Ceramic form, 'Delos: Naxos', stoneware, Marea Gazzard, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1972

Ceramic form, flattened roughly circular hollow form, rising vertically from narrow oval flat base, handformed from coils, with beaten and paddled surface, showing beating marks. Light coloured body, with white semi-matt glaze on outer surface. Strips of leather glued under base.
(With 'Paros' this is one of a pair from the Delos series.)
(Includes mark on reverse where it touched another pot in the kiln, and also a crack that has been repaired by Gazzard.)
Ceramic form is 95/169/3-1 and MAAS constructed travelling frame is 95/169/3-x

Designed by Marea Gazzard (born 1928). Gazzard trained in ceramics in 1953-54 at East Sydney Technical College, and at London Central School for Arts and Crafts in 1956-57. Unlike most potters of the time, she was less interested in Oriental-inspired wheelthrown forms, and more interested in handbuilt vessel forms, influenced by modernist design, Cycladic sculpture (from her own Greek background), and other archaelogical forms such as pre-Colombian pottery and sculpture. From the mid-1960s Gazzard 'presented forms which are completely contained apart from a slash or narrow opening' (Christine France 1994, p50). This work culminated in a controversial 'milestone' exhibition, 'Clay and Fibre' in 1973, with weaver Mona Hessing, and was later developed in commissions like 'Mingarri- the Little Olgas' 1984-88, for the new Parliament House in Canberra. Her work contains references to landscape forms and more particularly, human torsos and heads. The Delos series, with the two works Poros and Naxos, were included in the significant 1973 exhibition. The exhibition was characterised by groups of bold white handbuilt forms.

The following excerpt is taken from the preaccession screen "Gazzard is important in the chronology of Australian postwar ceramics, as a significant and influential innovator. It is also interesting in that her work draws on the ceramic and sculptural traditions of earlier cultures, and yet is also in a modernist tradition. Gazzard is significant, not only for her consistent pursuit of a particular direction in ceramic work, but also for her professional roles in the development of the crafts in Australia. She was thefirst president of the Crafts Council of Australia in 1971 and the firstchairperson of the Australia Council in 1973, and was elected World CraftsCouncil vice-president for Asia in 1972 and the president of the WCC in 1982."

Made by Marea Gazzard in her studio in Windsor Street, Paddington in 1972. Gazzard's work was characterised by her use of handforming rather than wheel-throwing; she handcoiled the clay into forms, then beat or paddled the surface, before inscribing it with sgraffito lines and rubbing in oxides.
Gazzard is one of the most influential ceramic artists to have worked in
Australia in the postwar period. Her ideas and processes ran counter to the
prevailing Oriental ideology for much of this time, yet was very influential
and even controversial.
The following excerpt comes from the preaccession screen "Gazzard's work used simple handforming techniques to make monumental forms with a sculptural presence. They are primitive, yetmodern, subtle and yet complex. Her abstraction of human form and landscapeforms through these ceramic techniques made her work very different from others working at the time".

Exhibited in Clay + Fibre, an exhibition of ceramics and weaving by Gazzard and weaver Mona Hessing. Also exhibited in Marea Gazzard's retrospective exhibition at the SH Ervin Gallery in 1994. Remained in the collection of the artist. Exhibited in Clay + Fibre, an exhibition of ceramics and weaving by Gazzard and weaver Mona Hessing. Also exhibited in Marea Gazzard's retrospective exhibition at the SH Ervin Gallery in 1994. Remained in the collection of the artist.

The following excerpt is from the preaccession screen "Gazzard is one of the most influential ceramic artists to have worked in Australia in the postwar period. Her ideas and processes ran counter to the prevailing Oriental ideology for much of this time, yet was very influential and even controversial. The 1973 exhibition Clay + Fibre, where Gazzard's work was shown with weaving by Mona Hessing at both the Bonython Gallery in Sydney and the National Gallery of Victoria, provoked a range of critical reviews by eg. Patrick McCaughey, Alan McCulloch and Donald Brook, mainly centred around the dilemma of whether these forms were art or craft. Gazzard's work shows a consistent development from the early non-vessel forms like Dial 1 and through the strong statements of the white 1972 pairs of Delos and Gazi, to the monumental forms of the 1990s like Milos 1, also in the collection. The recent retrospective exhibition of Gazzards work (SH Ervin Gallery 1994) and the publication of Christine France's book, "Marea Gazzard, Form and Clay", Art and Australia 1994 have reinforced her signifigance in Australian ceramic History."
Remained in collection of the artist since 1972.

Purchased 1995

Signed and dated, under base, centre, handwritten, black felt tiped ben "GAZZARD '72" and handwritten in red biro, "M", depicted within a circle

95/169/3

660 mm

700 mm

210 mm