OXFORD PIONEERS / 10 Nov 2018 - 3 Jan 2019 by The Oxford Ceramics Gallery

Oxford Pioneers

Oxford Pioneers An exhibition celebrating the work and legacy of Oxford Gallery (1968–2001) 10 November 2018 to 5 January 2019 Oxford Ceramics Gallery 29 Walton Street · Oxford · OX2 6AA Telephone +44 (0) 1865 512320 www.oxfordceramics.com

Oxford Pioneers An exhibition celebrating the work and legacy of Oxford Gallery 1968â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2001

Oxford Ceramics Gallery installation ‘Working with …’ at Collect Art Fair, London 2018 showing Red Embers rug designed by Garry Fabian Miller, woven by Dovecot Studios 2017, Jim Partridge & Liz Walmsley Oak Block Seat 2018, Cast porcelain vessels by Bodil Manz 2018 and Contained Vessels by Andrea Walsh 2018.

Foreword

Rachel and I are delighted to celebrate this the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Oxford Gallery here at our own gallery in Walton Street. It has been a pleasure to work closely with Amanda to consider and select which artists, from the many thousands Oxford Gallery supported during its lifetime, to include in this show. Oxford Pioneers feels like a timely celebration of a group of women who have contributed so much to Oxford cultural life, as well as to us here at Oxford Ceramics Gallery. My own interest in ceramics had first been nurtured at home with a father who had an interest in early twentieth century art pottery. I used to spend weekends travelling to auctions and sales with him to hunt down particular treasures. But my interest in studio pottery was undoubtedly honed by my regular visits to Oxford Gallery when an undergraduate biochemist at Oxford Brookes. The range, and quality, of its regular programme left an indelible impression on me and, in the end encouraged me away from a scientific career to that of a gallerist. It is not a decision I have ever had cause to regret. Much has changed in the world of commercial galleries and art exhibitions since Oxford Gallery’s inception in 1968. An international programme of art fairs has become a major force linking buyers and artists and an active online presence – via websites and social

media – has become essential to any successful art business. Oxford Ceramics Gallery, for its first five years, existed primarily as an online gallery with occasional presence at fairs. These changes combined with the cost of renting commercial properties in city centres has seen the disappearance of many smaller independent art businesses. A walk down Oxford’s High Street today tells its own story; the dominance of coffee shops and tourist gift shops makes it a very different location to the one experienced by Joan and her colleagues in 1968. And yet, both Rachel and I believe that a physical space where one can showcase exceptional work on a regular basis has value. It always results in unexpected links being made with evident benefits: economic, social and cultural. So, we continue to balance a regular ceramic programme here in Oxford, alongside our online activity and presence at art fairs such as Collect in London. We have been fortunate to work with many artists and supporters to create the space here in Walton Street and we continue to enjoy meeting the many individuals for whom, as for us, the art of ceramics is a rich and fascinating aspect of human culture that deserves the wider recognition it is now beginning to receive. James Fordham Oxford, 2018 5

Oxford Gallery 1968–2001

Oxford Gallery (1968–2001) is a story of pioneering women, and the intertwined worlds of artists and craftsmanship. It is also a story inextricably linked with the art of ceramics which catalysed its foundation; formed a key part of its exhibition programme and has left the most visible legacy both here in Oxford and throughout the UK. Its work in this field makes Oxford Ceramics Gallery (est. 2006) a fitting host for an exhibition marking the fiftieth anniversary of the original gallery’s founding. James Fordham and Rachel Ackland continue to welcome clients and supporters to their Walton Street gallery whose love for, and interest in, ceramics was first nurtured at Oxford Gallery. The selection of 28 artists for this show was guided by focussing on those who had had important early career and/or long term relationships with the original gallery. It also brings to the fore many who continue to show work here in Oxford with the Oxford Ceramics Gallery. Oxford Gallery’s story really begins back in 1934 when a young potter, Joan Cowper, completed her training with Dora Billington (1890–1968) at Central School of Art. This influential teacher (who also taught artists in this show of a different generation such as Gordon Baldwin) instilled in Joan a lifelong interest in the art of ceramics. Her own

work, first made in an independent studio, then as a designer at Doulton’s Lambeth (1937–1939) was admired for ‘its simplicity and modernity’ by Nikolaus Pevsner (among others)1. All looked set for a successful ceramic design career (at a time in industry when women were the decorators but not the designers) but war and marriage intervened and she focussed on family life until the mid 1960s when she and her composer husband (Peter Crossley-Holland (1916–2001)) separated. This marked the turning point towards a career as a gallerist, first as director (1966–1968) of the Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford then as the founder director of Oxford Gallery. Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford (1958–1974) had built a steady reputation for showing contemporary art and prints. Exhibitions had included sculpture and drawings by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink (1961) and an exhibition of artist jewellery (1964). Within this seemingly sophisticated creative context (which laid the seeds for Modern Art, Oxford which eventually replaced it in 1974) Joan should have found a fitting place to develop her already well-honed eye and respected knowledge of art and design. Alas the pioneering spirit of Bear Lane did not extend to the field of ceramics. In 1967 Joan suggested a show of potter Lucie Rie (1902–1995): 7

Opposite: Joan Crossley-Holland c.1937

the horrified Board of Trustees exclaimed ‘we can’t show casseroles this is an art gallery’ and Joan, suitably incensed at this luddite reaction to one of the twentieth century’s most influential ceramic artists, left Bear Lane taking most of the (female) staff members with her (Valerie Stewart, Ruth Lutyens and textile designer Ann Winchester). Oxford Gallery was born out of this hiatus in the former premises of Rymans at 23 High Street: landlords, Brasenose College, rent £ 1,500/year. The founding team also took on a framing workshop and artist and retired framer Andrew Walker remembers this in the following pages. Thirty-two shareholders provided the necessary capital to launch the venture under the chairmanship of Dr. Brian Lloyd, then a fellow of Magdalen College who went on to be the founding director of Oxford Polytechnic (Oxford Brookes University). With an interior designed by architect Michael Brawne (1926–2003); furniture by John Makepeace and an official opening hosted by Sir John Rothenstein (the recently retired Director of the Tate) Joan and her colleagues aimed high in April 1968 creating a memorable physical space (many remember the periscope-style tubes in the gallery window which allowed a view of the displays on the lower floor) that in its cool rationalism 8

stood in marked contrast to the ‘ostentatiously rustic muddle of pottery mugs and copper bracelets’2 that characterised many commercial galleries showing ceramics at the time. Good formal design was a distinguishing feature of the gallery’s life – not only in the works exhibited but also seen, for example, in the many invitation cards (and occasional catalogues) that were designed and produced by Will and Sebastian Carter at Rampant Lions Press in Cambridge – beautiful examples of typography. As Sebastian remembers ‘Oxford Gallery were very good, and unusual clients – they gave us the information and allowed us to use our own knowledge and ideas to create the design.’ Unsurprisingly many private collectors have kept an archive of these alongside the ceramics, prints and jewellery which they advertise. Ceramics took central stage in the opening show featuring works by both Lucie Rie and her contemporary Hans Coper. This show also launched eighteen years of a remarkable partnership between Joan Crossley-Holland and Valerie Stewart in particular which only ended with Joan’s retirement in 1986. Valerie, who had joined Bear Lane as an administrator brought not only those skills to bear in the new venture but also an immensely practical set of skills (her family remember her as person

Opposite: a selection of Oxford Gallery invitation cards designed by Will and Sebastian Carter at Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge Left and above: Oxford Gallery catalogue and invitation

who mended roofs, and fixed the plumbing as well as producing delicious meals) and, importantly, Valerie brought a connection to Oxford University through Lady Margaret Hall where her husband, Duncan, was Principal from 1979–1996. Valerie continued to work at the gallery until the late 1990s, taking on the Managing Director role in 1987, and playing an important role in nurturing two generations of jewellers and silversmiths. The list of shows achieved by Joan and her colleagues in these first decades, across the fields of modern prints, textiles, sculpture, jewellery and metalwork and (centrally) ceramics reads as both adventurous and discerning. The first two years included exhibitions by the influential weaver Theo Moorman (1907–1990) and the experimental Polish-born textile artist Tadek Beutlich (1922–2011). Other important figures in the field of textiles such as Peter Collingwood (1922–2008) and Ann Sutton (b.1935) had early shows there in 1973 and 1970 respectively and Collingwood continued to exhibit regularly with the gallery throughout its life. Jewellery made an early appearance in the form of Wendy Ramshaw CBE (b.1939) who had regular exhibitions there from 1970 and whose connection to the gallery, and to Oxford, was significant not only to her career as a jeweller but

also catalysed her subsequent work with architectural metalwork. St. Johns College, Oxford commissioned her first gate for their Fellows Garden in 1991, and she created a collection of sculptural glass following an invited residency at St. Johns, examples of which are now held in the permanent collection of the Ashmolean Museum. Caroline Broadhead, Nuala Jamison, Ros Conway, Jacqueline Mina, 1977 RCA jewellery graduates – exhibitions of Realist Jewellery (1979) Fibre Jewellery (1989) the landmark titanium experiments of Ed De Large all appeared regularly in the gallery’s jewellery programme in these scene-setting first eighteen years. The 1971 exhibition of award-winning prints from the First British International Print Biennale in Bradford marked the beginning of the gallery’s important work in showing and selling modern prints. The following essay by Deborah Elliott (who joined the gallery following Joan’s retirement becoming a Director in 1987) gives interesting insight into that work, alongside the following memories of the gallery contributed by Professor Peter Hacker, former Keeper of Pictures at St Johns College. As Deborah’s essay reveals, each generation of its directors demonstrated an intelligent ability to work with others so, for example, a modern sculpture show at Blenheim 9

Far left: Wendy Ramshaw Deja Vu ringsets, silver, moonstone and onyx, acrylic stands, 8 x 2 cm Left: Oxford Gallery poster for Wendy Ramshaw solo exhibition Small Collection, 1977

was co-curated with Annely Juda in 1970; the Redfern Gallery collaborated on a number of modern print shows in the 1970s as did the art critics Edward Lucie-Smith and Pat Gilmour. Edward Lucie-Smith in the introduction to a show he curated in 1973 Present Impressions: Prints 1973 celebrated the ‘vitality of modern printmaking’ attributing it to being a ‘steady, methodical discipline… (with) the emphasis on craft’ in contrast to the conceptual art of the period. As he also pointed out, printmaking could offer the collector interesting, but more affordable examples of artworks and Oxford college Junior Common Room Art Buying Committees (a model pioneered by Anthony Emery at Pembroke College in 1947) took advantage of this to became active supporters of this strand of the gallery’s work. In the field of ceramics, in the early period, sculptural work was given prominence in a series of important shows from Glenys Barton (1973); Colin Pearson (1973); Ruth Duckworth (1974) and Gordon Baldwin (1975) complemented by an ambitious show of 22 artists Towards Ceramic Sculpture (1974) that Joan co-curated with Edward Lucie-Smith. This introduced the work of Elizabeth Fritsch to Oxford (she had a subsequent solo show there in 1977) alongside new forms by Mo Jupp; 10

the delicate handbuilt porcelain of Mary Rogers and the sci fi collages of Paul Astbury. The latter re-appeared in Oxford in 1993 in The Raw and the Cooked exhibition at Modern Art, Oxford, co-curated by crafts historian Martina Margetts and potter Alison Britton. Alison Britton also held her own solo show at Oxford Gallery in 1983. Other early exhibitors from more domestic traditions included Michael Cardew (whose large baked bean pot sold for £ 11 in 1970); Richard Batterham – whose amazing 60th birthday show (1996) Sydney Denton remembers in his following words ; Walter Keeler (from 1969) and Alan Caiger-Smith’s beautiful lustreware which became a regular feature from the 1970s followed by successions of shows in the same tradition from Sutton Taylor. Ceramics continued to be a strong and important presence in the gallery programme following Joan’s retirement – both under the brief direction of Dr. Peter Shahbenderian (1986–7) and then under the direction of Lindsey Hoole, (herself also a trained potter) who took on responsibility for curating ceramics in 1987 following a first memorable visit to Oxford Gallery in 1977 for the Elizabeth Fritsch exhibition. Lindsey maintained the innovative ceramic programme through thematic and solo shows ; Angus Suttie’s work attracted critical

Monica Young Stoneware Jar, 1984 installed on the loggia of High Walls Garden, Headington in the exhibition A New View in the Garden (1984) organised by Oxford Gallery

attention in the successful The Tea Party show in 1989; Grayson Perry was introduced to Oxford audiences alongside Stephen Dixon in the show Political Pots in 1990; shows of Philip Eglin’s modelled figures (1991) ; Edmund de Waal’s porcelain (1996); Rupert Spira’s poetic glazed vessels (1998) and Simon Carroll’s vibrant expressionist pots (2000) followed the gallery’s remarkable tradition of supporting major talents. Established figures such as Lucie Rie continued to value and to exhibit with the gallery, and William Newland (1919–1998) was honoured with a major show in 1997. The vigorous, and wide ranging programming of younger artists at the gallery in the 1990s was also helped by the presence of a new, younger director Michelle Bowen who joined in 1994 and who has gone on to an important further career supporting young artists and currently as the Director of UK Young Artists Programme in Nottingham. Other areas such as glass had an occasional and interesting presence in the gallery’s programme with glass engraving appearing first in works by Bryant Fedden (1969) and John Hutton (1971/1976), who created the magnificent West screen for Coventry cathedral. Sculptural work by Keith Cummings appeared in 1973 and hot glass shows included works by Pauline Solven

and Sam Herman. In the late 1980s and 1990s Krissie Mason (who had become a director in 1987) developed a more active strand of glass shows including memorabl exhibitions by Rachael Woodman, Steven Newell and Anna Dickinson. Early silver and metalwork shows by Michael Lloyd (1980) and Alistair McCallum (1978) and the extraordinary show celebrating metalwork graduates Camberwell Beauty (1981) established a rare presence of silver on the exhibition circuit in that period which continued with a collection of works by Simone ten Hompel and Chris Knight in 1995 and a solo show by David Clarke in 2000. Tapestry made a rare but distinguished appearance in a 1978 solo show by Archie Brennan (the major figure behind the renaissance of Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios in 1960s and 1970s). Sculpture re-appeared from time to time particularly in a series of imaginative garden shows which took place at the chairman Brian Lloyd’s wonderful Harold Peto-designed Edwardian garden in Headington in 1984 and 1985. Works by William Pye and Ann Christopher sat alongside dramatic stoneware vases by Monica Young and sculptures by Gordon Baldwin. The series concluded with an ambitious collection of works for the Barbican courtyards in 1995 (The Avant Garden). By 2001, however, Oxford Gallery, despite its often 11

Left: Peter Collingwood Macrogauze Hanging, 1982, Linen and steel. Right: Joan Crossley-Holland outside the gallery in 1977 celebrating the onehundredth exhibition Far right: Valerie Stewart and Joan Crossley-Holland in 1986 on the occasion of Joanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retirement

critically and commercially successful programme, faced growing difficulty in maintaining its base in Oxford’s High Street. Ever increasing rents (£25,000 in 2001) and rates (£12,000) coupled with the introduction of draconian traffic controls which made the location increasingly impractical were taking their toll. A generation of directors were reaching retirement, and the departure of Michelle to the Crafts Council and the absence of another generation ready to take the reins in the end sealed its fate and it finally closed its doors for the last time at the end of 2001. The majority of its financial papers were safely lodged with the Crafts Study Centre archive in Farnham, together with a modest selection of correspondence and photographs from its more recent activity. Other elements of its archive rest either in private hands; with the family of past directors; the John Johnson archive of ephemera at the Bodleian Library (invitations, catalogues, press cuttings) and the Oxford History Society. Oxford Pioneers does not claim either as exhibition or catalogue to be a comprehensive review of all the gallery’s work but it is intended to both celebrate the work of some exceptional artists and to seed greater understanding of a pioneering group of women who

created something of great importance to the cultural life of Oxford and beyond. Oxford Pioneers has been possible with the generous support of many, and has benefitted most of all from the time given, and memories shared, by artists, collectors, former directors, family members of former directors and Oxford residents who knew, and supported the gallery in so many ways. It has been a pleasure to create this show with, and for them, and as a definite and intended contribution to the future work of the next generation of Oxford Pioneers – James Fordham and Rachel Ackland and all who work with and through them. Amanda Game Oxford, 2018 Amanda worked at Oxford Gallery 1984–1986 before moving to Edinburgh to establish and run the applied arts department at the Scottish Gallery – a role she successfully fulfilled until starting a new freelance career in 2008. notes 1. Cheryl Buckley Potters and Paintresses: Women Designers in the Pottery Industry 1870–1955 (London: The Women’s Press, 1990) pp.141–143. 2. Quote taken from catalogue essay by John Houston in Oxford Gallery’s 100th exhibition brochure, 1977 13

Andrew Walker retired Oxford framer, artist and ceramic collector remembers Oxford Gallery

I started work in the framing workshop for Oxford Gallery in 1971 having just left art college. It was located at 119 High Street behind Halls the tailors (later Ede and Ravenscroft). One reached it down an old passageway. A large well lit space with high ceilings, it was on the ground floor of a three-storey old warehouse: above us were tailors and a gown maker. The gallery were sub-tenants of Halls who leased all the premises from Oxford City Council. Oxford Gallery, when it started in 1968, took over from Rymans which had been established in 1819 as a print publisher, gallery and framers. They had two premises: one leased from Brasenose College (23 High Street) and the framing workshop at 119. Mr. Cork and Fred Wallis had been employed as framers by Rymans and were in their 60s and 70s respectively when I joined. In the past, they told me, there had been a team of framers and a gilder. The gilder’s room became a much needed store for large pictures and framed prints for Oxford Gallery. Working for Oxford Gallery began my interest in buying ceramics, encouraged by Joan Crossley-Holland. As an employee, I had an annual voucher for Christmas and birthdays to be spent in the gallery and could also buy works at reduced prices. I started going to pottery evening classes and was brave (or foolhardy) enough to show Joan my first thrown pot. She was fair in her judgement saying it was rather heavy but complimented me on the glazing. As a maker herself, she instinctively recognised qualities in other peoples’ work – more so perhaps than a gallery owner without that background. She would go to Diploma shows and look out for new makers as well as supporting more established figures. The often imaginative titles of exhibitions gave the gallery an inviting feel (The Tea Party, for example, in 1989 when I bought an Angus Suttie teapot) but work was 14

always of a high standard. Towards Ceramic Sculpture in 1974 was seen as a challenging exhibition by many who felt pots should remain purely functional but was typical of Oxford Gallery’s support for new and interesting work in the field.

Andrew Walker Oxford Gallery, 1994

Sydney Denton Oxford businessman and ceramic collector remembers Oxford Gallery

I used to do an early morning paper round on a Sunday, delivering papers to the Randolph Hotel and Shepherd and Woodward on the High Street. I remember revelling students, wrapped around their girlfriends staggering home from extended Gaudies. So early starts on Sunday mornings were familiar to me as I got to know Joan Crossley-Holland, Valerie Stewart and their colleagues at Oxford Gallery and found myself queuing on the High Street, sometimes from 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, to get the first pick of a new ceramic exhibition. Prospective buyers were allowed to view the exhibition on the previous day, but no sales were made until 11 a.m. on the Sunday: the day of the private view. You were handed a number by gallery staff and then when the doors opened you had the opportunity to select and acquire your favourite pieces. I was usually number one in the queue, with another Oxford collector at number two. He would occasionally go across to a local café and buy us both a bacon buttie to keep us going. The collector Bill Ismay was usually there a bit later – around number 5 in the queue: he had to travel from Yorkshire after all. I remember the 60th Birthday exhibition for Richard Batterham the gallery organised in 1996 (then being run by the next generation of directors, Lindsey Hoole, Deborah Elliott and their colleagues). A young man whom I hadn’t seen before was queuing at number four. When we were allowed into the gallery he spent such a long time making up his mind about which piece to buy that he missed the one he thought he really wanted. We struck up a conversation and we then looked together at other pieces, similar to the one he had missed. He ended up buying what I privately thought was much the better piece and he left the gallery with a big smile on his face walking about six inches taller. I acquired five works from the Batterham show and

many other things besides including a beautiful Hans Coper arrow head form. I remember walking into the gallery one day and Joan Crossley-Holland greeted me with ‘I have just the thing for you Sydney’ and produced the Coper. She told me clearly that it was going to be mine and that I could pay for it in instalments: I didn’t like to argue and I have never regretted it.

Richard Batterham Bottle, 1996, ashglazed stoneware, height 70cm

Deborah Elliott former Director Oxford Gallery (1987–2001) had specific responsibility for the Print Collection

I became aware of Oxford Gallery in 1972 when my younger son, walking home from school, spotted some Hockney prints in the gallery window. He ventured in and asked Mrs Crossley-Holland if there were more that he could see: she demanded that he showed her his hands and deciding they were clean enough, directed him to the print bin. And in the print bin was an astonishing collection of prints from all over the world. Oxford Gallery was unique among applied art galleries in showing international as well as British prints. This was largely due to the launch in 1968 of the British International Print Biennale at the Cartwright Hall in Bradford. Print had become fashionable. The Printmaking Council had been established in 1965 to promote printmaking in art school. Touring exhibitions followed: an International Exhibition was the logical outcome. The Biennale continued until 1990, although by that time it only featured prints from the USA, Canada and the UK. There were many different sources that fed Oxford Gallery’s print collection: other galleries and print publishers: direct communication with printmakers and student exhibitions. Marlborough Fine Art was outstanding, co-operating with us in exhibitions by Victor Pasmore and Paula Rego. Angela Flowers who represented Michael Rothenstein was another very generous partner. The Glasgow Print Studio introduced us to Peter Howson, Elaine Kowalsky and John Bellany. Another prominent source was Pratt Contemporary Art – the publisher and promoter of the superb Ana Maria Pacheco. During her last exhibition with us the Ashmolean Museum purchased a complete series of her prints. We dealt directly with other distinguished print makers: Terry Frost (trip to Cornwall); Elizabeth Frink (to her houses); Tsugumi Ota (to her studio), Anthony Gross (to visit his daughter). My colleague Valerie Stewart 16

contacted Ronald Searle for his very successful exhibition. Royal Academician Chris Orr made a special print for us to celebrate our refurbishment in 1989 : High Wind In The High. Then there were the student exhibitions every summer particularly the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy. Sarah Thomas was my favourite find with beautiful, wood block prints.

