design. While traditional mosaics used small cubes that were relatively uniformly shaped, pique assiette or trencadis tends to use nonuniform pieces. The term pique assiette has a French origin and various sources say it means “stolen plate” or “broken plate”. It also refers to someone who is a “scrounger” which of course fits because most pique assiette art is created with recycled or “scrounged” materials. Trencadis is a Catalan term that means “chopped” or “breakable”.

There is a long tradition of using broken and discarded materials to create folk art. Catalan architects Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol used trencadis in many projects including Parc Guell which is a public park system composed of gardens and architectural elements in Barcelona, Spain. In France, the most famous example is Raymond Edouard Isadore. He was a graveyard sweeper and folk artist who spent 30 years covering both the inside and outside of his house, furniture and garden walls with mosaics created from found materials. Today, his house, known as “Maison Picassiette” is a tourist attraction near Chartres, France.

For an excellent history of the earliest forms of pique assiette be sure to check out
http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/pique.shtml

And this article provides a bit more information and some pictures of Gaudi’s work:
http://blog.barcelonaguidebureau.com/gaudis-mosaics/

An interesting article with some lovely pictures that highlights Raymond Isadore’s, Maison Picassiette:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-cemetery-caretaker-covered-cottage-mind-bending-mosaics

Another mosaic “maison” is the home of George Elhing in Los Angeles, California. I was lucky to be able to visit the house as part of a tour arranged and led by Lillian Sizemore for the 2016 Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) annual conference. Until his passing at age 89, George worked on his own for over 40 years using thousands of bits of scavenged tiles and glass to cover his home inside and out with mosaics. The scope of his work is beautiful and breathtaking. I feel fortunate to have visited the house, but also to have met George and listened as he talked with enthusiasm, warmth and humor about his mosaic work. This is a great article with pictures:
http://spacesarchives.org/explore/search-the-online-collection/george-ehling-mosaic-house/

Many contemporary mosaic artists have embraced pique assiette. Gila Rayberg, is well known for her pique assiette portraiture and is definitely worth checking out. . Kelley Knickerbocker, also a well known visual artist, often incorporates pique assiette in her work. Cleo Mussi is another established mosaic artist who works primarily with reclaimed ceramic. Jolino Beserra, an LA based artist who specializes in pique assiette mosaic installations and mosaic sculptures, is also someone to check out.

I started out creating mosaics with broken bits of tile and ceramics. Since that time, I’ve developed a love of Italian and Mexican smalti as well as stone and many other types of tesserae. However, I often come back to pique assiette. The materials are easily available, relatively inexpensive and offer a wealth of possibilities. My newest pique assiette piece is called “Cheeky Girl”.