Ursula Morley-Price

April 16 - May 26, 2011

Ursula Morley-Price - Large Twist Bowl Form, 2013

Based in France since 1973, British ceramist Ursula Morley-Price made a name for herself in Europe and the United States in the 1980s and 1990s with her breathtakingly shaped creations made up of a multitude of vertical fins or fins, whose elaboration in clay covered with a creamy white or brown glaze seems to reach the limits of the possible. Still influenced by the search for movement, Ursula Morley-Price presents her latest sculptures at the Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste, with renewed forms inspired by Japanese decorations in fine paper ruches that unfold into delicate three-dimensional paper balls. The "open hearts" sculptures have become rounder and, following on from the artist's work presented this winter at McKenzie Fine Art in New York, the large curly sculptures have taken on oval shapes where waves of fins stretch and undulate around the form towards the shoulder. This mastery of swirling, undulating movement creates an ethereal rhythm and a play of light and shadow that permeates the work, making us forget the weight of the stoneware.

In 1967, Ursula Morley-Price visited the workshop of the famous English potter Bernard Leach in Saint-Yves (Cornwall) and definitively chose her destiny as a sculptor-ceramist. Established in the Charente region since 1973, she has gained considerable renown in Europe and the United States. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris holds a work by her that is highly emblematic of her desire to express the poetic idea of the passing wind by making matter "shiver". By constantly and rhythmically manipulating the contours of her forms, the artist pinches porcelain or stoneware doves to reduce them to the fineness of Japanese paper. These undulations - reminiscent of "Fortuny" pleated fabrics - give rise to an abundance of underwater, plant and organic allusions... An incomparable impression of life and delicacy.

Frédéric Bodet