Lucie Rie had no time for high-flown talk about the art of ceramics. ‘I like to make pots – but I do not like to talk about them,’ she’d say. ‘I am not a thinker, I am not an art historian, I just do.’ It was her profession, she would maintain.
Rie’s work is astonishingly self-sufficient. She belonged to no school and left none
Her distaste for people preening about her craft went a bit further too. ‘I don’t like pots, I just like a few pots,’ she stated. When I interviewed her for the Sunday Telegraph back in 1988, she even said: ‘It’s extraordinary but I hardly like any potters – Hans Coper and then finish.’ She was absolute about her inferiority to Coper, whom, unlike herself, she considered an artist. ‘I have colours and I have easier shapes. Compared to him, I am vulgar, more vulgar, so I am more likeable.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in