POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

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 archaeological 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 Gazi series, with these two works I and IV, 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 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 the first President of the Crafts Council of Australia in 1971 and the first Chair Person of the Australia Council in 1973, and was elected World Crafts Council 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. The following excerpts are taken 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." "Gazzard's work used simple handforming techniques tomake 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 othersworking at the time."