Sculpture at Work

QuestSculptural C

eramicsby

Alexander M

acdonald-Buchanan

Lobby, One Canada SquareCanary Wharf, London E14 5AB

22 February – 15 April 2016

Curated by Ann Elliott for Canary Wharf Group

Daily 7am-midnight

canarywharf.com@yourcanarywharf

a second time while others are not glazed thereby

retaining their red terracotta colouring.

In a corner of what was a relatively small studio

workshop for the size of the wares he was making,

I saw some smaller pieces of a very different kind:

pale in colour and ribbed. We talked about them

and his aim to make them on a large scale.

During the early part of 2015 I was pleased to

receive an email from Macdonald-Buchanan,

inviting me to Wilton to see his new sculptural

ceramics. The Saturday of my visit coincided with

his move into the larger studio that Sean Henry had

just vacated. Displayed in this generous and newly

painted white space, devoid of any studio clutter,

were five ribbed pots, standing tall – shoulder

height of the artist – made in a range of pale hues

and titled Contemplation; four Helix towers of

intense blue, Energy; and three spheres with

sections removed named Revelation 1, 2 and 3.

This is the collection of sculptural ceramics that

form this exhibition. Quest, Macdonald-Buchanan’s

title for these groups, reflects his journey from

conception to completion. His achievement was

impressive and showed a clearly and carefully

worked series of sculptural ceramics ready to be

shown to wider audiences.

Having known the artist and his work for a

number of years, in September and October 2015

the Duke of Devonshire exhibited this collection in

the Inner Court of Chatsworth House, Derbyshire.

In his foreword to the catalogue for the exhibition,

the Duke wrote: ‘Alexander has allowed me to

follow the development of the four Energy pieces

Quest Sculptural Ceramics by Alexander Macdonald-Buchanan

When artists move into a new sphere of creativity

they may have to embrace an element of risk. The

possibility that their efforts may not work out

conceptually, practically or aesthetically may be

compounded by the chance that the new work

may not connect with their collectors, viewers and

critics. Alexander Macdonald-Buchanan, an artist

working in ceramics, has forged a successful career

through his company The Brooke Pottery, making

gigantic containers for plants, favoured by

landscape architects and garden designers, and

regularly exhibiting at events such as the Chelsea

Flower Show. These items, made mostly in

terracotta, conventionally glazed, were large

enough to hold trees and demanded from their

maker considerable technical expertise.

Some four years ago I was introduced to

Alexander Macdonald-Buchanan by the sculptor

Sean Henry, when both artists were working in

studios converted from buildings in the Saw Mill

Yard of Wilton House, which is home to the Earls of

Pembroke. I was impressed by his huge planters

and fascinated by the techniques he uses to make

them – large coils of malleable terracotta are

pressed into plaster moulds that direct half the

form and support it. The two halves are then

brought together while the clay is still moist and

the moulds clamped tight until the entire pot is dry

enough to hold its shape for bisque firing. Some

are later glazed in gloss colours and high-fired for

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right from the beginning. I have visited his studio

several times and he has kept me up to date with

progress over the last three years. The Energy

pieces in partnership with the rest of the Quest

exhibition combine two of my greatest loves:

contemporary ceramic art and monumental

sculpture. I find the work immensely pleasing but

I am aware that it has taken hours of dedication,

hard work, experimentation, disappointments and

frustrations to reach this point.’

The pots that comprise the series Contemplation

share the same form and size. They are made in

stoneware clay tinted individually with cobalt

oxide, manganese oxide or iron oxide. When mixed

with white clay the oxides give the clay colour:

blue, cream/yellow or red/brown respectively.

Macdonald-Buchanan has used the oxides

sparingly to create quiet, meditative moods in

these pieces, enhanced by a soft semi-gloss clear

glaze to give the feeling of slightly polished stone.

Light works well on the ribbed surface creating a

range of tonal values horizontally. All aspects of

these pieces, including small cracks that occur

during firing, give the mood of quietude and

reflective thought. They were made between

2012 and 2014 in editions of two, plus an artist’s

proof.

With their title, Energy, the four items that make

up this group are imbued with vigorous movement

through their spiralling thrust. The intense blue

glaze underpins a confident tone, having both

depth and resonance. This blue was the hallmark of

the French artist Yves Klein (1928–1962) which he

used in many of his monochrome works that

included vast saturated blue murals made for the

Gelsenkirchen Opera House, Germany, some of

which measured seven by twenty metres. While

Macdonald-Buchanan was not specifically

referencing Klein, the parallel in their common use

of saturated colour is, I think, noteworthy.

Encouraged by how well the exhibition at

Chatsworth was received and with the success of

the Energy series, Macdonald-Buchanan was

driven to make a monumental version over twice

the size of the original pieces. Just a month before

this exhibition at Canary Wharf, the two elements

that make the whole piece were fired and

assembled, ready for their first showing here.

The three ceramic spheres that comprise the

Revelation series show Macdonald-Buchanan

working in a different way. Although the Energy

series are sculptural, they may also be perceived as

being vessels, whereas the spheres are essentially

sculptures; each is partly glazed, partly painted

and with applications of platinum and gold leaf.

Revelation 1, made in 2011, the earliest piece in this

family of works, has a quarter segment removed

from the golden sphere, revealing a central core of

black, like the stone of a fruit. The contrast of gold

and matt black is startling. Whereas in Revelation 2,En

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of 2014, while taking the same form, the dense

black body of the work reveals a pale interior with

a platinum core that, interestingly, gives the piece a

more abstract and painterly quality. In Revelation 3,

2013, Macdonald-Buchanan has used tinted

stoneware clay with cobalt oxide to create a pale

blue body of stone-like quality when glazed, as he

used in one of the Contemplation series. Here he

has made good use of the cracks that occurred

during firing, picking them out in red paint, which

gives the feeling of something hot and molten

wanting to burst out of the sphere. The cut of the

top quadrant reveals a gilded core, and further

cracks in red seem to imply that the cut form is

solid, although in reality it is not.

In making these new ceramics Alexander

Macdonald-Buchanan has drawn from a career

devoted to learning the potter’s skills from a range

of significant practitioners as well as studying at

first hand the work of ceramic artists in Japan, New

Zealand, South America and of course Britain,

whilst also working with them. One of his mentors

was Professor Nigel Wood, a researcher into the

history and technology of ceramics, specialising in

Far Eastern wares and author of a number of

books on ceramic technology and its history. These

include Chinese Glazes, in which Wood traces the

development of Chinese glazes from the Bronze

Age to the present day (Revised edition A & C

Black, London 2007). He wrote in the Chatsworth

catalogue for Quest of his encounters with

Macdonald-Buchanan: ‘With regard to the making

of the sculptures, it is probably true to say practical

problems in manufacture increase exponentially

with the size of ceramics being made, and very

special techniques are needed to construct, dry

and fire very large ceramic objects.’ Given the scale

of these works, each piece has to be fired singly in

a kiln built by

Macdonald-

Buchanan himself

from individual

components that

he purchased in

America, stacked

and bolted

together.

Not all artists

are as fastidious

as Macdonald-

Buchanan in

ensuring that they

have the technical

skills to achieve

their vision for

works of art.

Today it is entirely

acceptable to

leave the

realisation of

ideas to skilled technicians and fabricators. This

exhibition, however, shows not only the highest

degree of technical knowledge and application of

this artist, but also reveals concepts for sculptural

ceramics that are uniquely his own.

Ann Elliott 2016

Alexander Macdonald-Buchanan was born in

London in 1970. He first started to learn about

ceramics and work with clay whilst at school in

Edinburgh, and in 1989 he started his first job

working at Tingewick Pottery, Buckinghamshire.

After travelling around potteries in Japan and the

Far East, he returned to Britain in 1990 to work

briefly with the Chelsea Pottery, London, followed

by serving an apprenticeship with Rupert Spira at

Froyle Pottery in Hampshire. In 1993 he left to work

in the Morris and James pottery factory in

Matakana, New Zealand. In 1996 Macdonald-

Buchanan started The Brooke Pottery in

Northamptonshire, making a range of hand thrown,

glazed terracotta flowerpots and large urns. The

workshop moved to the North York Moors for

seven years and then to Wilton in 2007 where he

began to make large stoneware clay sculptures

and vessels.

His first solo exhibition Quest was shown

at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, from 26 September to

25 October 2015.

For more information visit www.alexandermb.co.uk

Canary Wharf is most grateful to the Devonshire

Collection, Chatsworth and to private lenders for

their generosity in loaning works to this exhibition.left

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Contemplation series2012–14Stoneware clay with cobaltoxide, glazedEdition 1 of 2 + artist’sproofH 172Private Collection

Stoneware clay with cobaltoxide, glazed Edition 2 of 2H 172Private Collection

Stoneware clay withmanganese oxide, glazed Edition 1 of 2H 172

Stoneware clay withmanganese oxide, glazed Edition 2 of 2H 172

Stoneware clay with ironoxide, glazedEdition 1 of 2 + artist’sproofH 172

Energy series 2012–14The Devonshire Collection,Chatsworth

Stoneware clay withintense blue glazeEdition 1 of 8 + artist’sproofH 189

Stoneware clay withintense blue glazeEdition 2 of 8H 189

Stoneware clay withintense blue glazeEdition 3 of 8H 189

Stoneware clay withintense blue glazeEdition 4 of 8H 189

Energy 2 2016Stoneware clay withintense blue glazeArtist’s proofH 389

Revelation 1 2011Stoneware clay, gold leaf,matt black coreUniqueD 88

Revelation 2 2014Black stoneware clay,cobalt stained stonewareclay, platinum leaf coreUniqueD 88

Revelation 3 2013Stoneware clay, glazed andstained with gold leaf coreUniqueD 88

Maquettes forContemplation series2012–16

Stoneware clay with cobaltoxide, glazedH 36

Stoneware clay with cobaltoxide, glazedH 36

Stoneware clay with cobaltoxide, glazedH 36

Stoneware clay, intenseblue glazeH 36

List of WorksDimensions height (H) or diameter (D) in centimetres

EVENTTuesday 15 March from 6.30 to 7.15 pm

Curator Ann Elliott tours the exhibition with

Alexander Macdonald-Buchanan

The tour is free but please contact Canary Wharf

Public Art Office at visualart@canarywharf.com

to reserve a place

Photographs courtesy of Sean Henry unless

otherwise credited.

Some of the works are for sale

For a price list, please contact Canary Wharf Public

Art Office as above