Gillian Lowndes
Gillian Lowndes (19 June 1936[1] – 2 October 2010) was an English ceramics sculptor.
Born in
Work and influences
Since the early 1960s and 70s her work has challenged the traditional notions surrounding the form of a vessel and fine art. Through her non-traditional experimental methods of incorporating found objects and materials such as wire and various objects from found in everyday life into her ceramic work, she continually challenges the orthodox world of pure ceramics.[3]
Her
Lowndes' affinity and approach to basic, used materials and their inherent materiality calls to mind Arte Povera. "The found materials [Lowndes employs] are poor, low-status ones – old bricks, clinker, granite clippings, mild steel strip, cheap industrially made cups and tiles."[6] Povera artists explore the relationship between art and life through the use of such everyday materials in contrast to "quasi-precious" ones like oil paint or marble that are traditionally used in "fine art." These materials also imply issues pertaining to class and the differentiation between "high" and "low" art. However, Arte Povera "denotes not an impoverished art, but an art made without restraints, a laboratory situation in which a theoretical basis was rejected in favor of a complete openness towards materials and processes."[7]
Lowndes' approach and experimentation with form and materials is much like that of the Process Artists of the 1960s as well. Lowndes believes that "materials are the source of the ideas as well as their expression."[8] Lowndes said of her own work that "...it is the methods and materials that produce the ideas, not the other way round. The choice of materials and the assemblage of pieces lead her towards the object and this process gives her work a strangeness that is visually rich, yet her work is still rooted with the ceramic process and material."[3]
Lowndes used many different combinations and amalgamations of
Previously, Lowndes had already possessed an affinity towards
Upon her return from Africa, Lowndes' "impatience with clay" and the so-called "craftsmanly side of her art" is apparent through her combination of "mainstream" sculpture materials "…that put the concept before the material."[11] As a result of Lowndes' open approach to working, leaving room for reworking and rediscovery, her work vacillates between and perhaps challenges the "undefined space between craft and fine art."[3] Her materially based experimentation and intuitive approach to making with a material that is traditionally seen as a purveyor of craft defines Lowndes' work as art that "…occupies an undefined space between the craft and fine art worlds.”
Additional information
Her work is represented in many collections in Britain and she has had major shows at the Crafts Council (1987) and Contemporary Applied Arts (1994) and major exhibitions such as The Raw and the Cooked (1993–1994).
She lived for a time in Toppesfield, Essex, then following the death of her husband in 2000 she moved to Spitalfields in London.[1]
Death
Gillian Lowndes died on 2 October 2010, aged 74, from cancer.[13]
Sources
- S. Harley. "Ian Auld and Gillian Lowndes", Ceramic Review No. 44 (March/April 1977), pp. 4–5
- Elisabeth Cameron. "Gillian Lowndes", Ceramic Review No. 83, September/October 1983), p. 11
- Angus Suttie. "The Dangerous Edge of Things", Crafts No. 75 (1985), pp. 49–50
- Gillian Lowndes. Ceramics Monthlyvol 36, part 4 (April 1988), pp. 28–29
- Victor Margrit. "Gillian Lowndes", Studio Pottery # 9 (June/July 1994), pp. 34–38
- Palmer, D. "Tradition and Originality: Bernard Leach and the New Ceramics", Ceramics (Sydney, Australia) #60 (2005), pp. 101–103
References
- ^ a b c Gillian Lowndes: Potter and sculptor noted for incorporating a wide variety of materials into her work | The Independent. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ Lowndes, Gillian Marjorie (1936–2010): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b c "Gillian Lowndes". British Council. Archived from the original on 3 June 2006.
- ^ Ideas Made Object[dead link]
- ^ Fielding, Amanda, "Bristling with Life", Ceramic Review No. 181 (January/February 2000) p. 21
- ^ Harrod, Tanya. Trandscending Clay Crafts (London, England), No. 84 (January/February 1987), p. 20
- ^ Zero to Infinity: Atre Povera 1962-1972
- ^ "Uncertain Echoes", Ceramic Review No. 103 (January/February 1987), p. 11
- ^ Pim, Henry. "Uncertain Echoes", Ceramic Review No. 103 (January/February 1987), p. 11
- ^ Pim, H., ibid.
- ^ a b Harrod, Tanya. Transcending Clay, Crafts (London, England), No. 84 (January/February 1987), p. 16
- ^ Grove Art Online
- ^ "Notice of the death of Gillian Lowndes". Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2010.