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The Blue and White Show - Exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery January 19 through March 30, 2008 Bath, England

Hundreds of pieces of blue and white china and textiles create a vast mosaic of pattern and colour at the Victoria Art Gallery in the New Year. The exhibition, the first of its kind on such a large scale, will be opened by Sir Peter Blake and runs from 19 January to 30 March 2008 at the Council-run Gallery in Bridge Street, Bath.

Candace Bahouth,
Table Mosaic

The inspiration behind the exhibition is a collection of over 2,000 early 19th-century pottery pieces. The best of these will form the centrepiece of the show, displayed on a giant Georgian-style dresser.

Three major contemporary artists - Kaffe Fassett (textiles, paintings), Candace Bahouth (mosaic-covered shoes), and Carole Waller (paintings on silk) have been invited to display new work inspired by this most English of traditions. The show promises to be a riot of colour, and the whole building, upstairs and down, will be transformed.

Urns Jon Benington, Gallery Manager states that: "the show is perfect for this venue as blue and white used to be imported via the docks in nearby Bristol. Our own collection of Delftware pottery forms a fitting compliment to the show. The choice of artists reinforces these links, for Kaffe Fassett started his career in Bath, whilst Carole Waller and Candace Bahouth live on our doorstep."

The show is guest-curated by former editor of Cosmopolitan and Country Living magazines, Deirdre Mc Sharry. Deirdre comments: "Blue and White means blue and white transferware, a particularly British preoccupation with blue and white pottery, that fills our shelves and dominates our dressers."

"One of the most eye catching elements in the new show are Candace Bahouth's surreal high heel "Prada" shoes embellished with blue and white pottery shards, tiny fragments of Spode's Italian Gardens, Willow Pattern etc - a tapestry of English life - with lots of reference to display, style and fashion, and all from the common fragments found at the bottom of a country garden."

Kaffe Fassett,
Blue & White Complexity

Kaffe Fassett is widely regarded as one of the world's leading textile artists and is, undoubtedly, one of the world's most original colourists. Bath is a continuing source of inspiration, as his brilliant reactions in textile and paint to the collection of blue and white pottery on show at the Victoria Art Gallery demonstrate.

Carole Waller is a Bath based painter who uses her eye for colour and texture to paint lengths of silk. She calls her work 'collaborations of print with painting'.

Deirdre says: "In this show the brilliance of the blue and white collection of 'china' appeals to Carole's eye for filling domestic as well as public space. Her response is to echo the blues with layers of painted silk, several glass freestanding pieces and one of her famously lavish silk coats - in effect a Chinese Robe, in colour and form echoing the influence of the China trade on British life and design".

All new work is for sale and there will be gallery talks by the artists and workshops for schools. For more information on the show and the Victoria Art Gallery visit www.victoriagal.org.uk

Photo-opportunity: Photographers are welcome to come to the opening night of the exhibition on Friday 18 January at 5.30pm, (speeches at 6.30pm), when the artists and Deirdre McSharry will be present. Sir Peter Blake will be available for interview strictly on an appointment basis between 3.30pm and 4.30pm at the Gallery on Friday 18 January. Please contact Sue Lucy, 01225 477232, or e-mail sue_lucy@bathnes.gov.uk to make an appointment.

For images and more information contact: Maggie Bone, Museums Publicity Officer - Heritage Services, on Tel: 01225 477736 or e-mail maggie_bone@bathnes.gov.uk

The artists:

Candace Bahouth
A New Yorker of Italian-Lebanese descent, Candace Bahouth has lived for the past thirty years in a small village in Somerset in one of England's most unspoilt rural areas. Candace was originally known as a tapestry weaver, but now is better known for her mosaic and needlepoint. She produces large scale pieces, examples of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has a magpie eye for discarded items, shards of pottery, mirrors shells, feathers and mounds of mosaic pieces with which she embellishes garden furniture, urns, tables etc. and other items including shoes.

Kaffe Fassett
Kaffe Fassett is widely regarded as one of the world's leading textile artists and is, undoubtedly, one of the world's most original colourists. He was born in San Francisco, and when he was 19 won a scholarship to the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. He has long a connection with Bath as through Jeremy Fry he got his first work here. In 1988 Kaffe became the first living textile artist to have a one man show at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. His work is now known around the world and he is in great demand lecturing and teaching abroad.

Carole Waller
Carole Waller lives in Bath and is an internationally renowned textile artist. She makes painted clothes, and paintings on veils of cloth which become installations in three dimensional space. Born in Birmingham, she trained in the UK at Canterbury and Bournville Colleges in then in the US. She has work in many public and private collections including the V&A, Birmingham City Art Gallery and the Holburne Musuem in Bath.

Victoria Art Gallery
Bath & North East Somerset Council's art gallery houses the area's permanent collection of British and European art from the 15th century to the present day including works by Gainsborough, Turner and Sickert. The gallery has one of the best temporary exhibition programmes in the region, ranging from prints to sculpture, including national touring exhibitions and major retrospectives. There are frequent workshops, holiday activities and a full programme for schools.

For further information contact: Jon Benington, Manager of the Victoria Art Gallery, on Tel: 01225 477772 or e-mail jon_benington@bathnes.gov.uk;

—submitted by Sue Wagstaff, TCC Member

Report on January 2007 New York Ceramics Fair
From January 15 through the 20th, The National Academy Museum on Fifth Avenue hosted the 9th annual New York Ceramics Fair. Caskey Lees from Topanga California hosts this top notch show and sale of ceramics, glass and enamels featuring 35 prominent English, European and American galleries/dealers of museum quality antique and contemporary ceramics.

