Playing with Fire, a collaboration between Edmund de Waal, CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark and Kunstsilo in Norway, is now open at the Kunstsilo before its final stop at The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in 2025.
Playing with Fire, a collaboration between Edmund de Waal, CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark and Kunstsilo in Norway, is now open at the Kunstsilo before its final stop at The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in 2025.
This exhibition brings together a significant number of Salto’s ceramic works from the CLAY Museum and The Tangen Collection at Kunstsilo, the world’s largest collection of Nordic modernist art. Salto’s ceramics are being shown alongside his lesser-known and unseen works on paper, illustrations, writings and textiles, and a major new installation by de Waal which reflects on Salto’s enduring influence.
“Axel Salto is one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. He created a unique body of ceramic work that continues to fascinate me. His sculptures seem to be on the point of change: glazes are caught in flux. Vases swell as if to burst. He cared about the ways that patterns change course, shift energies, how an animal becomes a person, a man metamorphoses into a stag. Ovid ran powerfully through his life. That moment of change, transformation, is the moment when poetry occurs.”
- Edmund de Waal
Photography: Tor Simen Ulstein
A selection of works by Edmund de Waal from the V&A collection are included in this exhibition which explores the museum's collecting and exhibiting of studio pottery from the movement's beginnings to the present day.
De Waal's 2023 piece Letters to Amherst, II, is currently on view at the Georgia Museum of Art as part of their current exhibition highlighting recent acquisitions to the permanent collection.
De Waal's 2023 piece Letters to Amherst, II, is currently on view at the Georgia Museum of Art as part of their current exhibition highlighting recent acquisitions to the permanent collection.
Photography: Alzbeta Jaresova
Several new works, including the tsukubai illustrated here, wind, water, stone, have been installed at the New Art Centre at Roche Court, Wiltshire.
Spur, 2016, has been acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, following its inclusion in the major retrospective of the work of Rudolf Levy, co-organised by the MPK and the Uffizi.
one equal light (2023) has been donated to St Mary's Bourne Street where it is installed in the corridor linking the Church with the Russell Room, the focal point of organisation's new community space.
white island, II (for W.B.), which as a part of de Waal's exhibition white island at Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa, Ibiza, in 2018, has now been donated to the museum.
white island, II (for W.B.), which as a part of de Waal's exhibition white island at Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa, Ibiza, in 2018, has now been donated to the museum.
Photography: Vicent Marí
im Goldhaus (2019) is now on display in the Böttger Room of the Porcelain Gallery of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
im Goldhaus (2019) is now on display in the Böttger Room of the Porcelain Gallery of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
im Goldhaus was commissioned by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) for their permanent collection to mark 300 years since the death of the German alchemist, Johann Friedrich Böttger.
Titled after the laboratory of Augustus II the Strong, the Goldhaus am Zwinger was a place of alchemy; a testing-ground for research into minerals and ores, where Böttger and E. W. von Tschirnhaus conducted their experiments leading to the invention of European porcelain. ‘I have an image of a laboratory bench in the Goldhaus,’ de Waal writes, 'a place of enquiry and possibility... It is a vitrine which allows me to think through philosophy, optics, burnished mirrors, white porcelain, honed marble, gold and light…a floating installation through which you can see through towards Böttger or the menagerie or a Meissen dinner service. It is a sculpture of beginnings.'
Image © SKD. Photography: Oliver Killig.
metamorphosen, I (2017) has been gifted to the British Ambassador's Residence in Vienna, Austria, where it is now on display.
One of de Waal's largest installations to date, Signs & Wonders (2009) is on permanent display in the cupola of the V&A Museum in London. Commissioned in 2009 to celebrate the opening of the new ceramics galleries, the red circular shelf floats high up in the dome of the fourth floor and holds 425 porcelain vessels.
De Waal's 2007 piece, a change in the weather, is permanently installed in the conservatory at the New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury.
De Waal's 2007 piece, a change in the weather, is permanently installed in the conservatory at the New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury.
Photography: Paul Barker
a sounding line (2007) is on permanent display at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire.
Made especially for the Rijksmuseum, an idea (for the journey) was installed in the entrance to the Asian Pavilion in 2013. Two vitrines with cloudy, translucent glass, echo a pair of silk scroll paintings or the pages of an open book - the row of porcelain, a line of text.
Made especially for the Rijksmuseum, an idea (for the journey) was installed in the entrance to the Asian Pavilion in 2013. Two vitrines with cloudy, translucent glass, echo a pair of silk scroll paintings or the pages of an open book - the row of porcelain, a line of text.
24 porcelain vessels in a pair of aluminium and translucent plexiglass vitrines
152 × 133 × 15 cm overall
Photos: Edmund de Waal
of discretion in giving, II, 2017, is on loan to Aberdeen City Art Gallery.
of discretion in giving, II, 2017, is on loan to Aberdeen City Art Gallery.
Photography: Mike Bruce
a local history (2012) is a permanent installation for the Alison Richard Building at the University of Cambridge.
atlas (2012) was made as the partner piece to a local history and is on permanent display on the first floor of the Alison Richard Building at the University of Cambridge.
Edmund de Waal’s work, archiv (2016), is on permanent loan to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. The work was originally part of de Waal's solo exhibition, Irrkunst, held at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, in 2016.
The Pier Arts Centre in Orkney have acquired Edmund de Waal’s work, oir-thir (2016), for their permanent collection.
across the sky (2013) was acquired by the Usher Gallery in Lincoln and now is on permanent display in their ceramics collections.
Given to the V&A in 2015 to celebrate the former Chairman of the V&A Museum, Paul Ruddock, this piece is on permanent display in the ceramics galleries.
Given to the V&A in 2015 to celebrate the former Chairman of the V&A Museum, Paul Ruddock, this piece is on permanent display in the ceramics galleries.
Photo: Ian Skelton
De Waal's 2013 piece The First Day and the First Hour has been donated to the newly-renovated Art Gallery at Nottingham Castle.
De Waal's 2013 piece The First Day and the First Hour has been donated to the newly-renovated Art Gallery at Nottingham Castle.
Photography: Freddy Griffiths