Lascaux a-go-go

Ewen Henderson: 5 May – 2 June 2018 

Oxford Ceramics Gallery

29 Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AA

Tel. 01865 512320

www.oxfordceramics.com 

Opening hours: Tues – Fri 11 – 6 pm, Sat 10 – 4 pm

There is a T. E. Hulme poem about the works of man reverting to nature, again becoming things. Raw, roughcast, burnt, the works of Ewen Henderson (1934 – 2000), paintings, drawings and pottery, seem to be going the other way, creating a primitive personal civilisation.

He does not waste much time in explanation. Several of the pieces currently displayed at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery in Jericho are simply entitled ‘Untitled’ and those that have names don’t offer more than ‘Vessel’, ‘Head Form’, ‘Jug Form’.

They look particularly fine together, under the lights, disclosing a continuous aesthetic: black red, ochre, pink, off-white. Few clues as to inspiration.

This reaching beyond perfection is not ominous, the laminated clays, acrylics and collages, impastos and gouaches build up layer upon layer of material as the works reinforce one another. This is not the end of the world, more something primal freed again after millennia.

‘Megalith’, for example, is described as ‘mixed clay with volcanic glazes on a metal stand’. A ceramic and a painting, appropriately lit, would adorn a fantasy dining-room, one at each end, if you wanted to imagine eating your avocado dip among the bone-rending of early man.

The prices sort out the collectors from the admirers. ‘Enfolding Form’, for instance, is on sale for £6,500, ‘Boat Form Dish’, £5,500. Judging by the red dots many of the more expensive items have already sold.

Ewen Henderson’s teabowls, irregular with strong surface colour, cost less – but are not intended for drinking tea.