Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

During a career spanning over 50 years, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott became one of the internationally known pre-eminent artist-potters. Born in Australia, she came to England in the 1950s to study and work with a host of the great potters, artists and sculptors of her day. She spoke not only of Michael Cardew, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper as influencing her work, but also the formal arrangements of Giorgio Morandi, the play of light employed by Brancusi and the eloquence of tone in Ben Nicholson’s work, amongst others.

Gwyn was fascinated by the “possibility of transformation and repose” in the groupings of her modest vessels; that they could hover between metaphor and everyday objects, waiting for a gaze or a glance of light to transform their ordinary beauty. Gwyn evolved these clusters, families, caravans or trails in the mid-to late 1980s. Each vessel, meticulously made from translucent porcelain, with a restrained and at times lustrous palette, is carefully assembled into ‘inseparable’ formations. Using a limited repertoire of forms and acute awareness of spatial balance, Gwyn took these simple vessels beyond function. Shigaraki white trail is a masterpiece in the workings of these ideas.

Tragically, Gwyn died in the run-up to this exhibition. She was newly inspired by clays that she had encountered on her previous trip to Shigaraki in Japan, and was in the middle of making plans to progress her new ideas; all testament to her extraordinary energy and intellect. She was thrilled with the acquisition of a large installation from her most recent show in London, by the Duke of Devonshire. Gwyn is represented by Erskine, Hall and Coe, London.