Ceramics: Ann Verdcourt - A Survey

A touring exhibition jointly developed by Te Manawa Trust, Palmerston North and The Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui.

30 years of work by Dannevirke ceramic artist Ann Verdcourt has been brought together for the first time in this fascinating new exhibition Ceramics: Ann Verdcourt – A Survey. The exhibition looks at her work through three themes that have occupied Verdcourt throughout her career; conversations with artists, still life, and play.

Born in Luton, England in 1934, hats and World War Two featured strongly in Ann Verdcourt’s childhood and the influence of both can still be seen now, many years later, threaded through her ceramic work. Combined with these early influences is the rigour of seven years of study at Luton and Hornsey Schools of Art, an intense interest in art history, and the dislocation of living and working in provincial New Zealand, where London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is a distant dream.

Verdcourt’s grandfather was a hatter for the Paris opera and Luton, where the family moved before Verdcourt’s birth, was a centre for hat making. Disembodied heads, an interpretation perhaps of her grandfather’s hat blocks stored in the attic, echo through her practice and hats, particularly those with a sculptural form, also feature prominently.

At the outbreak of war, Verdcourt’s father and brother dug an air raid shelter in the back garden and the family’s nights were soon all spent in there. Lighting came from candles and Verdcourt found the wax provided an ideal modelling medium. Families of figures soon emerged from the shelter and inside the house, plates, mugs and bowls were piled up to create safe havens for her brother’s lead tigers. This early fascination with groups and sight lines continues to be a preoccupation in Verdcourt’s work, particularly in her still life groupings.

Her father’s art books were also a constant source of entertainment, though a desire to see the back of the painting when the page was turned was a source of frustration. As an adult, Verdcourt brings these works off the page and completes them in clay, inviting viewers to see what she imagines the reverse side of the painting to be. Verdcourt first “met clay and loved it” at Hornsey School of Art, though the freedom of approach she now enjoys was severely limited by the rigorous curriculum. At Hornsey clay was seen as a medium for sculpture, not for the domestic ware that was so prevalent in New Zealand on her arrival here in 1965 with husband John Lawrence, also highly trained and talented in working with ceramics.

While studying at art school in England, Verdcourt had the enviable opportunity to travel to Paris, seeing exhibitions of new work by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso who were both then still alive. This close connection with European art history resonates in Verdcourt’s work. It is this body of work that she turned to, after her children were grown and she had renewed her commitment to making, in the absence of suitable models for portraits. And so Verdcourt describes her work as “about being European”, yet considers herself to be a New Zealand potter as, had she remained in England, her work would likely have been considerably different to the work we see in this new survey exhibition.

Images:
Ann Verdcourt, Play, 2003. Grogged paper clay, colour slips, stains and oxides. Collection of TheNewDowse. Photographed by Richard Wotton.
Ann Verdcourt, Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne, 1996. Ceramic. Massey University Art Collection, Palmerston North. Photographed by Richard Wotton.

Event listed by whangareartmuseum

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