Ana Maria Pacheco Terra Ignota, 1994, drypoint print

Professor Peter Hacker Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Oxford University, Keeper of Pictures at St. Johns College, Oxford (1986–1998)

Professor Peter Hacker is a considerable scholar of the work of leading 20th century printmaker Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988) founder of the legendary Atelier 17 in Paris in 1927. Professor Hacker curated an important exhibition of Hayter’s work at the Ashmolean Museum in 1988 and edited the accompanying catalogue The Renaissance of Gravure: Art of S. W. Hayter (Clarendon Press). In 1981 Oxford Gallery had marked Hayter’s achievements with an exhibition to celebrate his eightieth birthday. The introduction to that catalogue by printmaking scholar Pat Gilmour states: ‘Hayter, whose imagery has moved freely between abstraction and figuration, developed his own vision as an artist when surrealism was at its height. His name will always be associated with the restitution of the burin as a creative tool and one which, although excessively difficult, he wielded with vitality and panache’. A number of prints from that exhibition were subsequently acquired by Professor Hacker. for the permanent collection of St. Johns College, Oxford. ‘Oxford Gallery was an Aladdin’s Cave of treasures for the modest collectors of Oxford. It was also a university course in modern pottery and prints for the younger generation. The Opening Days of new exhibitions were always exciting and enjoyable. One came away poorer and richer – poorer in one’s small pocket (in our youthful case) and very much richer in the work of art one proudly brought home. At the very well-attended openings there were erudite strangers from whom to learn and friends one had made on previous visits with whom to chatter. The Staff were endlessly helpful and informative as one wandered around admiring the exhibits. We treasure our memories of this Oxford institution.’

S. W. Hayter Fastnet, 1985, engraving, soft-ground etching and grauffage

Vicki Ambery-Smith b.1955 Radcliffe Camera brooch 2016

Vicki Ambery-Smith grew up in Oxford and did Art Foundation at Oxford Polytechnic followed by studying jewellery design at Hornsey Art College (1973–6). She established her first London studio in 1977 with the help of a Crafts Council grant and had an exhibition at Oxford Gallery the same year. Over the past forty years she has established an international profile for her detailed, delicate small-scale jewellery and boxes inspired by real and imaginary buildings. She adapts the three-dimensional architectural structures on which her forms are based to create wearable jewels in precious metals which echo the architectural language of surface, light and space. She has work in numerous public and private collections worldwide and was honoured with an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in 2015. She exhibited with Oxford Gallery throughout its life.

‘In 1968 I used to go to school on a bus that went past the Oxford Gallery. The displays always fascinated me and I thought it would be a wonderful place to exhibit. At the time I did not know that I would become a jeweller but in 1977 I had my first exhibition there.’

4 x 5.8 cm · silver and yellow 18ct gold

Gordon Baldwin OBE b.1932 Developed Bottle 1982

Gordon Baldwin studied at Lincoln and at Central School of Art and Design in the pottery department under Dora Billington (1951–3). Over a productive sixty-year career he has pushed creative boundaries as an artist within his chosen discipline of ceramic sculpture and as a teacher to two generations of gifted students at Eton College, Camberwell and Central School of Art. A title from a series of works that appeared in the 1970s/1980s Paintings in the form of bowls captures an essential ambiguity of his approach: that these confidently material visual forms exist in their own imaginative hinterland beyond easy categorisation. The hand-built hollow vessel is, however, his leitmotif, as he says. ‘Each pot is a journey to a new place … the nature of a vessel gives me a structure within which to work. The vessel is the seventeen syllables of my haiku.’ He has exhibited internationally and works can be found in over 40 public collections worldwide including at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He forged an early relationship with Oxford Gallery with a solo show in 1970 followed by others in 1975 and 1979 and participating in the important group exhibition Towards Ceramic Sculpture in 1975. 20

‘My memories of the Oxford Gallery are that I was glad to be asked to show, Joan CrossleyHolland had made it a serious gallery and I exhibited work in 1970, 1975 and jointly with Nancy Baldwin in 1979. I clearly remember stopping outside the Gallery with her paintings roped to the roof of our Landrover for that exhibition!’

34 x 34 cm · handbuilt stoneware/T material with engobes

Glenys Barton b.1943 Within II no.5 2002

Glenys Barton studied at the Royal College of Art (1968–1971) following an initial training in the Laban tradition of movement and dance. Her sculpture draws on a precise, detailed understanding of industrial and direct ceramic processes, deriving in part from her upbringing in Stoke-on-Trent; her studies at the RCA and a period as artist-in-residence at the Wedgwood Factory, Barlaston (1976–77). Her initial interest in a career as an industrial designer (whilst an RCA student tableware designs were selected for production by Habitat) was shifted by what she describes as her encounter with ‘the shock of art’ encouraged by RCA tutors Eduardo Paolozzi and Hans Coper. The human figure increasingly became, and remains, the central preoccupation of her art and recognition of her sculptural talent came early with an invitation to have a solo exhibition with Angela Flowers Gallery in London (1974). From the 1980s the first of her portrait heads began to appear, with the National Portrait Gallery acquiring a portrait of fashion designer Jean Muir and later commissioning one of the actor Glenda Jackson. Her sculpture is held in collections worldwide. Glenys Barton had an important early show with Oxford Gallery (Precise Forms in Ceramics, 1973) and was 22

an invited artist the following year for Towards Ceramic Sculpture jointly curated by Edward Lucie-Smith and Joan Crossley-Holland. ‘My work is always humanity … as I work I feel I am directly linked to those who have tried to fashion human form from the earliest times’

69 x 18 x 8 cm · ceramic

Richard Batterham b.1936 Two Ashglazed stoneware bottles 2018

Richard Batterham was introduced to ceramics by Donald Potter (1902–2004) at Bryanston School in the early 1950s. He subsequently undertook a two year apprenticeship at Leach Pottery (1957–8) before moving to Somerset to establish his first pottery in 1959. Since his first exhibition at the Hambledon Gallery in Blandford Forum (1964) Batterham has maintained a steady and distinctive output of wheel-thrown useful pots in stoneware and occasionally porcelain which have been exhibited, purchased and enjoyed by many for their subtle beauty. Surfaces are glazed – often with jade-like celadons that catch the light as they collect in simple incised marks in the otherwise undecorated clay body. Oxford Gallery held regular stock of Batterham pots from 1969 and held an important exhibition to mark his sixtieth birthday in 1996. ‘Most of the pots started out as filling a need in the family or for friends … [and] … it is quite usual for pots to grow beyond their original use… bottles started from a request for a lamp… tazzas grew from throwing a foot onto a bowl. Cutting, beating, combing marks have just come from handling the clay.’

19 x 34 cm · 19 x 33 cm stoneware

Alan Caiger-Smith MBE b.1930 Lustre bowl 1993

Alan Caiger-Smith studied painting and drawing at Camberwell College of Art (1947), History at Kings College, Cambridge and ceramics in evening classes with Dora Billington at Central School of Art before establishing Aldermaston Pottery in 1955. Alan developed Aldermaston pottery as a thriving workshop for the production of tin-glazed pottery (a rare departure from the dominant Anglo-Oriental aesthetic of the time) and wood-fired lustreware which ran successfully for forty years. In his own work he achieved rare mastery of calligraphic brushwork and the magical effects of pigment lustre and his scholarship as both practising artist and published historian (Tin Glaze Pottery 1973; Lustre Pottery 1985) has profoundly enriched the field of ceramics. Oxford Gallery had many successful solo exhibitions of Alan’s work between 1969–1996. ‘Oxford Gallery was not only a highly successful and wide ranging focus for the applied arts. It also showed the university city that the work of craftsmen and artists could challenge and nourish the mind. Joan CrossleyHolland brought the two worlds together.’ 49 x 18 cm · silver-copper lustre

Michael Cardew OBE 1901–1983 St. Ives Jug c.1924

Michael Cardew studied humanities at Exeter College, Oxford working at Braunton Pottery in his summer vacations and then becoming a pupil of Bernard Leach (1923–1926). He established Winchcombe Pottery in 1926 moving to Wenford Bridge, Cornwall in 1939. From 1942 he worked in Africa – first in Ghana and then Nigeria – establishing a pottery at Vume on the Volta River then working as Senior Pottery Officer in the Ministry of Trade. He returned to Cornwall in 1965 continuing to live and work as a profoundly influential thinker, workshop master and maker of useful pots until his death in 1983. As Tanya Harrod points out in her important biography (The Last Sane Man: Modern Pots, Colonialism and the Counter Culture Yale 2012): ‘He made objects by hand when the purpose of such work was hard to define. His activities may be seen as both art and craft and as a form of social and political rebellion … By putting craft and craft knowledge at the heart of civilised society he anticipated the current resurgence of interest in making … and engagement with materials. His beautiful everyday things live comfortably with us still today.’ 28

Oxford Gallery purchased regular collections of Michael Cardew’s work from 1969 selling a handsome ‘baked bean pot’ for £11 in 1970.

