Gwyn Hanssen Pigott - Trail with purple beakers 2012. From the collection of Art Gallery New South Wales.
THE GWYN HANSSEN PIGGOT WOOD FIRED
CERAMICS AWARD –
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott was born in Ballarat, Victoria on January 1, 1935 and passed away, almost 80 years later, on July 5, 2013. Most of her life was spent in the pursuit of beauty in the ceramic form, for which she received Australian and international recognition. Gwyn was also a wood firer and preferred this method of firing her work over all others.
A cursory search on the internet will teach you more about Gwyn’s life, her work and her accomplishments. Perhaps the following paragraphs from an article by The Guardian UK after her death, best state Gwyn’s achievements by the end of her life:
“By the time she had moved in 1989 to Netherdale, in the sugar cane country of Queensland, her international reputation was being consolidated by extensive travelling and teaching, and by solo shows in countries including Britain, Australia, the US, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Italy.
In London she was given beautifully presented exhibitions at Galerie Besson, Tate St Ives, and finally at Erskine, Hall & Coe. In 2002, shortly after moving to her last studio, at Ipswich in Queensland, she was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia; this was followed by a rare retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria where, 50 years earlier, she had first fallen in love with ceramics.
She was energetic and lively in personality and prodigiously gifted, technically and intellectually; no one was more engaged with the language of clay or the wider visual world. As she said of the luminous translucency of her mature work: "The way the pots transform in light is something special to me because this reflects what we are as human beings, ordinary but with the possibility of joy."”
Image - 'Still Life (Four Bottles)', shino glaze, bizen fired, stoneware, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1987
Powerhouse collection. Gift of Garry Anderson, 1991. Photographed by Marinco Kojdanovski..
Image supplied with kind permission of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Gwyn was one of Australia’s most successful visual artists. In naming our award the Gwyn Hanssen Pigott Wood Fired Ceramics Award we aim to acknowledge to her achievements in ceramic excellence as a potter and wood firer. Gwyn was survived by her three sisters and their families who have kindly given AWFU permission to present this award in Gwyn’s name.
In 2023, AWFU established the Gwyn Hanssen Pigott Wood Fired Award, with prize money of $2500 to the best wood fired work, in conjunction with Ceramic Arts Queensland and the Siliceous award. The award was presented at the Ipswich Art Gallery on October 13, 2023, with Ray Cavill being named the inaugural winner. By happy coincidence, Ray used to assist Gwyn with her firings in Ipswich, and was therefore asked by AWFU to make the opening address for the award. Shortly after making his speech, Ray was named the winner, by judge, Dr Rebecca Coates, for his work, "The Fire and the Flood II".
To see all finalists and the winning work of the 2023 Gwyn Hanssen Pigott Wood Fired Award, see the GHP Award 2023 page on our website here.
FURTHER INFO
IN HER OWN WORDS -
An article written by Gwyn about her life as a wood firing ceramic artist:
https://studiopotter.org/autobiographical-notes
A short film was made about Gwyn by Creative Cowboy, which won the best contemporary art film award in Montpellier, France in 2010.
https://www.creativecowboyfilms.com/blog_posts/gwyn-hanssen-pigott
An interview with Gwyn by Rowley Drysdale, published by The Australian Journal of Ceramics, April 2010
Click HERE
LIFE OVERVIEW -
An article by The Independent in UK following Gwyn’s death: