Provenance
Galerie Besson, London
Private Collection, US (acquired from the above in 1988)
Private Collection, UK (acquired from the above in 2016)
Catalogue Essay
Ewen Henderson - His Inside / Outside Complex Series

Lucie Rie considered Ewen Henderson to be one of her most important pupils; she had taught him at Camberwell College of Arts in the mid 1960s. But no British artist has been quite so radical in moving away from the essential symmetry of the wheel to a constructed sculpture of both great power and delicacy. Henderson initially studied as a painter and brought its sensibilities to clay, able from the outset to see ceramics as an ideal medium in which he could express two and three-dimensional ideas, using ‘fluxed earth’ (as he called it) to push boundaries, to create completely new forms and surfaces. He knew he was re-writing the rules many times over. This outstanding piece from his 'Complex Series' of 1988 is a summation of a path he had been following for some years, concerned as much with the interiors as the exteriors of his pots, but now breaking with the vessel form altogether as he moved from big jars, bowl and dish shapes to very complex open pieces, adopting the vocabulary of pure sculpture. As he wrote at the time:

My present work is obsessed with edges, points of change, endings. It explores the significance of what is broken, torn or cut, the ability of single or multiple forms to speak of either compression or expansion, flatness or fullness. It is a kind of drawing in three dimensions. I start with fragments - familiar, found, improvised - and then build up to complex structures that invite the observer to consider such matters as memory, invention and metaphor.

It was as if, like a Cubist painter, he was taking an object and opening it out into a multiplicity of planes and contours. In doing so pieces like this example strongly evoke forms in the landscape; aspects of its intricate geology, animal sculls, the sentinel standing stones that punctuate our moorlands, all themes that preoccupied Henderson through this period. His use of clay laminates with stains and oxides resulted in richly textured surfaces and subtle colouration, 'introducing a palette' as he once put it. Expansion and contraction during the firing further contorted, split and blistered the surfaces, creating deep patinas that resembled the natural actions of weather and time. His methods of building gave him the necessary freedom to add and subtract, to rethink and change a piece as it was being made.

This piece was first exhibited at Galerie Besson in London, the principal London gallery for both Henderson’s and Rie’s work from the late 1980s and through the following decade. Its enterprising and visionary owner Anita Besson (1933-2015) had first exhibited both potters, alongside Hans Coper, at Fischer Fine Arts in St James’s, where she had been a director. This piece shows Henderson at his most ambitious, a technical and imaginative high wire act, a structural tour-de-force which shows the artist at his most playful too, teasing the clay into structures never before seen in ceramics.

-David Whiting

Property of a Private Collector, UK

78

Ewen Henderson

Form from the ‘Complex Series’

mixed laminated clays and glazes
60.5 x 43.5 x 28 cm (23 7/8 x 17 1/8 x 11 in.)
Executed in 1988.

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 ♠

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
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+1 267 221 9152 mroddy@phillips.com

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+ 44 20 7318 4061 hhighley@phillips.com

Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

London Auction 5 October 2018

51
Kathy Butterly
Overgrown
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £16,250
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52
This lot is no longer available.
53
George Ohr
Tall two-handled vase
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
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54
George Ohr
Mottled two-sided, two-handled vase
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
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55
Ken Price
Edo
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
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56
Yoshitomo Nara
Untitled
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £125,000
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57
This lot is no longer available.
58
Claudi Casanovas
Lluna Nova (Juno, La Daurada, Mercè, Nigra sum, Nuria), from the 'Lunar Cycle' series
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠†
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59
Lucio Fontana
Testa di Medusa
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ♠
Sold for £37,500
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60
Ai Weiwei
He Xie
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
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61
Lucie Rie
Footed bowl
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £50,000
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62
Lucio Fontana
Cavallo
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £549,000
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63
Fausto Melotti
Female figure
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £56,250
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64
Simone Leigh
Untitled
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡
Sold for £27,500
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65
Sarah Lucas
Toilet Elevation
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ♠†
Sold for £87,500
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66
Roy Lichtenstein
Ceramic Sculpture #10
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £309,000
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67
Peter Voulkos
Untitled vase
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £40,000
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68
Andrew Lord
The Italian set in intense light. Angled. Black.
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
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69
Betty Woodman
Balustrade Relief Vase 07-4
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000
Sold for £47,500
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70
Hans Coper
Spade form
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ♠
Sold for £62,500
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71
Hans Coper
Cycladic arrow form
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £102,500
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72
Hans Coper
Cycladic arrow form
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £156,250
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73
Roberto Lugo
Obama and Me
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡
Sold for £35,000
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74
Pablo Picasso
Hibou
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ♠
Sold for £93,750
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75
Ron Nagle
Tail Dragger
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £12,500
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76
Ron Nagle
Schtub
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £13,750
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77
Ken Price
Flat Back
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 †
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78
Ewen Henderson
Form from the ‘Complex Series’
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ♠
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79
This lot is no longer available.
80
Sterling Ruby
The Fed Mortar (Rainbow)
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000
Sold for £50,000
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81
Otani Workshop
Netherworld Resident
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000 ‡
Sold for £6,250
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82
Otani Workshop
Lion Head
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000 ‡
Sold for £6,250
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Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

London Auction 5 October 2018

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

78

Ewen Henderson

Form from the ‘Complex Series’

Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

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