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3rd October 2022

This week the Post comes from Brittany where the mosaics of Isidore Odorico (1893-1945) can be found in many Breton towns and cities, on shopfronts, walls and floors, in cafes, swimming pools and churches. Indeed, they have become so much a part of daily visual culture that it is easy to overlook them. The Odorico family settled in Rennes in 1882, bringing Italian artisan mosaic skills with them. Isidore Odorico père (1845-1912) established the reputation of the company, but it was Odorico fils who, with his Ecole des beaux-arts training, exploited the Art Deco fashion for architects to collaborate with applied artists. Today, Rennes has the greatest concentration of Odorico mosaics from the 1920s and 1930s eg this entrance hall in the University's Maison des étudiants (1935).

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