Magdalene Odundo (Kenyan/British, Born 1950) Untitled
Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- Collection of Bruce Dayton & Ruth Stricker Dayton, Minnesota; Revere Auctions, November 2021; A private collection
- One of the world's most esteemed ceramic artists, Magdalene Odundo's body of work fuses traditional vernacular techniques of pot making with her contemporary aesthetic
- Her works are celebrated for their elegant, fluid forms and rich, polished, burnished surfaces, often resembling ancient vessels but with a modern, minimalist sensibility
- Moreover, Odundo's explorations extend beyond this cultural crossover with the human body and acts as a fundamental reference in her work
- Bold and often surreal, Odundo's work challenges our traditional perception of ceramic making, emphasising their aesthetic rather than utilitarian form that is readily yet delicately encapsulated within the present work. 'I have become obsessed by form
- What was once an embellishment has now become an engagement.' (Magdelene Odundo, Angaza Afrika: African Art Now, ed
- Christopher Spring, (London: Laurence King, 2008), p. 234.) Born in Nairobi, Odundo would move to the UK at the age of twenty-one, receiving a formal education at the Cambridge School of Art and later the Royal College of Art
- However, she also spent time at the Pottery Training Centre in Abuja before returning to teach at the Commonwealth Institute in London between 1976-79, before eventually moving back to Kenya and Nigeria to explore traditional practices
- These practises included coiling the clay rather than throwing it and burnishing rather than glazing the final product
- Through these methods to achieve her fluid forms, Odundo is able to express her own diasporic identity organically and authentically
- Recognised for the intellectual capacity of her work and cultural importance, Odundo was awarded a Damehood (DBE) for her services to Art in 2008 and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the Angela Ruskin University
- She has exhibited globally and her work is held in various major institutions
- In 2019, over fifty of her works were displayed in The Journey of Things at the Hepworth in Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre of Visual Arts in East Anglia and featured in the renowned 2022 exhibition Body Vessel Clay at Two Temple Place, London
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Notes : This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: Ω
Condition_report : This ceramic is in very good global condition. With some minor scuffs and marks. The body exhibiting no signs of repair or restoration when inspected under UV light.
