James Tower

JAMES TOWER CERAMICS, SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS

CONTENTS

4

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Timothy Wilcox

8

JAMES TOWER, POTTER-ARTIST

Timothy Wilcox

30

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1982

James Tower

36

‘NEITHER POTS NOR VESSELS’: THE CERAMICS OF JAMES TOWER

Tanya Harrod

44

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1968

James Tower

46

ANIMATING THE SURFACE. JAMES TOWER’S ORGANIC CERAMICS OF THE 1950S

Lesley Jackson

54

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1982

James Tower

56

SCULPTURE, MODELLING AND POTTERY

Conor Wilson

60

CERAMICS, SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS

94 Public collections 1 James Tower at ­Corsham, mid 1950s

95 Chronology

CONTENTS

4

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Timothy Wilcox

8

JAMES TOWER, POTTER-ARTIST

Timothy Wilcox

30

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1982

James Tower

36

‘NEITHER POTS NOR VESSELS’: THE CERAMICS OF JAMES TOWER

Tanya Harrod

44

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1968

James Tower

46

ANIMATING THE SURFACE. JAMES TOWER’S ORGANIC CERAMICS OF THE 1950S

Lesley Jackson

54

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 1982

James Tower

56

SCULPTURE, MODELLING AND POTTERY

Conor Wilson

60

CERAMICS, SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS

94 Public collections 1 James Tower at ­Corsham, mid 1950s

95 Chronology

As the decade of the 1950s progressed, Tower became increasingly adventurous. Isolated from the playful vernacular of Newland and his Central School followers on the one hand and from the pseudo-orientalism of Leach on the other, he

11 Oblong Dish. 1958.

Earthenware with tin glaze.

Dimensions unknown.

Pottery Quarterly, Winter 1959

seemed to form a one-man movement. He was a painter working in clay, and his concerns were much more closely mirrored in the work of artists such as Victor Pasmore or Graham Sutherland than anything in the field of ceramics. This suggestion tends to be confirmed by the crisis Tower experienced in 1958–59 when he stopped making glazed vessels of any sort and began to concentrate on large sculptural forms in pale terracotta, some of which were cast in bronze. Dissatisfaction

10 Fish Dish. 1957.

Earthen­ware with tin glaze. L: 46.5 cm. Erskine Hall & Coe

of the École de Paris.10 The so-called abstraction lyrique of artists such as Jean-René Bazaine (1904–2001), who made specific reference in his picture titles to trees, woods and other landscape motifs, was more sensual and organic than the geometric, analytical tendencies of British abstraction. This Continental influence may have led Tower towards the series of fish platters which emerged in the mid 1950s, where the form is more literal but the decoration looser and more expressive, as if to evoke the dappled light playing on the surface of the water the fish is submerged in.

16

Timothy Wilcox

James Tower, potter-artist

17

As the decade of the 1950s progressed, Tower became increasingly adventurous. Isolated from the playful vernacular of Newland and his Central School followers on the one hand and from the pseudo-orientalism of Leach on the other, he

11 Oblong Dish. 1958.

Earthenware with tin glaze.

Dimensions unknown.

Pottery Quarterly, Winter 1959

seemed to form a one-man movement. He was a painter working in clay, and his concerns were much more closely mirrored in the work of artists such as Victor Pasmore or Graham Sutherland than anything in the field of ceramics. This suggestion tends to be confirmed by the crisis Tower experienced in 1958–59 when he stopped making glazed vessels of any sort and began to concentrate on large sculptural forms in pale terracotta, some of which were cast in bronze. Dissatisfaction

10 Fish Dish. 1957.

Earthen­ware with tin glaze. L: 46.5 cm. Erskine Hall & Coe

of the École de Paris.10 The so-called abstraction lyrique of artists such as Jean-René Bazaine (1904–2001), who made specific reference in his picture titles to trees, woods and other landscape motifs, was more sensual and organic than the geometric, analytical tendencies of British abstraction. This Continental influence may have led Tower towards the series of fish platters which emerged in the mid 1950s, where the form is more literal but the decoration looser and more expressive, as if to evoke the dappled light playing on the surface of the water the fish is submerged in.

16

Timothy Wilcox

James Tower, potter-artist

17

or even woodland and field patterns evoking qualities of longevity and resilience.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was more than a wake-up call that Britain’s international influence was on the wane; it sent a collective shudder through the British consciousness, requiring a re-evaluation of old certainties. The art world’s embrace of

15 Study for sculpture Hollow Form. c. 1960–65.

Pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper, 20.8 × 36.5 cm. ­Private collection

the new American painting was a challenge to the establishment, a prophetic participation in a different world order, cold, harsh and uncomfortable though it was.

