Bringing together nearly 150 ceramic objects from Europe, Japan, and Korea—including jars, bowls, pots, chargers, vases, and monumental urns—this exhibition will survey the array of forms that have defined the British studio pottery movement from the 1920s to the present by
exploring the connections between form and function. The exhibition will include masterworks by Bernard Leach (1887–1979), Michael Cardew (1901–1983), Lucie Rie (1902–1995), Ladi Kwali (ca. 1925–1984), Alison Britton (b. 1948), Magdalena Odundo (b. 1950), Edmund de Waal (b. 1964), and Clare Twomey (b. 1968). More than thirty portraits of contemporary potters by photographer Ben Boswell (b. 1961), a selection of which are being created specifically for this project, will also be on display.
“’Things of Beauty Growing’: British Studio Pottery” is being organized by the Yale Center for British Art in partnership with The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, where it will be on view from March 20 to June 18, 2018. The exhibition is co-curated by Martina Droth, Deputy Director of Research and Curator of Sculpture at the Center; Glenn Adamson, Senior Research Scholar at the Center; and Simon Olding, Director, Crafts Study Centre, University for the Creative Arts, United Kingdom. The organizing curators at The Fitzwilliam Museum are Victoria Avery, Keeper, and Helen Ritchie, Research Assistant, Department of Applied Arts.