Women and Ceramics

by Moira Vincentelli

Published 23 March 2000
From humble cooking pot to post-modern vessel, women have had a special relationship with fired clay. Since the earliest times women have made pottery and clay sculptures, they have cooked, carried water, stored and served food in pottery and have used ceramics in domestic rituals and decorative display. In her wide-ranging discussion of this subject, Moira Vincentelli examines some of the great female ceramic traditions such as Pueblo pottery and considers the notable success women have had over the 20th century from Suzie Cooper and Eva Zeisel in design to individual ceramic artists such as Lucie Rie and Magdalene Odundo. She also shows how women have left their mark in the field of ceramics as writers, teachers, business women, gallery owners and collectors, from Madame de Pompadour to the collectors of blue and white china and lustre jugs of Welsh dresser display.