Tower’s personal reinvention as a sculptor took place through these years of enormous creativity in British art. Despite having exhibited his pottery six times with Gimpel fils during the 1950s, he did not appear in magazine advertisements as one of their stable of artists.15 When, after a five-year absence, he mounted his first exhibition of sculpture, he was honoured with an illustrated catalogue, an indicator of status, certainly, but one which reflected the higher monetary value of work which required marketing and capital investment, especially if the unique terracottas were

14 Concave Form X. 1962.

Unglazed white earthen­ ware. 46 × 64 cm. Private collection

riverbeds, scour through the earth, opening up the form, connecting the surface with the interior. Tapering to a foot at the base, they are still also ceramic jars, their interior volume cracked open by some seismic force.

British landscape imagery of the 1940s and 1950s was essentially traditional and looked to nature as a symbol of timeless values through a period of upheaval, destruction and rebirth.14 Landscape represented the national character, both ­directly through association with specific places and indirectly with ruins, standing stones

20

Timothy Wilcox

James Tower, potter-artist

21

or even woodland and field patterns evoking qualities of longevity and resilience.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was more than a wake-up call that Britain’s international influence was on the wane; it sent a collective shudder through the British consciousness, requiring a re-evaluation of old certainties. The art world’s embrace of

15 Study for sculpture Hollow Form. c. 1960–65.

Pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper, 20.8 × 36.5 cm. ­Private collection

the new American painting was a challenge to the establishment, a prophetic participation in a different world order, cold, harsh and uncomfortable though it was.

Tower’s personal reinvention as a sculptor took place through these years of enormous creativity in British art. Despite having exhibited his pottery six times with Gimpel fils during the 1950s, he did not appear in magazine advertisements as one of their stable of artists.15 When, after a five-year absence, he mounted his first exhibition of sculpture, he was honoured with an illustrated catalogue, an indicator of status, certainly, but one which reflected the higher monetary value of work which required marketing and capital investment, especially if the unique terracottas were

14 Concave Form X. 1962.

Unglazed white earthen­ ware. 46 × 64 cm. Private collection

riverbeds, scour through the earth, opening up the form, connecting the surface with the interior. Tapering to a foot at the base, they are still also ceramic jars, their interior volume cracked open by some seismic force.

British landscape imagery of the 1940s and 1950s was essentially traditional and looked to nature as a symbol of timeless values through a period of upheaval, destruction and rebirth.14 Landscape represented the national character, both ­directly through association with specific places and indirectly with ruins, standing stones

20

Timothy Wilcox

James Tower, potter-artist

21

16 Concave Form VIII. 1961. Bronze.

47 × 78.7 × 25.4 cm.

Erskine, Hall & Coe

to be cast in bronze, as envisaged. In some respects there is a strong element of

their rounder shapes evoking clumps of foliage. Copse, for which numerous stud-

continuity between the last ceramics and the first sculptures; the voids painted onto

ies exist, is the most complex, an outburst of organic growth which then folds over,

the black-and-white bowls become large hollows, their stripy surround is incised

protectively, to form an arch or cave. As Head of Sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic,

over the entire surface. As furrows or geological strata, they mirror a process where

Tower extended his investigations into new materials, producing a large panel in

two dimensions become three, keeping both options open.

fibreglass which is effectively a painting, with splashes of tinted resin re-enacting

The fourteen large pieces exhibited in 1963 seem to reflect a long process of

22

Timothy Wilcox

17 Fibreglass Panel with Spray Pattern. 1975.

Fibreglass. 91.5 × 183 cm.

Private collection

the sea spray he observed just yards from his classroom.

refinement, their forms pared down to the essentials, and they perhaps stick too

In none of Tower’s work of the 1960s and 1970s is figuration entirely aban-

close to their ceramic forbears. Few of them are realised fully in the round but in-

doned. Indeed the longer he worked, the more the nature imagery of the 1950s

stead present a single aspect to the viewer, one which often reads as a negative

tended to reassert itself. The impulse to return to ceramics in 1978 was driven in

space, with all the wider implications of that epithet. The drawings, none of which

part by the realisation that pottery engages directly with the dimension of time, the

are dated, are more daring, exploring images of transformation and fragmentation.

idea implanted by Dora Billington right at the outset of Tower’s experience of the

The ribbed effect of parallel white lines is virtually the only element common to

medium. On a sheet of lecture notes, Tower later wrote, ‘Ceramics less intellectu-

both drawings and sculptures, so it is not certain whether drawing preceded sculp-

al than sculpture[,] more emotive response to surface and form, quicker – more

ture or led out of it.

