Dish

A graphic incised line drawing is tattooed into the pale semi-matt surface on this early work by Gillian Lowndes. Its abstract language possibly draws on Lowndes’ interest in the shapes and motifs of industrial objects. [1] Lowndes studied at the Central School of Arts in the mid 1950s and says it was not until 1960, when she joined a studio with Robin Welch and Kate Watts that she begun to experiment with hand-building (see 50794 and 50795 for examples Lowndes thrown work). [2]

In 1970 she moved to Nigeria for eighteen months and this experience transformed her approach to ceramics. From the late 1970s onwards, she created bricolage sculptures that tangled, fossilised and fired everyday debris into ‘abstract structures’ [3] which spoke a new and radical ceramic language.

Sim Panaser, August 2020

[1] Birks, Tony, Art of the Modern Potter, (London: Country Life Books, 1976), p. 136.

[2] Fiona Bird, ‘Potting it Together’, The Times, August 21 1969, London.

[3] Lowndes used the term ‘abstract structures’ to describe her work in, Henry Pim, ‘Uncertain Echoes’, Ceramic Review, 103, (January/February 1987), 10-12, (p. 11).