This exhibition examines the changing nature of the ceramics studio across the 20th century and how a new generation of UK based artists are looking again at ideas of art and craft. Highlights include ceramics from studio potters Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, shining a spotlight on the relationship between Japan and the UK from the 1910s to 40s. Discover the Californian ‘clay revolution’ of the 1950s and 60s, showcasing sculptures from Peter Voulkos, Ken Price, Rudy Autio and Ron Nagle, alongside a new commission by contemporary British artist Jesse Wine.
Discover the work of the leading ceramic artists working in the UK during the 1970s and 80’s. Selected with artist Aaron Angell, these include artworks by Gillian Lowdnes, Richard Slee and other contemporaries of the hand-built movement, which saw the potter’s wheel cast aside. These will be shown alongside work by a number artists – including Anthea Hamilton – made over the last three years at Angell’s London-based Troy Town Art Pottery, which he describes as ‘a radical and psychedelic workshop for artists’.
Angell will be undertaking a residency at Leach Pottery, concluding the exhibition in the location where our story began.
To accompany the exhibition St Ives based artist Simon Bayliss will show some of his Ceramic Pasty Paintings in the café at Tate St Ives.
Supported by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Japan Foundation and Idlewild Trust
Jesse Wine ‘I think you ought to know, I’m going through a creative stage some people find easy to connect to’ 2016 © Jesse Wine. Courtesy Mary Mary, Glasgow
Shoji Hamada 1894-1978 Bowl c.1930 © the estate of Shoji Hamada