22 x 22 cm · lead-glazed earthenware

Simon Carroll 1964–2009 Jug 2005

Simon Carroll studied ceramics at the University of the West of England (UWE) (1985–1988) under Mo Jupp and Walter Keeler. At the time, UWE tutors had developed a close relationship with the V&A in London organising regular study trips to view, and handle, the historic collections. As the artist himself reflected in 2002 ‘it has always been good practice for the artist to draw and to look at tradition. I believe this to be fundamental and enriching’. At the museum, Carroll absorbed some of the deep tradition of clay objects – drawn in particular to the gestural freedom of slipware and the vast shape-shifting possibilities of the material. His own work grew from an intensely personal balance of skilful, bold handling of red clays to create thick walled vessels – jugs, teabowls, square-faced vases – suggestive of the human form and vigorously sgraffitoed, painted and slashed surfaces that embodied the vitality of their making. Later works included sand drawings in his newly adopted home in Cornwall – which survive in photograph and film and encapsulate the expressionist spirit of his work. Simon had a solo show at Oxford Gallery in 2000. This was followed by a major show at Tate St. Ives in 2005. Oxford Ceramics Gallery gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Nick Carroll in selecting works for this exhibition. 41 x 23 cm · slip-painted earthenware 30

Joanna Constantinidis 1927–2000 Bottle 1983

Joanna Constantinidis studied painting and pottery at Sheffield College of Art (1946–9) before establishing her studio in Essex in 1950. In 1951 she took up a full time teaching post at Chelmsford Technical College: a role she fulfilled with great success for nearly forty years. Her elegant wheel-thrown and altered pots received increasing international acclaim from the early 1970s – winning the Medal of Honour at Faenza in 1978 – as she developed her ideas through drawing and at the wheel that explore the sculptural potential of vessel forms. Echoes of early Mediterranean pottery; modern architecture and slipware have all been traced in her work. Subtle, often lustred surfaces were achieved through burnishing and firing works with grain in industrial saggars. As the artist commented ‘the method is hazardous with many failures – a fact one forgets when a pot is fired successfully’. In 1992 she was commissioned to create a set of porcelain tableware for the new Crafts Council gallery café in London catalysing a new strand of studio work developed in parallel with the larger forms. Joanna had an active relationship with Oxford Gallery for many years following an important solo show in 1982 whence works were acquired for major collections including Buckinghamshire County Museums and the Ballantyne Collection. 32

50 x 18 cm · iridescent copper-gold-glazed stoneware

Ruth Duckworth 1919–2009 Blade Form 1985

Ruth Duckworth was an influential modernist sculptor and potter, member of a significant group of midcentury European artists who catalysed new directions in British and American art as émigrés from Austria and Germany in the 1930s. Settling in Britain in 1936, Duckworth studied sculpture and painting at Liverpool School of Art (1936–1940) establishing a sculpture studio in Mortlake, Surrey in 1944 followed by studies in ceramics at Hammersmith School of Art and Central School of Art and Design (1956–58). An invitation to teach in Chicago in 1964 saw her move permanently to the USA attracted by the opportunity to create larger scale works. She lived and worked in the city for the remainder of her life completing an impressive array of major commissions for site specific architectural low relief ceramic panels alongside independent studio work. Duckworth’s work was included in Oxford Gallery’s Towards Ceramic Sculpture exhibition in 1974 followed by a solo show in 1975. Her connection to the UK was re-established by a major retrospective at Ruthin Crafts Centre in Wales in 2009.

‘Throughout my life I have faced many challenges from being condemned in Germany for having a Jewish father; escaping to Britain; divorce; moving to yet another new country (USA); trying to find respectability using a medium that the fine art world doesn’t respect; and finally, dealing with the clay and the kiln.’

13.5 x 15 cm · porcelain

Philip Eglin b.1959 Seated Mother and Child 2014

Philip Eglin studied at Staffordshire Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art London. He established his first studio in Stoke in 1986, heart of the former potteries industry, and combined teaching at North Staffordshire Polytechnic with the development of a highly acclaimed series of sculpted clay images of the female form. Recipient of an Arts Foundation Award in 1993 and winner of the inaugural Jerwood Prize for Ceramics in 1996, Eglin has continued to develop a richly allusive body of work that synthesizes an interest in (and knowledge of) early pottery, sculpture and Northern Gothic painting with a fascination for the forms, and materials, of everyday objects from tin watering cans to plastic packaging. In 2015 the artist produced a major body of work in response to the Buckley Slipware collection held at Abersytwyth Art Centre which toured to Oxford Ceramics Gallery to great acclaim. He now lives and works in Wales. His first solo exhibition was held at Oxford Gallery in 1991 when the then director Lindsey Hoole stated: ‘every now and then one’s breath is taken away by the sheer talent of a particular artist … beside whom other perfectly competent makers slide into the margins … Philip Eglin is one such talent.

54 x 29 x 19 cm · handbuilt, modelled, lead-glazed earthenware

Elizabeth Fritsch CBE b.1940 Flattened Form 1978

Elizabeth Fritsch studied harp and piano at Birmingham and the Royal College of Music (1958–64) and ceramics at the Royal College of Art (1968–1971). She worked at the Bing and Grondahl Factory in Copenhagen before establishing her first independent studio in Suffolk in 1973. Since 1985 she has worked from a studio in London. Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists working in the medium today, her vessels synthesise spare, minimal handbuilt forms and richly painted, optically dynamic surfaces that create, as in music, a form of counterpoint with themes and variations. The significance of music to her work is evident but she also creates a dynamic spatial interplay between two and three dimensions through flattening forms then re-sculpting them, visually, through surface pattern. Edward Lucie-Smith has described the work as ‘metaphysical pots in painted stoneware’. She herself has commented ‘the working method is experimental and improvised at every stage … no drawings or detailed plans are made in advance’. Works are held in major public collections, worldwide, and she was awarded a CBE in 1995 for services to the arts. Elizabeth Fritsch exhibited her work at Oxford Gallery in Towards Ceramic Sculpture in 1974 and subsequently had a solo show there in 1977. 38

00 x 00 x 00 cm · medium 15.5 x 11.5 cm · stoneware

Bryan Illsely b.1937 Ann 1989

Bryan Illsely worked as an apprentice stonemason whilst studying art in the evenings at Kingston College of Art. In 1963 he moved to work at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives followed by establishing a joint studio with fellow artist Breon O’Casey designing and making jewellery. He returned to London in 1986 where he still lives and works continuing to develop his typically improvised forms as large scale sculptures, paintings, prints and occasionally jewellery. His direct, intuitive approach to materials, and gestural mark making seems to echo works of the 1940s and 1950s by the European CoBrA group of artists as well as the deliberate material focus of early abstraction. The sensuous vitality of his work – whether in paint, iron, clay, wood or paper – also reflects his confident immersion in visual perception as a way of thinking aloud to the world. The joint jewellery work with Breon O’Casey was a regular feature of Oxford Gallery’s life from the early 1970s and in 1981 the gallery mounted a solo show of Illsley’s wood sculptures. When Joan Crossley-Holland was invited to select a work to mark her retirement, she chose an Illsely sculpture which remains in her family to this date.

