James Tower

The Artist
Elspeth Juda, London

London, Gimpel Fils, 50th Anniversay Exhibition, 10th October - 16th November 1961, un-numbered exhibition;
Hove, Hove Museum and Art Gallery, James Tower - A Retrospective, 28th January - 25th February 1989, un-numbered exhibition;
London, Gimpel Fils, James Tower, 3rd December 2003 - 10th January 2004, cat. no.14;
London, Gimpel Fils, James Tower and Contemporary Ceramic Art, 26th April - 9th June 2012, un-numbered exhibition.

Structurally sound, with no obvious cracks or breaks, there are one or two tiny glazing imperfections apparent, in keeping with the nature of the artist's technique and materials used, with further tiny stilt marks visible to the foot of the base. This excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Timothy Wilcox for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. 

Tower’s early ceramics sought to explore the delicate balance between form and decoration, imbued with the strong sense of historical tradition inherited from the early English slipware that had so inspired him.  Through his careful combination of slab-building and press-moulding, Tower created a staple of semi-uniform shapes, which were then cut and adapted, distorted and joined to create unique forms that were further heightened through his characteristic black and white tin-glazed decoration.  Here his unique glaze technique, of a black tin underglaze, layered with white through which the artist scratched his intricate designs, takes on an almost skeletal appearance. Working alongside figures such as Peter Lanyon and William Scott, Tower was no doubt inspired by another British heavyweight of the Post-War era, Patrick Heron, who wrote that:

‘The merest scratch of a line on a white surface induces sensations of recession – of an imagined form advancing out of or falling back through the place where the marked white surface stands.  Thus space is the ‘medium’ in terms of which any pictorial configuration has its being’ (Patrick Heron, The Changing Forms of Art, 1955, quoted in Timothy Wilcox, The Ceramic Art of James Tower, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2012, p.40).

In these important early works, such as Black & White semi-covered bowl, Tower explored ideas that were at the artistic forefront in Britain during the 1950s – ideas which he translated into the very tangible medium of clay, to create works which stand as lasting testaments not only to his great skill as an artist, but as his understanding of the important themes underlying the development of art in the Post-War era.