Ursula Morley-Price
Ursula Morley-Price, Black Tower Pipe Form, 22/3. 2009, stoneware, h. 25 x 24 cm.
- 1936 born in London.
- 1961 Diploma in Fine Art from the Camberwell School of Art and from the Slade School of Fine Art, London.
- 1963 starts her activity as a ceramist with her husband Peter. Also teaches.
- 1973 moves to France.
- 1975 starts to exhibit in Great Britain.
- 1981 receives the distinction of the British Council Award.
- 1984 – 85 invited by the Manufacture National de Sèvres to their studio of research and creation.
- 1989 – onwards : works exclusively in her workshop in Charente.
Since the 70s, when she moved to France, Ursula Morley Price has focused all her ambitious artistic talent and will into defying the properties of clay – a unique and obsessive quest. Movement barely sketched, tensions taut, skin vibrant, extreme fragility and unsettling virtuosity combine together in a gentle rhythm to express the essence of a poetic life. Ursula Morley Price’s pieces are of an engineering precision, but carry in them a complex message, both subtle and determined : within the play of waves one reads simultaneously of a kind of inherent eternity as well as the image of human vulnerability.
After organizing four personal exhibitions dedicated to the artist, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste now permanently presents a selection of Ursula Morley-Price’s most recent work. It has provided support and assistance in 2013 to an important Retrospective of her work at the Troyes Museum of Modern Art.
“Born in London and initially trained as a painter, Ursula Morley-Price has, since 1980, practised the ancient technique of coiling in order to create ceramic pieces of a great fineness characterized by the movement of waves in the breeze. Each piece is developed around a central form – vase, bottle or dish. Onto this framework, by progressively adding small coils which she pinches and thins to the very limit permitted by the clay, she patiently builds fine wings – as an undulating wave launched into space. Despite their base in utilitarian forms, derived from the improbable combination of the lace ruffs of the portraits of the 16th and 17th Centuries and the fine paper honey-combed Japanese decorations (memories of her childhood), the sculptures of Ursula Morley-Price tend towards a harmonious and totally personal imagery . Ursula Morley-Price works with a range of matt glazes going from a creamy white to rich dark browns, and passing through the subtle tones of bronze or greenish blue. The edges, of an extreme fineness, are almost serrated. The turning and undulating movement creates an airy rhythm and a play of light and shade that runs throughout the piece making one forget the weight of the stoneware”.
Virginie Desrante, Conservateur, Département du patrimoine et des collections, Sèvres – Cité de la céramique. In “Circuit céramique à Sèvres. La scène française contemporaine. Edition Sèvres- Cité de la céramique, 2010.”
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
2024
- « Matter in motion« , Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste (F)
2022
- McKenzie Fine Art, New York (USA)
2021
- “d’hier et d’aujourd’hui“. Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste (F)
- “Shapes From Out of Nowhere : Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA)
- “les Flammes” au MAM de la Ville de Paris (F)
- “Dialogues” au musée d’Angoulême (F)
2020
- La Piscine Museum Roubaix (F)
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy (F)
2019
2018
- Puls Ceramics Brussels
2017
- McKenzie Fine Art, New-York (USA)
2016
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy (F). Works
2014
- AD Intérieurs 2014, Le Cabinet d’une élégante, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. (F)
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy (F). Works
2013
- Retrospective at theTroyes Museum of Modern Art. (F)
- McKenzie Fine Art, New York (USA)
2012
- Hélène Porée Gallery, Paris (F).
2011
- Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Toucy, Yonne (F).
2010
- Un regard sur la céramique, fables contemporaines, Galerie Jean-Jacques Dutko, Paris (F).
- Circuit Céramique, La scène française contemporaine, musée de Sèvres (F).
- McKenzie Fine Art, New York. (USA)
2008
- McKenzie Fine Art, New York (USA)
- Sculptures in clay, Museum of Outdoor Art, Englewood, California (USA)
2007
- Galerie Pierre, Paris (F).
BIBLIOGRAPHY (recent publications)
- BNew-York Times. 20 December 2017. “What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week. Ursula Morley-Price“
- “Ursula Morley-Price, 80th Anniversary“. Catalogue of the exhibition. 2016
- Ursula Morley-Price. « Le mouvement immobile » in « la céramique au féminin ». N° 732. December 2014
- Ursula Morley-Price At the Museum of Modern Art of Troyes (F) , published by la Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, 2013. To order the Catalogue
- Dans la presse internationale : Interior Design, août 2013.
- Virginie DESRANTE, “Ursula Morley-Price“, in “Circuit céramique à Sèvres. La scène française contemporaine”, Edition Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique, 2010.
- Ursula Morley-Price, Mouvements – Monographie, Ed. La Revue de la Céramique et du Verre, 2008.
- Frédéric BODET, “Ursula Morley-Price” in Céramiques du XXe siècle, collection du musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, 2006.
PUBLIC and PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Ursula Morley-Price’s work feature in numerous public and private collections principally :
-
Ursula Morley-Price, Large Mouth Form, collection permanente du musée d’Art moderne de Troyes.
Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA).
- Centre National des Arts Plastiques CNAP Paris
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA)
- Los Angeles County Museum (USA)
- Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art ‘USA)
- Hamburg Museum (D)
- KeramicMuseum, Hasselt (D).
- Louds Museum,Stuttgart (D)
- Brye Museum, Everson, Chicago (USA).
- Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (F).
- Sèvres Cité de la Céramique (F).
- Limoges Museum, (F).
- Musée d’Art Moderne de Troyes (F).
Ursula Morley-Price. Plume de Fontaine & Large Twist Form. Collection permanente du musée d’Art moderne de Troyes.
- Brest Fine Arts Museum (F).
- Fitswilliam Museum, Cambridge (UK).
- The Museum of Outdoor Art, Englewood (USA).