­existential’.16

By the time of Tower’s next exhibition, in Brighton in 1968, the forms are dy-

Drawing, as a means of developing ideas for sculpture, was, when it came to it,

namic and also more descriptive, with verticals suggesting tree trunks or plant stems,

too slow, too indirect, and a poor substitute for actually making. With clay Tower

James Tower, potter-artist

23

16 Concave Form VIII. 1961. Bronze.

47 × 78.7 × 25.4 cm.

Erskine, Hall & Coe

to be cast in bronze, as envisaged. In some respects there is a strong element of

their rounder shapes evoking clumps of foliage. Copse, for which numerous stud-

continuity between the last ceramics and the first sculptures; the voids painted onto

ies exist, is the most complex, an outburst of organic growth which then folds over,

the black-and-white bowls become large hollows, their stripy surround is incised

protectively, to form an arch or cave. As Head of Sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic,

over the entire surface. As furrows or geological strata, they mirror a process where

Tower extended his investigations into new materials, producing a large panel in

two dimensions become three, keeping both options open.

fibreglass which is effectively a painting, with splashes of tinted resin re-enacting

The fourteen large pieces exhibited in 1963 seem to reflect a long process of

22

Timothy Wilcox

17 Fibreglass Panel with Spray Pattern. 1975.

Fibreglass. 91.5 × 183 cm.

Private collection

the sea spray he observed just yards from his classroom.

refinement, their forms pared down to the essentials, and they perhaps stick too

In none of Tower’s work of the 1960s and 1970s is figuration entirely aban-

close to their ceramic forbears. Few of them are realised fully in the round but in-

doned. Indeed the longer he worked, the more the nature imagery of the 1950s

stead present a single aspect to the viewer, one which often reads as a negative

tended to reassert itself. The impulse to return to ceramics in 1978 was driven in

space, with all the wider implications of that epithet. The drawings, none of which

part by the realisation that pottery engages directly with the dimension of time, the

are dated, are more daring, exploring images of transformation and fragmentation.

idea implanted by Dora Billington right at the outset of Tower’s experience of the

The ribbed effect of parallel white lines is virtually the only element common to

medium. On a sheet of lecture notes, Tower later wrote, ‘Ceramics less intellectu-

both drawings and sculptures, so it is not certain whether drawing preceded sculp-

al than sculpture[,] more emotive response to surface and form, quicker – more

ture or led out of it.

­existential’.16

By the time of Tower’s next exhibition, in Brighton in 1968, the forms are dy-

Drawing, as a means of developing ideas for sculpture, was, when it came to it,

namic and also more descriptive, with verticals suggesting tree trunks or plant stems,

too slow, too indirect, and a poor substitute for actually making. With clay Tower

James Tower, potter-artist

23

24 Fish Shoal. 1979.

Earthenware with tin glaze. H: 35 cm. Private collection

32

James Tower

25 Self-Portrait. c. 1946–47. Pen with red ink and grey wash on paper. 50 × 38 cm. ­Private collection

Personal statement

33

24 Fish Shoal. 1979.

Earthenware with tin glaze. H: 35 cm. Private collection

32

James Tower

25 Self-Portrait. c. 1946–47. Pen with red ink and grey wash on paper. 50 × 38 cm. ­Private collection

Personal statement

33

JAMES TOWER: SCULPTURE 1968

31 Divided Form. 1965.

Unglazed white earthen­ ware. 48 × 38 cm. Private collection 32 Landscape Study. c. 1960–65. Wash and white bodycolour, 24.5 × 55.5 cm.

Private collection

My sculptures show those aspects of the natural world which have absorbed me.

Sometimes, as the titles indicate, they stem from a particular place or object.

Others refer to certain forms which are paralleled in man-made things.

The shallow concavities which hold light and shadow on the downs, parallel the same shallow concavity which holds light and shadow on the palm of the hand.

Again, it is paralleled in the concavities and convexities of objects worn by use.

The small sculptures made in 1964 and 1965 are preliminary workings for l­ arger pieces which will be less complex in their forms.

Printed on the verso of the announcement card, Lancaster House, Arts Centre, University of Sussex, 21 February–23 March 1968.

