14 September – 3 December 2017
This exhibition tells the story of studio pottery in Britain, from the early twentieth century to the present, by focusing on the evolution of the vessel form. Vase, bowl, charger, set: this family of forms ties ceramics to its functional origins. A vessel exists to hold or contain—a purpose it may fulfill literally, metaphorically, or both. The antiquity of the vessel, the familiarity of its shapes and forms, provides a ready-made language, which ceramic artists have for decades invoked and emulated but also transformed and renewed. The exhibition traces the major typologies that have defined studio pottery since the beginning of the twentieth century while also looking back to the historic precedents that inspired modern pioneer potters.
The exhibition will tour to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in March 2018.
Image: Grayson Perry, The Guardians (detail), 1998
The Diane and Marc Grainer Collection