51 x 58 cm · mixed media collage

Walter Keeler b.1942 Yellow Teapot 2017

Walter Keeler studied at Harrow School of Art before establishing his first studio in Bledlow Ridge in 1965. He became an influential part-time teacher on the studio pottery course at Harrow (1964–1978) alongside his former tutor Mick Casson, a role he continued to develop at the University of the West of England (UWE) following his move to his current studio in Wales in 1976. He subsequently became Professor then Reader in Ceramics at UWE helping to create an important archive of historical ceramics. In the studio, he developed an original body of domestic saltglazed stoneware that gained wide acclaim for its formal invention, wit and technical precision. From the 1990s a new series of earthenware drew on his fascination with Whieldon ware resulting in exuberant branched teapots, jugs and platters glowing with rich green and brown glazes. His committment to the history and practice of making clay objects is profound and influential and his work can be found in museum collections worldwide. Oxford Gallery stocked Keeler’s works from the late 1960s and organised a solo show of his work in 1991.

Interviewed in 2004 for his major Ruthin Crafts Centre retrospective Keeler said: ‘the function of a pot, in a practical sense, is a very deep thing… because function goes beyond whether you can pick up an object … its all to do with human needs … not just practical needs but spiritual needs’.

17.5 x 20 cm · thrown, turned earthenware

Michael Lloyd b.1950 ‘Bramble’ and ‘Beech Leaf’ beakers 2017

Michael Lloyd studied at Birmingham and the Royal Colleges of Art, establishing his first studio on a barge in the Netherlands before moving to his current studio in Scotland in 1988. He has achieved a wide following for his hand raised and chased silver vessels which draw on his close observation of, and love for the natural world. He has undertaken a number of private and public commissions – including ecclesiastical silver for York Minster and Lichfield Cathedral and his work is held in numerous public collections including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. In 2010 Michael exhibited a body of work entitled Twelve Vessels of Life, Love and Death exhibited at the Dovecot in Edinburgh and subsequently at the V&A Museum. This exquisite collection arose from the artist’s idea, inspired by the medieval book of hours, to invite individual patrons to commission a vessel to mark a particularly important month in their personal calendar. Michael had his first solo exhibition with Oxford Gallery in 1980.

7.7 x 7 cm and 8 x 6.5 cm handraised, chased, gilded sterling silver

‘I‘Iremember rememberwith withfondness fondnessOxford OxfordGallery Gallery being being so much so much moremore than than a space a space to exhibit to exhibit work. work. The belief The belief of Joan of the Crossley-Holland rather formidable Joan and Valerie Crossley-Holland Stewart that the and Applied Valerie ArtsStewart, should be that treated the Applied with asArts much should respect be as treated the Fine with Arts as was much as respect refreshing as the as it Fine wasArts unusual. was asI believe refreshing that asthe itsupport was unusual. and encouragement I believe the encouragement that they gave to and many support of us leaving they gave artto college manymade of us leaving a significant art difference college made to ouracareers.’ significant difference to our careers’.

John Makepeace OBE b.1939 Drawing for Washed Oak Chair 2018

John Makepeace began his furniture training as an apprentice to Keith Cooper in Dorset. He established his first workshop in Warwickshire in 1961 designing and making furniture and woodware that attracted important commissions from leading London stores of the period such as Heals, Liberty and Habitat. Subsequent early and significant patrons were the Oxford Centre for Management Studies (now Green Templeton College) and Keble College Oxford. In 1976 John bought Parnham House in Dorset both as a new home for himself and his growing business and as a base for a new educational intiative ‘Parnham School of Craftsmen in Wood.’ Intended to provide an integrated training in design, making skills and management, the new school opened in 1977 under the instruction of Robert Ingham, going on to foster a significant cohort of outstanding furniture designers until its closure in 2000. Hooke Park College (1993–2002) was a subsequent initiative catalysed by Makepeace which drew together the skills of structural engineer Sir Ted Happold and architects Frei Otto and Richard Burton, amongst others, to find new architectural uses for forest thinnings or roundwood. This practical research institute became part of the Architectural Association in 2002. As well as these 46

significant initiatives in the field, John Makepeace has continued to design and develop his own furniture designs which are in private and public collections worldwide. He was invited to design furniture for the original Oxford Gallery interior in 1968 (a glass topped table for showcasing artists books with a set of four rectangular stools upholstered in shades of pink and purple). His smaller works were retailed through the gallery from the late 1960s and larger work featured in the Design 70 exhibition there alongside the textiles of Ann Sutton. ‘Advances in technology, use, materials and aesthetics have always excited me in relation to the continuing history of furniture. My role as a designer and maker is to apply and express these advances in an orchestrated “essay”’

64 x 56.5 x 50 cm · washed oak

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Alistair McCallum b.1953 Silver vessel with mokume gane 2014 Large mokume gane silver and copper bowl 2004 Silver dish with mokume gane circular pattern 2000

Left to right: Silver vessel with mokume gane 2014 · 10 x 4.8 cm Large mokume gane silver and copper bowl 2004 · 12 x 10 cm Silver dish with mokume gane circular pattern 2000 · 1.7 x 11.5 cm

Alistair McCallum studied at Loughborough and the Royal Colleges of Art before establishing his London studio in 1979. He was recipient of a major RCA travel award in 1978 to visit and study in Japan: a year which had far-reaching influences on his subsequent career. His immersion in the significant metalworking cultures in Japan led him to develop a rich, contemporary response to the Japanese technique of mokume gane – literally wood-grain metal. This highly skilled decorative layering and fusing of different metals originated in the traditional field of Japanese sword making. McCallum has worked with this intricate process (sometimes building up to a hundred layers of copper and silver alloys) which are then fused, soldered, twisted and cut to create the richly patterned but formally simple spun, and handraised, vessels for which he is internationally renowned. His work has been exhibited and collected internationally. He had a first show with Oxford Gallery in 1979 continuing to exhibit regularly there for many years as part of Valerie Stewart’s imaginative programme devoted to contemporary metalwork.

Jacqueline Mina OBE b.1942 Two brooches 2018

Jacqueline Mina studied at Hornsey and the Royal College of Art before establishing her London studio in 1965 and going on to become one of Europe’s preeminent goldsmiths. She was honoured with a solo exhibition at the V&A Museum in 1985 (to date one of only five modern jewellers to be so celebrated) and has works in numerous public and private collections worldwide. Her work can be characterised by an expressive and poetic handling of her material; formidable craftsmanship and an imaginative re-interpretation of sculptural forms ranging from Cycladic figures to mid twentieth-century figure studies by artists such as Henry Moore. Mina’s ability to conjure rich visual images within the traditional craft of goldsmithing has offered a rare alternative to the mass produced glitter of much modern goldwork. Drawing not only on her love of sculpture, and the natural world, the themes and variations of her series of jewellery forms also reflect a deep immersion in and love of jazz and classical music: her early training was as a singer. Jacqueline Mina had a long association with Oxford Gallery contributing work to Realist Jewellery in 1976 and being invited to have her first solo exhibition there in 1980.

‘It is with fondness that I return to Oxford with my work – I was a fairly recent graduate (1972) when the Oxford Gallery gave me a valuable platform from which to launch my jewellery. It provided contact with clients who were encouraged to commission pieces from an unknown artist, such as I was then. I shall always be grateful for their encouragement & trust in my potential.’

