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Harlequin Gallery |
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Deirdre Burnett |
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Deirdre Burnett has been based in S.E. London
since graduating from Camberwell School of Art & Design in 1967. There
she studied three-dimensional design with ceramics as her major area of study
and silversmithing as a subsidiary. She had first
become interested in working with clay a few years earlier while studying
sculpture at St. Martins and has never really wanted to do anything else
since. As she said to me recently she was instantly fascinated by the
plasticity of clay, just needs to make pots and would do so even if no one
bought them. At
Camberwell she was taught by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, who instilled in her
the need for a potter's work to reflect their own personality and never to
compromise. This has stood Deirdre in good stead over the years and has meant
that she has concentrated on making individual vessel forms that have
developed and changed but have always followed the direction that she has
wanted. Over the last year or so she has been working on a series of
hand-built sculptural forms that will be getting their first showing in this
exhibition. Deirdre refers to these as the "Maidens", as they
remind her of the standing stones with that name that are to be found in
Cornwall. I have yet to see them myself but Deirdre tells me that they are much
taller than her other work but still fundamentally vessels that have complex
textured surfaces. Another recent development that first saw the light of day
earlier this year has been her "Wave Series" of stoneware bowls
that are wheel thrown and turned, using mixed clays. These are then covered
with a reactive white glaze, except for the rim, and fired. Again after much
experimentation Deirdre was able to achieve the effect that she had been
striving for and at least one example will be included in the exhibition alongside
the sculptural work and other stoneware. Over
her long career Deirdre has taken part in many exhibitions and her work is to
be found in numerous prestigious collections. These include the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, the V&A Museum in London, the Boijmans
Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Sainsbury Collection in Norwich and the Bill
Ismay Collection at the Yorkshire Museum. |
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