A real treat for us on this side of the pond to enjoy a visit with old friends and meet some new ones along the way. The fair is vetted by a jury of professionals and hosts a grand pre-show preview reception, a full-color illustrated 96 page catalog and a four-day ceramics lecture series, sponsored by the Chipstone Foundation.

Complete Article with Photos

British Ceramics: The Development of Technical Genius in the British Ceramic Industry—1650-1850

No limit
June 22-24, 2007 (3 Days)
Fee: $465.00

From the earliest attempts to replicate the much-desired Chinese porcelains to the introduction of turning lathes for earthenware production, the British ceramics industry was in the forefront of the industrial revolution. This 3-day symposium explored some of the remarkable inventions that not only made Wedgwood & Spode household names, but had a powerful effect on society, not only amongst the Potteries’ workers & their families, but in a broader international context. There was a large number of early 19th century models & molds from the Spode Factory exhibited for the inspection of the participants. This is part of the collection of rare material purchased from Spode by Eastfield in the past year. More information and registration form

Eastfield Village website: www.greatamericancraftsmen.org

Lectures and Demonstrations included:

Beer Shops and Bread Riots, The changes in technology, including the (limited) introduction of steam power & the increasing mechanization of making processes, did not come about without a huge impact on the way of life of the ordinary working potters – men, women & children. This lecture looks at some of the changes in the working & home life of the Georgian & early Victorian potters including child labor, the rise of the unions & food riots. Miranda Goodby, Keeper of ceramics, the Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent, UK
From Clay to Glost Oven, This talk covers the processes involved in the many phases of pottery production from the raw state to the final glaze firing until the late 20th century. It includes a section on the process of bat & transfer printing. Robert Copeland, author & former historian of the Spode Factory & noted member of the family that ran Spode for over 175 years
The Development of Lathe Turning in the Potteries from the 18th century to the mid 19th century, Lecture details the progression of lathe work from the simple turner’s lathe to the complicated rose & crown engine lathes. Includes how these lathes actually worked & what was made on them. Don Carpentier, practical potter & director of Eastfield Village.
Josiah Wedgwood, Master Potter & Marketing Genius, Nancy Ramage, professor of art history at Ithaca College, author & lecturer on 18th century pottery, especially Wedgwood.
The Influence of Chinese Export Porcelain on British Ceramics in the 18th to early 19th Century, Traces the use of Chinese designs after the development of porcelain in Britain (1740s), the role of the East India Company in providing Chinese Export porcelain for the upper class, factories who provided matchings and entire tea & dinner services in the Chinese style to an ever increasing public demand, with an emphasis on the prominent role played by Josiah Spode. Connie Rogers, General Editor of the Transferware Collector’s Club Database of Transfer-printed patterns C. 1780-1900, author & lecturer.
The Rise and Fall of Slip, Slip decoration on utilitarian earthenwares rose to extraordinary heights of inventiveness during the 1770-1840 period, then began a long, slow slide into oblivion. Rickard explores some of the more creative uses in which fluid clay was used to make everyday objects visually exciting. Jonathan Rickard, Author, Collector and Independent scholar specializing in 18th and 19th century Mocha & Diptwares
Ceramics for Hyde Hall, Cooperstown, NY 1813-1834, Hyde Hall, one of the great country houses in America, was designed by its builder George Clarke & Philip Hooker, Albany's leading neoclassical architect, between 1817 and 1828 on a site overlooking Otsego Lake near Cooperstown. It stayed in his family until purchased by the state in 1963. A number of the original contents remain in the house. Clarke was a meticulous record keeper & many of the bills for his furnishings still survive. These document his choices of English, French & a few Chinese ceramics from retail merchants & auction in Albany, Cooperstown & New York City between 1813 & 1834. Dr Gilbert Vincent, Independent Scholar& former Director of the NY State Historical Society, Cooperstown NY
The Making of Potter’s Tools by a Potter,. Demonstration of the creation of a blowing bottle for slip work & a three chamber slip pot. Bob Nopper, Practical Potter, Salem, NY, manager Bear Pottery Studio, creating functional & decorative stoneware, sculpture & raku pottery
The Evolution of Polychrome-Painted Pearlware from the Late 18th to the Early 19th Century. Lecture and Demonstration. Denise Carpentier Practical Potter, specializing in polychrome pearlware reproductions & adaptations.
Searching through Spode, Detailed visual account of the search through three enormous late 18th century storage buildings at the Spode Factory site for early tools, models & master-molds in 2006 & 2007. Learn about important items were recovered in the process. Don Carpentier

This ironstone china vegetable dish, made by E. F. Bodley and Company, of Burslem, Staffordshire, England, bears the motto of the CSS Alabama, "AIDE TOI ET DIEU T'AIDERA" (loosely translated: "God helps those who help themselves").
--submitted by TCC Member Jane Diemer, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution web site.

"Northern Ceramics Summer School" by Connie Rogers. The annual Northern Ceramics Society (NCS) Summer School ran from August 8 to 13 at the University of Chester in the U.K. The theme of the conference was "Looking at the Evidence". Various lectures .... more info

Late-18th century pearlware jug, probably Swansea, barrel shape with out-turned foot and simple strap handle, printed in blue. Large floral sprays on either side of a verse "Sit down & spend a Social hour / In harmless mirth & fun / Let Friendship reign be just & Kind / And evil speak of none", all beneath a geometric border and with a different geometric border around the inside of the rim. Height 17.6 cm, unmarked, circa 1790-1800. Sold at auction February 2005 for 1300 GBP plus buyer's premium (estimate was 500!).
--submitted by Dick Henry wood
Enlarged View

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