Huxley-Parlour are delighted to announce Selected Works 1955–1982, an exhibition of works by artist and ceramicist, Lucie Rie. Created between 1955 and 1982, the works in this exhibition were produced during her London period. While in this city, the artist developed a distinctive and sophisticated visual language that drew from historical ceramic practices, geology, as well as Modernism, and formed a legacy as one of the most important potters and artists of the British Post-War period.

Rie made a conscious choice to move away from traditional British styles of pottery. Instead, the potter looked elsewhere, drawing from classical antiquity and examples of ancient Roman pottery in particular. Rie adopted the use of manganese glaze, effecting a radiance of golden or bronze hues on the surfaces of her pots. In other instances, she extended the necks of her vases and flared their tips as evocations of Byzantine works. During a visit to Avebury in the late 1940s, Rie encountered Bronze-Age vessels decorated with sgraffito, and subsequently began to experiment with the technique, adorning many of her works with similar rhythmical cadences of lines and metrical motifs. Geology and ecology likewise permeated her art. Natural forms resonate in her pots, reminiscent of the graceful swirls and curves of seashells, while glazes often resemble the textures of pumice or coral. Rie achieved many of these effects through rigorous experimentation; she carefully examined the chemical processes of glazing, discovering that glazes could be layered, causing them to bubble, fluctuate in density and tone, and create pit marks and inconsistencies in the pot’s finish, an unpredictability which the artist embraced. Pottery was, to Rie, an ‘adventure’ of an ‘endless variety of the most exciting kind’. While her inspirations and practices were broad, Rie always maintained her Modernist sensibilities; ‘Art alive is always modern,’ she wrote. Contemporary architecture and avant-garde Modernism formed much of her inspiration, and her pots display a fascination with form and line. Throughout her oeuvre, an aesthetic simplicity and lucidity is maintained, betraying her acute consciousness of Modernist tastes. Although she didn’t regard her pottery as ‘art’, Rie nevertheless significantly contributed to the canon of twentieth-century cultural production. The works in this exhibition present her intersection of formal experimentation, historical influences, and contemporary artistic movements.