Elizabeth Fritsch: Otherworldly Vessels: The Hepworth Wakefield
Current exhibitions exhibition
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Overview
ELIZABETH FRITSCH: OTHERWORLDLY VESSELS
8 March 2025 to February 2026
The Hepworth WakefieldA survey exhibition of one of Britain’s foremost ceramicists, Elizabeth Fritsch (b.1940).The exhibition brings together over 100 works made between the 1970s and 2013 drawn largely from the artist’s own rarely-seen private collection. It explores Fritsch’s extraordinary forms, techniques and influences across four decades of her career. Initially trained as a classical musician, in 1966 Fritsch taught herself to make hand-built pots before enrolling at the Royal College of Art to study ceramics under Hans Coper, Eduardo Paolozzi and Lucie Rie.Fritsch was one of several graduates associated with the ‘New Ceramics’ group whose radical and decorative approach challenged studio pottery traditions and ushered in a new era of British ceramics in the 1980s and 1990s. Fritsch’s unique forms work in harmony with the colourful geometric hand-painted patterns on the vessel’s surface which often create optical illusions. The exhibition explores her diverse influences from classical and jazz music, mathematics, Surrealist literature, metaphysics, and architecture.Fritsch’s work has continued to challenge the possibilities of pottery, sculpture and art in the 21st century, earning her global recognition with works in collections around the world.“Elizabeth Fritsch is regarded as one of the UK’s leading artists working with clay, and museums and collectors across the world have been admirers of her work for decades. This exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield will be an important moment to bring public attention to Fritsch’s significant role in the development of British ceramics, to gain deeper understanding of her creative process and to enjoy the beauty of her unique works.” - Adrian Sassoon
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WORKS
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VISITOR INFORMATION
All photographs © India Hobson, Courtesy Adrian Sassoon, London and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
