FELICITY AYLIEFF, AQUISITIONS COMMITTEE MEMBER

The criteria for my selection of ceramic objects for this exhibition was very straightforward. The pieces had to resonate with me personally, either through the story they told or the language used in their ‘making’. I did not expect that I would be waylaid by some of the works that unexpectedly made the final cut, but that is the joy of spending time looking and interrogating objects and finding out about their history and often their hidden pasts. It was interesting to have my occasional preconceptions confronted and my eyes opened by new discoveries!

Looking at my selection I see that they are linked through their individual ease of expression either in the handling of the clay as in Yasuda’s thrown bowl, sensual in form with its seductive rich celadon glaze, or in the contemporary handling of traditional decorative techniques, close to my own research enquiry, and particularly pertinent to the recent acquisitions of pieces by Simon Carroll, Philip Eglin and Dylan Bowen. In the vase by Bowen the vertical looped slip design is like thick black treacle. Trailed onto a white ground, it makes a strong graphic statement going from top to bottom. A similar looped image appears effortlessly trailed horizontally across Eglin’s press-moulded jug. Continuing the monochromatic theme, Carroll has used slip applied with a coarse brush and, doing away with the conventions of traditional ceramic decorative composition, his bold, fluid marks create abstract imagery on the surface of his thrown, altered and slabbed form.

Pre-dating all of the above in her unorthodox preoccupation with sculptural form, and with a determination to do away with the notion of pottery as craft, is Gillian Lowndes. In my early career as a maker in the 1980s I saw her piece Single Hook Figure, and thought it refreshingly new and inspirational and it continues to delight me.

Emmanuel Cooper has not only been extremely important to my ‘thinking’ and career but was a significant
figure in the ceramic community and academia. The inclusion of his buckets is an acknowledgment of this. Similarly, Lucie Rie has had a momentous impact on the history of the discipline. Her very desirable and sublime black cup and saucer has an ease and grace in its design and making.

Perhaps personally less desirable, but totally intriguing are the cups and saucers made as prototypes for the Leach production, of which I was previously unaware. Made robustly in red clay their appeal and selection is more to do with their ‘homely’ practical quality rather than their aesthetic. But this is not the case with the Bernard Leach bowl with its leaping hare deftly carved in its centre. Made after his study of Song dynasty Chinese bowls, he captures the life and spirit of the hare in motion with superb fluency and elegance.

Hidden from sight on the bottom shelf of the ceramic store I was astonished to find a jar from Hubei in China, originally made as ‘packaging’ for selling salted vegetables. The jar formed part of Leach’s personal collection and was used for his own research. Such ash glazed jars were made from low firing stoneware clay, coated with white slip and carved with a confident, fluid line that can only come through repetition of process and familiarity with the subject. I was excited by this example as I also have a number of my own, scavenged from markets in China, that sit as inspiration in my studio in Jingdezhen. I can understand how Leach must have enjoyed the immediacy of the drawn line and the simple, effective process of carving to create an image, such eloquence I can only strive for in my own work.

Professor Felicity Aylieff is a ceramicist and Professor of Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art.

Pieces from the Crafts Study Centre Collections chosen by Felicity.

Porcelain bowl with a celadon glaze, c .1950. Bernard Leach P.74.6

Earthenware coffee cup and saucer, 1936. Bernard Leach P.74.101.a.i-ii

Earthenware coffee cup and saucer with slip decoration, 1933. Bernard Leach P.75.45.d and P.75.45.m

Earthenware peasant jar, from Bernard Leach’s source collection, c .1900. Maker unknown P.79.8

Porcelain platter with a celadon glaze, c .2005. Takeshi Yasuda 2005.1

Stoneware cup and saucer with a black iron-bearing stoneware glaze. Lucie Rie 2005.8 and 2005.28

Stoneware bowl with a black and white pitted volcanic glaze, 2005. Emmanuel Cooper 2005.24

Thrown and altered stoneware vessel with slipware decoration, c .2013. Dylan Bowen 2013.10

Single Hook Figure, sliced loofah dipped in grey slip, 1991. Gillian Lowndes 2013.14 In memory of Amanda Fielding

Square Vessel Rounded Feet, hand- built ceramic vessel, 2005. Simon Carroll 2015.8

Ceramic jug, Swirl, with trailed slip decoration, 2015. Philip Eglin 2018.1