7 x 1.8cm · 5.4 x 3 cm · 18ct gold, platinum wire fusion inlay

Breon O’Casey 1928–2011 Two silver brooches

Breon O’Casey was born in London and began his connection to the arts whilst a pupil at Dartington Hall School in Devon – where his parents (playwright Sean O’Casey and actor Eileen Reynolds moved when their children were young). The Elmhirst’s experimental school proved a perfect setting for Breon’s ambitions where he was taught metalwork, for example, by Naum Slutsky (a former Bauhaus tutor, then refugee from Nazi Germany). He then studied at the Anglo-French Art Centre in London before moving to Cornwall to work as a studio assistant to sculptor Denis Mitchell (1912–1993) and then Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975). He established his own studio in St. Ives then Paul, near Penzance working as a painter and jeweller (the latter in partnership for ten years with Bryan Illsley). He claimed to have picked up the idea of jewellery from a book published by the American government to help re-habilitate GIs ; there were pictures of jewellery by Alexander Calder which he said ‘set him on the right track’. His work was direct, intuitive, inspired by pre-industrial forms but with powerful, almost shamanic presence – handbeaten metal, carved and unpolished stones. Jewellery making, as for other artists such as Alan Davie in the period was also a way of earning a living but it became a central part of O’Casey’s 52

artistic output for over forty years, before painting, sculpture and printmaking once more took central stage in the last two decades of his life. His work is in numerous public and private collections. He exhibited regularly at Oxford Gallery from the early 1970s.

8 x 6 cm · silver

Paul Preston b.1943 Mole at Work 2016

Paul Preston originally trained as an architect before moving to Cornwall to work as a commercial diver on old wrecks. He began making jewellery inspired by seeing work by Breon O’Casey and became increasingly immersed in the active artistic community around St Ives in the 1960s – becoming a regular visitor to the Leach Pottery collecting their work for years. His intricate gold and silver jewellery can be seen in the light of an English ruralist tradition: infused with images of the natural world but rich in magical, narrative detail. He builds worlds in miniature that have elements of the fantastical and fairy tale often placing a mythical artist figure, a.k.a the red mole centrally in his compositions. He has exhibited internationally and now works from a studio in West Wales. Works are included in many public and private collections and he was a considerable protégé of Barbara Cartlidge at Electrum Gallery in London. He began showing work at Oxford Gallery in the 1970s having regular exhibitions there for many years.

4.5 x 5.5 cm · white and yellow metal with pink tourmaline and ruby

Wendy Ramshaw CBE b.1939 Ring set for Woman Sitting in an Armchair from Picasso’s Ladies series 1990/1991

Wendy Ramshaw studied illustration and fabric design at Newcastle; Industrial Design at Reading University and an MA at Central School of Art establishing her London studio in the late 1960s. She is recognised as one of the most significant international jewellery designers of recent times, creating a significant body of work examples of which can be found in over 70 museum collections around the world as well as numerous private collections. Her signature works are sets of rings, abstract pieces in precious metals and gems. Often displayed on perspex or metal ring-stands which are exquisitely sculptural designs based on geometry with particular focus on circles and squares. She elaborates on these time and again to achieve compositions that are extremely complex. Ramshaw constantly researches and experiments, finding new materials and extending her sculptural vocabulary. In working on a large scale (such as the gates commissioned for St. Johns College, Oxford) her imagery complements architecture and interiors, as her jewellery dresses the human body.

‘I first met Joan Crossley-Holland in 1966 while exhibiting drawings at the Bear Lane Gallery, where she was a Director. I met Valerie Stewart in the first year of the opening of Oxford Gallery in 1968. Both Valerie and Joan became friends of me and my family during the many years that I exhibited with the gallery. I liked Oxford Gallery and the gallery liked my work: they helped to build collector interest in my jewellery and mounted a considerable number of solo exhibitions of my work, the first in 1971. In 1977, Oxford Gallery celebrated its 100th Exhibition. I was asked to be one of three artists to have a solo show in this birthday year. My contribution was called Small Collection. Twelve unique pieces were newly made and specially mounted within the gallery. A hand printed photographic catalogue, produced in an edition of one hundred, accompanied the show. A work from this series became the inspiration for a 2008 private commission for the Ashmolean Museum in memory of Valerie Stewart and the work of Oxford Gallery.’

Approx. 16 x 3 cm · silver, 18ct yellow gold and 9ct red gold on nickel alloy stands

Dame Lucie Rie 1902–1995 Black and white sgraffito cups and saucers c.1950

Lucie Rie studied pottery at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna in the 1920s before moving to England in 1938 just before the Anschluss. She established her own workshop in London in 1939 developing elegant, formal tableware, producing buttons for the clothing industry and creating individual works for exhibition at, amongst other places, the Berkeley Galleries, London. Another significant figure of the mid twentieth century diaspora, Hans Coper, worked in her studio between 1947 and 1958. Rie’s elegant, poised forms remain one of the most influential expressions of ceramic art of the last century. Feted in her lifetime by major shows in the UK, Japan and the USA (Metropolitan Museum of Art) her long and productive output continues to attract collectors and followers to this day. As Oxford University Professor Oliver Watson commented: ‘she demonstrated that it is possible to generate an entirely new and individual ceramic language of the highest expressive quality without jettisoning some of pottery’s most basic traditions – practical bowl and vase shapes formed on the wheel.’ Lucie Rie exhibited at Oxford Gallery from its inception with an initial solo show there in 1968. She enjoyed a close working relationship with Joan Crossley-Holland and the subsequent generation of directors, in particular Lindsey Hoole. 58

7 x 12 cm · stoneware

Jane Short MBE b.1954 Jug 2013

Jane Short studied at Central and Royal Colleges of Art before establishing her London studio in 1979. She has become one of Europe’s leading enamellers, working to commission and on studio pieces that have pushed this demanding craft to new levels of expression. She builds layers of colour onto the silver surfaces – creating freely poetic images often inspired by the natural world – the painterly quality belying the many patient hours of layering and firing that the technique requires. Major public commissions include works for Lichfield Cathedral, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the V&A Museum. In 2008 an outstanding enameled silver vase was commissioned and gifted to the Ashmolean Museum in memory of Valerie Stewart and the work of Oxford Gallery. Jane had her first solo show at Oxford Gallery and continued a close working relationship with the gallery for many years.

‘I don’t think I realised at the time entirely how lucky I was to have my worked championed by Valerie Stewart and Joan Crossley-Holland, in the early years of my career when I first left the Royal College in the late 1970’s. Although I recognised and appreciated both Joan and Valerie’s strength of character, and how much energy and commitment they put into running Oxford Gallery, I only later realised just how pioneering and pivotal in particular Joan’s contribution was to the promoting and selling of modern crafts. In 1979 when I first started making and selling work, the Crafts Council was newly formed and on an upward trajectory, and coming from a very different background originally, I had no idea of the larger context of the ‘craft scene’ that had led to it’s formation, and the part that Oxford Gallery played.’

10.6 x 6 cm · engraved silver with enamel

Rupert Spira b.1960 Teapot and two tea bowls 2007

Rupert Spira studied ceramics at West Surrey College of Art and Design interspersed with a two year period working as studio assistant to Michael Cardew (1981–83). He established and ran Froyle Pottery (1984–1996) in Hampshire gaining considerable success for his range of domestic tableware and tiles. In 1996 he established an independent studio in Shropshire in order to devote more time to developing individual vessels alongside his production ware. His fluency with thrown and turned forms, combined with a scholarly knowledge of historic ceramics and imaginative use of a refined palette of (usually Chinese originated) glazes led to a body of work that gained international attention, winning awards and exhibitions in America, Israel, Italy, Japan and Korea as well as here in the UK. The artist’s interest in aesthetic philosophy, and in particular the problem of consciousness eventually led to the decision to close his pottery and to devote himself to an increasingly active career writing and lecturing within the philosophical tradition of non-duality from his new home in Oxford. Rupert Spira exhibited on a number of occasions at Oxford Gallery from the early 1990s. ‘In the early, precarious years as a potter the Oxford Gallery was a continuous source of support and encouragement.’ 62

