Blue Floating Bowls 19.36, 19.37, 19.38: C.1A-C-2020

Titles

Blue Floating Bowls 19.36, 19.37, 19.38

Maker(s)

Ceramicist: Lees, Nicholas

Entities

• Vessel

Categories

• Ceramic
• Parian (porcelain)
• Studio Ceramics

Description

Parian, thrown, lathe turned and saturated with cobalt sulphate solution.

Three hollow beehive-shaped vessels with deeply cut concentric ‘fins’, made from thickly thrown parian lathe-turned when leather hard. Once biscuit-fired, each vessel was filled temporarily with cobalt sulphate solution, saturating the body and producing a pearlware tinge and a concentration deep cobalt blue at the fin edges. After a further firing, a small patch of fin edges towards the pointed end of each vessel was abraded to provide a stable base, so that the vessels sit with slightly upturned mouths.

Notes

History note: Bought by the donors from Cavaliero Finn, who showed these vessels at ‘Alter’, a temporary exhibition held at Fitzrovia Chapel, London, on 29 November 2019.

Legal notes

Gift of Nicholas and Judith Goodison through the Art Fund.

Place(s) associated

• Selbourne ⪼ Hampshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2020-01-27) by Goodison, Nicholas and Judith

Dating

21st Century, Early#
Production date: AD 2019

Note

Nicholas Lees (b. 1967) completed a degree in English and History before studying ceramics in Cardiff, Bristol and at the Royal College of Art, where he is now a visiting lecturer. Informed by observing the constant shift of tide, weather and light on the Scottish coastline, he is interested in ephemerality and how our visual experience of reality is conditioned by light, space and body. The making of his ceramic sculptures alludes to historic sources, ranging from the industrial production of electrical insulators to the use of throwing and lathe turning by Wedgwood in the 18th century.The introduction of colour in these pieces is inspired by Lees’ ink on paper works, which explore movement and the uncertainty of perception through the interaction of wet and dry, while their aesthetic appeal is enhanced by his technical ingenuity. These pieces complement the museum’s extensive holdings of historic parian.