Personal statement

45

JAMES TOWER: SCULPTURE 1968

31 Divided Form. 1965.

Unglazed white earthen­ ware. 48 × 38 cm. Private collection 32 Landscape Study. c. 1960–65. Wash and white bodycolour, 24.5 × 55.5 cm.

Private collection

My sculptures show those aspects of the natural world which have absorbed me.

Sometimes, as the titles indicate, they stem from a particular place or object.

Others refer to certain forms which are paralleled in man-made things.

The shallow concavities which hold light and shadow on the downs, parallel the same shallow concavity which holds light and shadow on the palm of the hand.

Again, it is paralleled in the concavities and convexities of objects worn by use.

The small sculptures made in 1964 and 1965 are preliminary workings for l­ arger pieces which will be less complex in their forms.

Printed on the verso of the announcement card, Lancaster House, Arts Centre, University of Sussex, 21 February–23 March 1968.

Personal statement

45

48 Three studies for sculp­ ture, c. 1960–65. Ink and gouache, 38 × 26.5 cm.

The channel carved through the solid form changes from a wide groove into an open hollow, from two to three dimensions, creating a new, negative space within the existing block

72

49 Study for sculpture Layered Form. c. 1960–65.

Pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper, 16.3 × 22.7 cm.

Private collection

73

48 Three studies for sculp­ ture, c. 1960–65. Ink and gouache, 38 × 26.5 cm.

The channel carved through the solid form changes from a wide groove into an open hollow, from two to three dimensions, creating a new, negative space within the existing block

72

49 Study for sculpture Layered Form. c. 1960–65.

Pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper, 16.3 × 22.7 cm.

Private collection

73

55 Drawing, c. 1965–66.

Black and white chalk and wash, 43 × 52 cm.

56 Drawing, c. 1965–66.

Black chalk, watercolour and gouache, 46.2 × 58.2 cm.

78

57 Tree, 1965. White terracotta. H: 35 cm. ­Victoria Art Gallery, Bath.

The flared tops of each separate stem allude to a thrown vessel, fixing these abstracted forms as part of a tradition of making, as well as of idealised nature

79

55 Drawing, c. 1965–66.

Black and white chalk and wash, 43 × 52 cm.

56 Drawing, c. 1965–66.

Black chalk, watercolour and gouache, 46.2 × 58.2 cm.

78

57 Tree, 1965. White terracotta. H: 35 cm. ­Victoria Art Gallery, Bath.

The flared tops of each separate stem allude to a thrown vessel, fixing these abstracted forms as part of a tradition of making, as well as of idealised nature

79

59 Fish Plate. 1978.

Earthenware with tin glaze. W: 37 cm. Private collection

58 Studies for sculpture Block with Horizontal L ­ ayers. c. 1967–68. Graphite, ink, watercolour and gouache, 38 × 56 cm.

One of Tower’s most in­triguing groups of studies for layered stacks that were never realised.

They are a curious premonition of the more recent tree carvings of David Nash, and show the continuing fascination of the dual concepts of Growth and Form

80

81

59 Fish Plate. 1978.

Earthenware with tin glaze. W: 37 cm. Private collection

58 Studies for sculpture Block with Horizontal L ­ ayers. c. 1967–68. Graphite, ink, watercolour and gouache, 38 × 56 cm.

One of Tower’s most in­triguing groups of studies for layered stacks that were never realised.

They are a curious premonition of the more recent tree carvings of David Nash, and show the continuing fascination of the dual concepts of Growth and Form

80

81

65 Sea Piece II, 1985.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 56 cm. Private collection

88

66 Large Circular Form.

1985. Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 52.5 cm. P ­ rivate collection.

This impressive piece evokes a firework exploding in two phases, extending out across the sky

89

65 Sea Piece II, 1985.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 56 cm. Private collection

88

66 Large Circular Form.

1985. Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 52.5 cm. P ­ rivate collection.

This impressive piece evokes a firework exploding in two phases, extending out across the sky

89

68 Ribbed Form. 1980.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 33 cm. Private collection.

The uneven application of white glaze gives the ribbed surface the appearance of having been rubbed away or eroded over time

92

69 Pod Form. 1985.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 56 cm. Private collection

93

68 Ribbed Form. 1980.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 33 cm. Private collection.

The uneven application of white glaze gives the ribbed surface the appearance of having been rubbed away or eroded over time

92

69 Pod Form. 1985.

Earthenware with tin glaze, H: 56 cm. Private collection

93