20 x 17 cm (teapot) · 11 x 8 cm (cups) glazed porcelain

Julian Stair b.1955 Six Cups on a Tall Ground 2018

Julian Stair studied at Camberwell and Royal Colleges of Art establishing his first London studio in 1981. His career is distinguished by a lifelong investigation of the ceramic vessel – its form, and currency, in human culture. Writing and making have always been parallel practices in his studio and in 2002 he completed a PHD on studio pottery and its relationship to modernism. Most recently (2017) he contributed an important essay to the Yale Center for British Art’s studio ceramics catalogue Things of Beauty Growing. His own work first came to attention with a series of finely thrown and turned porcelain vessels, enlivened with geometric sgraffito. This developed into a more explicitly utilitarian series of forms – teapot, cups, jugs – often mounted on stands that revealed his command of the aesthetic potential of different clays and glazes. In 2004 a residency in a brick factory catalyzed the first of a series of monumental jars which led to a major touring show Quietus: the vessel, death and the human body which explored the use of clay jars in funerary rites. He has work in major international public and private collections and has recently completed an altar for St. Augustine’s Church, London. Julian had one of his first solo shows at Oxford Gallery in 1984. 64

‘As a young artist/potter fresh out of the Royal College of Art, Joan Crossley-Holland was both terrifying and reassuring. Indomitable at first, but if somehow you passed muster and she warmed to your work, she gave total commitment as a gallerist, regardless of one’s age or status. I didn’t fully realise at the time but my solo show in 1984 was pivotal in enabling me to start a life of making pots: I will always be grateful.’

119 x 29.5 x 20.5 cm · six thrown cups and beakers on a tall grey ground Porcelain, coloured porcelain, clear glaze, valchromat, lime, marble powder, pigment

Sutton Taylor b.1943 Bottle 2018

Sutton Taylor is a self-taught potter who has become a leading exponent of the difficult art of lustreware. Originally destined for a teaching career in the field of geology, Taylor first began making pots after meeting Cecil Baugh (one of Leach’s former disciples) in Jamaica. He established his first studio in his native Yorkshire in 1971 discovering, by accident, the lustre process during an unsuccessful raku firing. Finding that this ancient Persian technique offered him the chance to combine his love of making pots with his love of the brilliant pigments available to painters, Taylor began to develop his mastery of lustre: freely painting with metal oxides across finely thrown and turned vessels. A regular programme of exhibitions, commissions and purchases for public collections followed in quick succession and he continues to refine and develop his ideas from his studio in West Penwith (which became his home in 1995) – often mixing local china clays, steeped in minerals, to continue his quest for exceptionally magical lustres. Sutton Taylor had a first solo show with Oxford Gallery in 1982 and continued to exhibit regularly throughout the gallery’s lifetime.

‘How fortunate I was to be associated with Oxford Gallery in the early days of my ceramics career. In retrospect, the professionalism encountered there – a knowledge of and appreciation of the work, a desire to help and promote the artist and to show the work to its greatest advantage – was uncommon and wonderful.’

32.5 x 18 x 18 cm · lustreware

Edmund de Waal OBE b.1964 Tall Cargo Jar 2007

Edmund de Waal studied English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and ceramics with Geoffrey Whiting and Meijiro Ceramics Studio, Tokyo establishing his first London studio in 1993. Over the past twenty – five years he has achieved an international profile as both visual artist and writer for his objects, installations and books which explore the language and critical contexts of clay – in particular porcelain. Themes around memory, material culture and the human diaspora infuse the work and sit behind his family memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) which catalysed global interest in his thinking. His porcelain interventions in historic spaces – including the V&A, London; Chatsworth, Derbyshire; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and the Walter Benjamin Archive, Berlin – invite a rich experience of architectural space: a theme that has been taken up in a new context, on the stage, with a commission in 2017 to design the set for Yugen, Wayne McGregor’s new ballet for the Royal Opera House. He has work in numerous public and private collections worldwide. Oxford Gallery hosted a solo show of his work in 1996.

65 x 10 cm · porcelain

‘The two shows at Oxford Gallery meant a huge amount to me and Joan Crossley-Holland was sui generis: delighted to be included in this exhibition.’ 69

Takeshi Yasuda b.1943 Platter and Dish 1983

Takeshi Yasuda trained at the Daisei-Gama pottery in Tokyo (1963–66) and established his first studio there specialising in ash-glazed stoneware. He moved to live and work in the UK in 1973 establishing studios in Devon then Bath. Since 2005 he has been based in Jingzdezhen, China, originally as Director of JDZ Pottery Workshop, at the invitation of Caroline Chen now with his independent studio in the Jingdezhen Porcelain Factory. His work has always focussed on pots for domestic interiors – particularly platters, teabowls, vase and jugs – managing to find, within this relatively constrained formal universe an astonishingly sensual and poetic range of forms. He ceaselessly experiments with clay bodies and different forms of firing. The Sansei series, illustrated here, appeared in the mid 1980s following a residency at Cleveland Craft Centre and the constraints of an electric kiln. Works were inspired by the Chinese burial wares Tang sansei – his response to the characteristic ‘running glazes’ of copper and manganese. Recent works have pushed the formal limits of porcelain, examples of which were shown in the V&A 2011 exhibition Porcelain City, Jingedezhen. His works are held in many public and private collections worldwide. He had two major shows at Oxford Gallery in 1996 and 2000. 70

30.5 x 7 cm · 32.5 x 5 cm Sansei ware

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Amanda Game, James Fordham and Rachel Ackland would like to thank the following for their help in preparing this catalogue and exhibition: Sally Poulton and Kevin Crossley-Holland and the family of the late Joan Crossley-Holland MBE Olivia Stewart and Hugh Stewart and the family of the late Valerie Stewart Raef Baldwin; Krissie Byng; Michelle Bowen; Linda Brownrigg; Nick Carroll; Sebastian Carter; Don Chapman; John Chipperfield; Sydney Denton; Ken Eastman; Deborah Elliott; Emma Farnworth; Siobhan Feeney; Duibhne Gough; Professor Peter Hacker; Lindsey Hoole; Nye Hughes; Philip Hughes; Tatiana Marsden; Susan Pratt; Jean Thomas; Marina Vaizey; Andrew Walker. Valerie Stewart and her fellow directors Deborah Elliott; Lindsey Hoole and Krissie Mason, 1989

Greta Bertram, Craft Study Centre, Farnham. Julie-Anne Lambert, Bodleian Library, Oxford. And all exhibiting artists. Oxford Pioneers was commissioned by James Fordham and Rachel Ackland, Directors, Oxford Ceramics Gallery to mark the 50th Anniversary of Oxford Gallery’s founding. Images © 2018 The artists or their estates Text © 2018 Amanda Game, James Fordham and the artists Exhibition curated by Amanda Game Catalogue designed by Nye Hughes, Dalrymple Printed by Gwasg Gomer, Wales Photography: Jan Baldwin: p.65; Joel Degen: p.10 left; : Bob Cramp: p.57; Oliver Eglin: p.32; Deborah Elliott, p.72; James Fordham: p.4, p.15, p.33; Michael Harvey: p.3, p.4, p.12, p.14, p.21, p.25, p.27, p.29, p.35, p.39, p.41, p.43, p.45, p.48, p.59, p.63, p.67, p.68, p.71; Neil Mason: p.51; Jean Thomas: p.55

Oxford Ceramics Gallery 29 Walton Street · Oxford · OX2 6AA Telephone +44 (0) 1865 512320 www.oxfordceramics.com

p.16 © Ana Maria Pacheco. All Rights Reserved 2018/ Bridgeman Images. Reproduction courtesy of Pratt Contemporary; p.21 courtesy of Marsden Woo Gallery, London; p.23 courtesy Flowers Gallery, London Front cover: Joan Crossley-Holland (nee Cowper) demonstrates throwing a pot in Regent Street, 1937