Marguerite or “Guidette“ Carbonell (1910- 2008) was born in Meudon, France of a Catalan fa- ther and an Armenian mother who came to Paris to study painting. Those two origins nurtured her creative imagination, atypical and unique, throughout her career. Both Catalan and Armenian folklores inspired her oneiric work which has something of the aesthetics of fairy tales and fantasy.

Guidette drew from the age of five and spent all her summers at her grandparents’ in Rousillon, where she observerved at a very early age the work of the craftsmen from a close brickworks. At the age of 15, while being in Paris, she attends several art classes where she enhances her drawing technique: André Lhote’s class at the Grande-Chaumière, Othon Friesz’ at the Académie Suédoise and Roger Bis- sière’s at the Académie Ranson. She receives training in ceramics, in particular in modelling, a bit later, in an applied arts school rue de Fleurus. Guidette then begins quite quickly to create ceramic pieces, noting her practice is at this time influenced by other artists : she shares her first studio in Vitry with Catalan ceramist Josep Llorens i Artigas, well-known for his collaboration with painters Raoul Duffy and Joan Miró. Her first designs are exhibited in 1928 at the Salon d’Automne at Paul Beyer’s, Emile Decoeur’s, Auguste Delaherche’s or Jean Mayodon’s side. Early at this stage, she stands out with colorful and impish pieces, skilfully conceived by the artist with the point of her pencil before handcrafting them.

From figurative to abstract art, incorporating unusual elements to clay or to cement, be it glass or metal, she expresses, with a quite modern unfinished touch, a troubled inner world, which remind one’s of the one of childhood. Nourished by Eastern culture, captivated by Romanesque and Primitive representations, Guidette deploys a fabulous bestiary whose oddness is deeply striking, where human progressively mingles with animal.