Lucie Rie by Isabella Smith /// #9

Overview
In this exciting new introduction by Isabella Smith, Lucie Rie’s tumultuous life is explored through her extraordinary work.

From early promise as a ceramic artist in Europe, Rie found herself on the verge of obscurity in Britain and spent her wartime ‘cabbage-days’ creating buttons to make ends meet.

But by the 1950s, her intentionally flawed and experimental glazed designs had become popular British domestic wares. Her signature sgraffito technique and later ‘flared-lip’ vases are now among her most recognisable work.

Today, as Rie’s pots smash international auction records, interest in this émigré artist – who fled Nazi-occupied Europe to become an icon of ceramic art – continues to grow.

Book details
64 page hardback with 30 illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-9160416-9-1
Published by Eiderdown Books, 14 September 2022

About the author
Isabella Smith has been immersed in ceramic art since 2014, when she began working as a research assistant for a private collector of British art pottery. After an art history MA at the Courtauld Institute, which focused on the use of clay in performance art, she worked as an editor – first at Ceramic Review magazine and then at the Crafts Council’s magazine, Crafts. She is currently senior editor at Apollo and also contributes to publications including ArtReview, Frieze, the Guardian and The TLS. Lucie Rie published by Eiderdown Books is her first book.