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Still life- two bottles and a bowl, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
  • Artist
    Gwyn Hanssen Pigott
  • Born
    1935
  • Title
    Still life- two bottles and a bowl
  • Date of Production
    1988
  • Medium
    Porcellaneous stoneware
  • Credit Details
    Purchased, 1988, © Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Still life- two bottles and a bowl

Ballarat born Gwyn Hanssen Pigott worked for three years at the Ivan McMeeken Sturt Pottery, NSW as an apprentice before furthering her training overseas with Ray Finch, Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew.  After returning to Australia in 1965 to research porcelain enamels at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with Ivan McMeekin, Hanssen Pigott  then moved to France where she remained until 1973.  Once back in Australia, the artist established a workshop with John Pigott in Kingston Tasmania(1975) before moving to Adelaide (1980) and finally Netherdale in  Queensland (1989).

A pivotal work in Hanssen Pigott's  career, this piece was born out of an invitation to fire pieces in Heja Chong's Bizen style Noborigama kiln at Cottles Bridge, Victoria.  In a letter to the Gallery in May 2006 Hanssen Pigott says of this occasion  - "The protracted firing to very high temperatures made the pots dense, with heavily ashed surfaces and surprising flame patterns.  Results were unpredictable, exciting.  I was forced to simplify shapes, and turned to Giorgio Morandi's sketches for inspiration for bottle shapes and strong Italianate bowl forms to withstand the elemental firing.  This led to looking at negative spaces, groupings - and my first still life: the beginning of a new ceramic adventure."