Oxford Ceramics Gallery is proud to present an important exhibition of the work of Ian Godfrey, the first show since Galerie Besson’s tribute in 2006, and its special display at SOFA Chicago in 2007.
Ian Godfrey (1942 - 1992) was one of the most remarkable British potters of the last fifty years, and as Lucie Rie proudly remarked of her old pupil, he was inimitable. He developed a language which sought to convey, in thrown and carved bowls, dishes, vases, cups and other forms, a beguiling imaginative landscape of his own, one which drew on his passion for early art and a wide variety of ceramics and other objects from across the ancient world. A magpie of the London museums and flea markets, Godfrey’s highly original sculptural pots were mystical and ritualistic and full of humour, but showed too a serious archaeological understanding of structures from earlier civilisations. He was an important part of a sculptural movement in ceramics that emerged from the London art schools in the 1950s and 60s, one that gave clay a new expressive voice.
This long-awaited show comprises major pieces never seen before in public, surveying work (including antelope vases, fox boxes, goblets, lidded pots and tea bowls) from right across Godfrey’s thirty year career. David Whiting, 2018