Lladró

   In 1951 three brothers set up a workshop in their own house, making flowers, vases and figurines, first in earthenware and later in porcelain. Eight years later they moved to Tavernes Blanques where, by incorporating sculptors, chemists and decorators into the team, they developed new styles and especially the new technique of singlefiring pre-decorated pieces (by contrast with the normal triple-firing technique). They began to export and in 1969 built the first of the Lladró factories, which became known as La Ciudad de la Porcelana (Porcelain City), with over 1,500 employees, most of them women. By the 1990s the enterprise had expanded to five factories which export porcelain figures to over 120 countries and have diversified into leather goods. The elongated style which became world famous was developed in the 1960s, principally by the sculptor Fulgencio Garcia López (1915– 94). Born in Valencia, he had trained at the San Carlos School of Fine Art, and in 1945 had won a prize in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, Madrid. He later directed the Lladró Sculpture Workshop, in which specialists are trained in the techniques of decorative porcelain. Many pieces have become part of private and museum collections, especially the Lladró Museum opened in New York in 1988, and among the most notable are Triste Arlequín (Sad Harlequin), Amparito con cesta (Amparito with a Basket), La Virgen de las Desamparados (Our Lady of the Destitute), Ciervos perseguidos (Stags in Flight), Violencia (Violence), and Don Quijote.

   See also: design; pottery; sculpture

   EAMONN RODGERS