5 minute read
BOUKE DE VRIES
Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress
Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress is an exhibition of eight porcelain vases by artist Bouke de Vries inspired by William Hogarth’s series of paintings: A Rake’s Progress (1732-1734). Hogarth’s iconic narrative series, housed in the celebrated Picture Room at Sir John Soane’s Museum, follows the swift demise of Tom Rakewell, the heir of a rich merchant who squanders his inherited wealth, leading to his ruin and ultimate madness.
Visions in Porcelain explores Tom Rakewell’s descent into degradation through the darkening palette of increasingly fractured vases. De Vries works with damaged historic ceramics, exploring their resonance as he builds his ‘exploded’ assemblages. In creating new work from fragments and shards, de Vries allows new stories and meanings to emerge, whilst also exploring and celebrating a fragile and deconstructed beauty.
A specially commissioned film accompanies the exhibition, featuring an interview with Bouke de Vries and independent curator and writer, Kathleen Soriano, alongside insights from the Soane’s curatorial team exploring connections between de Vries’ work and Hogarth’s renowned series.
View online at www.soane.org
BOUKE DE VRIES
A Rake’s Progress, 2021
A set of eight porcelain vases
Artist proof
£ 140,000
Heights 52.5cm–59cm
Diameters 24.5cm–34cm
Individual vases £ 15,000 each, to order Only two examples will be made in addition to the artist’s proof
Our anti-hero, Tom Rakewell, inherits his fortune from his miserly father. A sense of promise and potential is signified by a perfect baluster vase (a traditional eighteenth-century form). The piece is finished in the brightest of jade-coloured, celadon glazes.
The profligacy begins as we see the appearance of the first crack. De Vries creates a small slash in the clay that opens further during the firing process.
Hogarth depicts Rakewell indulging at an illicit party within a brothel. The gathering pace to his inevitable downfall is suggested by the spiralling goldplated, barbed wire which precariously holds together the fractured vessel contained within.
Rakewell’s life ‘explodes’ and the punctured vase is blown outwards, mirroring Rakewell’s undignified exit from the sedan carriage in the corresponding painting. At the leather-hard stage of creating this vessel, the clay was pushed outwards by hand, allowing for an area of weakness which in turn stimulates the dramatic collapse achieved during the firing process.
To regain wealth and status, Rakewell marries a rich widow. Vase five has been restored with gold, using the traditional Japanese technique of kintsugi, where damage becomes a celebrated aspect in the history of the object. This restorative technique resumes the metaphor, demonstrating the act of repair to Rakewell’s life through a much needed, if morally questionable, input of funds.
Recklessly staking his newfound wealth in the gambling den; Rakewell’s life falls apart once more. Vase six fragments and explodes. De Vries has often used this technique in his work, capturing a frozen moment of destruction. The assorted shards have been mounted on a brass armature.
All is lost. Incarcerated in a debtors’ prison, Rakewell has sunk to an alltime low. A sense of imprisonment is achieved through the use of numerous metal staples to bind the broken vase together. Historically, this was a commonly used restoration technique, and these particular staples have been removed and collected by de Vries from important, yet fundamentally damaged ceramics that he has worked on as a ceramics restorer over the last thirty years.
In this final chapter, Rakewell’s life has entirely fallen apart. Condemned to the madhouse at Bedlam, he has become entertainment for paying visitors. The fragments are now chaotically contained within a glass vessel, made in the same form as the initial, perfect vase. This reminds the viewer of the Rake’s origins, tumultuous journey, and inevitable demise. The porcelain is glazed in near-black, concluding the spectrum of celadon shades employed across the vases to further strengthen the conceit of degradation.
BOUKE DE VRIES
A Rake’s Progress, 2021
A set of eight porcelain vases
Artist proof
£ 140,000
Heights 52.5cm–59cm
Diameters 24.5cm–34cm
Individual vases £ 15,000 each, to order Only two examples will be made in addition to the artist’s proof
About The Artist
Originally working in fashion before retraining as as a restorer, de Vries began creating his works of art in 2008. He has since gained a significant following and now has work in an impressive range of international public collections, including the National Museum of Scotland, the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo, Norway and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.
De Vries sees an inherent value in the discarded objects he reinvents, giving a new lease of life to a broad spectrum of ceramics otherwise destined to be thrown away. His pieces are often humorous, sometimes shocking, but always reinvent significant, yet damaged, historical materials, whilst adding unexpected twists to their ongoing narrative.
Bouke De Vries
Born 1960, Utrecht, The Netherlands
1978-1981 Design Academy, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (3-D Design)
1981-1982 Central St. Martin’s, London (Textiles)
Also worked for Stephen Jones, John Galliano, Zandra Rhodes
Public Collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Aberdeen
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
York Art Gallery, Yorkshire
Zabludowicz Collection, London
Kasteel d’Ursel, Hingene, Belgium
The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo, Norway
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Bouke de Vries: Memories in Porcelain, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, USA
Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
2020
War and Pieces, Installation, The Frick Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
2019
War and Pieces, Installation, Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington, USA
War and Pieces, Installation, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, USA
2018
War and Pieces, Installation, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017
Un-Damaged, Museo Della Ceramica Mondovi, Mondovi, Italy
Fractured Images, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
2016
The Golden Box, Croome Court, High Green, Worcestershire
War and Pieces, Berrington Hall, Berrington, Herefordshire
Studying Human Activity Through the Recovery of Material Culture, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Silk Route, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
War and Pieces, The Harley Gallery, Worksop, Nottinghamshire
War and Pieces, Hetjens-Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany
Le Château de Nyon, Nyon, Switzerland
Musée Ariane, Geneva, Switzerland
Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliques contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland
Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
LAM, Sassenheim, The Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
2015
War and Pieces, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2014
Fragments, Chateau de Nyon, Nyon, Switzerland
Threads of My Life, Gloria Maria Gallery, Milan, Italy
2013
War and Pieces, Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland
Portretten Op Buitenplaats Beeckestijn, Velsen, The Netherlands
War and Pieces, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, Germany
War and Pieces, Residency with Outset Netherlands, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bouke de Vries: Bow Selector, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
2012
War and Pieces, The Holbourne Museum, Bath
2011 Signs (Metamorphosis), Gloria Maria Gallery, Milan, Italy
Precious, Art at Annoushka, 41 Cadogan Gardens, London
Fire, Works, Vegas Gallery, London
2010 Pieces, Super Window Project, Kyoto, Japan
A Grand Tour of My Mind, Gloria Maria Gallery, Milan, Italy
Deconstructions, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
View The Film
A specially commissioned film accompanies the exhibition. Featuring an interview with Bouke de Vries and independent curator and writer Kathleen Soriano, along with insights from the Soane’s curatorial team exploring the connections between de Vries’ work and Hogarth’s series.
