The Modern Women Artists series
The Modern Women Artists series of collectable books reveals an alternative history of art, telling the story of important female artists whose art might otherwise be overlooked, overshadowed or forgotten. Working across a range of disciplines and artistic styles in the first half of the twentieth century, all of the women included in this series were modern. Read together, these books begin to redress the untold history of modern art, connecting stories of female creativity which the history books have all too often left out.
From Buttons to Bowls: Isabella Smith on Ceramicist Lucie Rie
In this exciting new introduction by Isabella Smith, Lucie Rie’s tumultuous life is explored through her extraordinary work.
From early promise as a ceramic artist in Europe, Rie found herself on the verge of obscurity in Britain and spent her wartime ‘cabbage-days’ creating buttons to make ends meet.
But by the 1950s, her intentionally flawed and experimental glazed designs had become popular British domestic wares. Her signature sgraffito technique and later ‘flared-lip’ vases are now among her most recognisable work.
Today, as Rie’s pots smash international auction records, interest in this émigré artist – who fled Nazi-occupied Europe to become an icon of ceramic art – continues to grow.
Author:
Isabella Smith has been immersed in ceramic art since 2014, when she began working as a research assistant for a private collector of British art pottery. After an art history MA at the Courtauld Institute, which focused on the use of clay in performance art, she worked as an assistant editor at Ceramic Review magazine, and is now deputy editor at the Crafts Council’s magazine, Crafts. She also writes for publications such as Apollo, ArtReview, Frieze, the Guardian and The TLS. Lucie Rie published by Eiderdown Books isher first book.
Hosted by:
Harriet Olsen is the founder of Eiderdown Books. She established the independent publishing house specialising in books about women artists after more than a decade in museum publishing (and having lost count of the number of books she’d produced about male artists). Harriet is also Head of Publishing at Pallant House Gallery in Sussex.
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