Ceramic Vessel with Geometrical Glaze by John Ward

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A stoneware vessel with a distinct form and glaze by British studio potter John Ward (1938-2023) circa 1990s. This specific … Read more A stoneware vessel with a distinct form and glaze by British studio potter John Ward (1938-2023) circa 1990s. This specific form in the artist's repertoire may be known as a "Spherical Pot" due to its full globular body with contrasting square neck and mouth opening. The surface of the vessel is glazed in a highly geometrical design with mottled turquoise-green and brown matt glazes. The graphic rendering on the surface with two contrasting colors as well as the subtle texture work magically with the organic form as an exemplary work of the artist. The vessel is impressed artist's seal and initial.
Reference: Emma Crichton-Miller, The Pottery of John Ward, London, 2022, p. 108 for a comparable example.
John Ward’s ceramic artwork is found in the permanent collections of many leading art museums including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Biography (courtesy of Oxford Ceramic Gallery):
"The leading hand-builder John Ward (1938-2023) was trained at Camberwell College of Arts in the 1960s. He is one of a number of significant modern potters to have concentrated on the pared down individual vessel form, most particularly the bowl, as a touchstone for exploration. His generally simple work has been augmented by more complex structures, the shapes cut and altered, perhaps with abstract, geometric decoration and cut-away rims that give some of his pieces an architectural quality. In addition to urban surfaces, his work evokes honed natural forms, the kind of bonier, elemental landscape he has lived in since he moved close to the Welsh coast in 1979. His best pots speak eloquently of the limitless language of the bowl and globular jar, their sculptural and metaphorical resonances." See less