Output details

'The Thoughful Potter and the Politics of Pots'

Catalogue Article

for 'Emmanuel Cooper Retrospective' and Editor of academic articles in the catalogue. ISBN 978-1-905865-60-4

This catalogue article forms part of a collection for the 'Emmanuel Cooper Retrospective' Exhibition commissioned by Ruthin Crafts Centre for a national tour of his work. The author was editor and lead for the essay collections. Emmanuel Cooper was an honorary Doctor of the University of Derby and died in 2012. This article outlines Cooper’s social and political understanding of people’s artworks, and places Cooper in context as a researcher of the ceramic artists and potters of the 20th century. This essay acknowledges the politics of pots and making, but also sets Cooper in this context as a champion of arts makers and crafts skills.

The edited collection claims Cooper as a maker, glaze specialist with work in the V&A, an academic specialist, critic and authority, as well as collector of artworks of significance in the canon of potters.

There is very little written about Cooper and his work as a potter or as an academic. This is the first set of critical essays on his work and life. It forms a part of a longer term relationship with his estate and the ‘Emmanuel Cooper Archive’. The research developed from Cooper’s own archive and from interviews with his family and colleagues.

The work is original in being able to present a multifaceted collection of essays which illustrate the diversity of Cooper’s abilities and interests, such as writing 27 books covering not only ceramics within art criticism, but also fine art histories and biographies of significant potters of the twentieth century and his work as founding editor of ‘Ceramic Review’.