Eddie Curtis at the Oxford Ceramics Fair, October 2013.
We visited Eddie Curtis' stall at the Oxford Ceramics Fair and like last year I decided to do a separate post on his work.
I am very interested in the way his work is developing. I usually don't like bright colours in ceramics but prefer white porcelain pieces, off-whites, or black. I like smooth, tactile surfaces and I certainly do not like texture in ceramics. Curtis' work is not any of these things. Yet, I keep coming back to it.
The other development that I find interesting is that he has moved away from vessels and his pieces are predominantly sculptural now.
New work:
This is what he has to say about the current work, taken from his website:
'My current project, The Blast, was the result of one of the most strongly felt inspirations I have experienced in quite some time. The brutal yet beautiful landscape that now inspired me. What I saw was a combination of textures, an unlikely juxtaposition of the man-made and the natural, objects long bereft of their usefulness and worn and encroached upon by erosion and encrustation. I was looking at sand, clay, metal and stone in various combinations. The textures were cracked, crazed, bright, blunt, sharp, wet, slippy, slimey smooth hard. It has probably been my most rewarding project to date'.
detail
Less recent work:
Examples of the Monoliths below, also part of the Blast series, were exhibited at the fair last year and if you go here you can read about the inspiration behind the work. The way this year's work has developed was a natural progression.
Finally, the artist himself behind a jar from the Blast series. The two works on the left might be by Margaret Curtis as they shared a stall this year - I am not sure, I should have asked.
Thank you for this introduction to Eddie Curtis' work. Like you, I am not usually a fan of lumpen and bumpen work, but his pieces look like hewn chunks of geology. I particularly like his Girder series, and the top piece in your post.
ReplyDeleteI like the top piece too, Olga. What I failed to mention is that it's a box - the top bit is a lid. What I particularly like about that piece is the juxtaposition of the 'chunks of geology' as you so aptly described them, and the delicate, smooth, shiny bit of red glaze - inspired. I would love to own a piece, but they are so expensive. Anyway, it does not matter - it's the pleasure of looking that's important and I look forward to seeing how his work develops further.
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