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Gordon Baldwin Vessels and Drawings

16 May to 21 June 2008

Gordon Baldwin is one of Britain‘s most significant and influential ceramic artists. Over the past fifty years he has continued to refine his distinctive language of abstraction, combining sculptural form with painted surface. Experimentation and intuition have long been key elements of his working practice; he speaks of his approach as continually ‘making, abandoning and bringing back a form’ and of striving ‘to discover the resonances’ of a piece.

Baldwin describes this current body of work as expressive of ‘feelings of mortality’ and of being ‘dredged out of some dark areas external to me’. The works are indeed sombre in colour. However, alongside his characteristic monochromes - the blacks and whites, which respectively signify ideas of interiority and exteriority and the greys which represent the modulation of whiteness - there is also a deep red that refers us directly to the earth. Mass and volume are always of prime importance in his work, but so is his concern for the interior space. Of this the viewer is offered a glimpse, but the enclosing walls of the vessels ensure that it remains elusive and mysterious.

Still, solemn and enigmatic, a number of these stark, poetic works reflect Baldwin‘s affinity with naturally occurring forms. The ‘Vessel found at the Sea‘s Edge’ and a series of six ‘Gathered Abandoned Vessels’ are strongly reminiscent of stranded boulders. Others indicate existential concerns as in his ‘Vessels in the Form of an Ancient Silence’ and the series of forms entitled ‘Looking for a Place to Be’.

Biographical notes

Born 1932, Gordon Baldwin studied at the Central School of Art and Design during the 1950‘s . His work has since been exhibited internationally and is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Boijman‘s van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. He was awarded an OBE in 1992 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts. He received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London in 2000.



For more information, transparencies, or to arrange an interview with the artist please contact

Juliana Barrett

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