Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery
4 March 2023 – 25 June 2023, 11am – 5pm
This major exhibition celebrated one of the most significant potters of the twentieth century, offering a rare opportunity to experience Lucie Rie’s (1902–1995) ground-breaking practice. The first survey of her pottery in the UK in over 20 years, Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery featured more than 100 works, including bowls, vases, tableware and buttons.
Born in Vienna, Rie’s early pots from the 1920s and 30s are infused with clarity and innovation, characteristics that informed her artistic approach throughout her working life. In 1938 she emigrated to London to escape Nazi persecution, a turning point in her life and work. As one of a small number of independent female potters working in Britain after the war, Rie was to forge her own path at odds with prevailing trends. Her remarkable body of work continues to inspire today.
Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery was organised by Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge and MIMA, part of Teesside University, in association with The Holburne Museum, Bath.
Gallery
This is a ravishing exhibition
THE OBSERVER
Dazzling
THE TIMES
Exhibition Publication
A new publication accompanied the exhibition including photographs of over 100 works and essays by Edmund de Waal, Tanya Harrod, Helen Ritchie, Eliza Spindel, Kimberley Chandler and Nigel Wood.
Find Out More
Hear from exhibition curator Eliza Spindel as she speaks about new research on the work of Lucie Rie at a study day that took place at MIMA.
Watch this discussion between exhibition curator Eliza Spindel, and researcher and writer Kimberley Chandler. This conversation explores the Kettle’s Yard exhibition ‘Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery’ with a particular focus on Rie’s button making practice.
Listen to this panel discussion, chaired by Deputy Editor of Crafts magazine Isabella Smith, in which leading contemporary ceramic artists Florian Gadsby, Kate Malone and Rich Miller discussed how Lucie Rie’s life and work still resonate today.
Listen to this panel discussion relating to Kettle’s Yard exhibition ‘Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery’, with writer Ali Smith, artist-filmmaker Sarah Wood, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Applied Arts at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Helen Ritchie and exhibition curator Eliza Spindel. In this panel discussion, the speakers discussed themes emerging from the exhibition from a variety of perspectives.
