Stephen Dixon and Hannah Barlow - two different perspectives

Stephen Dixon's work is obviously confrontational.

From Wikipedia:

Stephen is from the north east of England and is a ceramic artist and Professor Emeritus at Manchester School of Art. He is known mainly for his use of dark narrative and for using "illustrated ceramic pots as an unlikely platform for social commentary and political discontent. He is interested both in printmaking and ceramics - I would like to find some of his prints. He was awarded the British Ceramics Bienniel award in 2021 for his installation 'The Ship of Dreams and Nightmares', pictured below

'The Beautiful Game'

I think this has implications of trouble that can sometimes occur at football matches. Also the represent a British institution like the police. Could the police be playing games with people sometimes or correcting the 'game' of crime.

These pieces are very thought provoking, but as I am learning, an artists work is not only about the artist or subject, but the response created in the viewer....So a number of meanings possible, works on different layers.

'Josiah Spode's Violin'

Its been broken in pieces...not joined by Kintsugi making the new item 'more valuable than the original' Perhaps Josiah Spodes work is perfect as it was, perhaps it is out of date and 'broken'. Its a shame the factory shut in Stoke, I have visited the factory in the nineties. This piece is likely a reference to this fact.

'Birds of Passage'

This is a nice white platter, using simple colours with a slightly fluted edge. Women coming as refugees have sailed over on boats. They are not always granted 'rites of passage' in having their assylum granted. Birds are beautiful, as are many of these women, I'm sure.

'Resonate'

I could not quite understand this one. Maybe it could refer to the fact that wars come and go and that each poppy is really an arrow that killed someone. Mankind is large creating war, yet each of the lives lost are 'small' meaning individual.

'Charity Shop Meissen'

My Mum worked as a volunteer for Save the Children for 15 years. I love second hand stuff.

'The Trumposaurus'

I don't think this needs too much explanation! Sad to see it on the rise again.

Stephen Dixon got the 'Year of the Artist' award for a collaboration project with Amnesty International and Kosovan refugees. In 2009 he was commissioned to produce the ceramic sculpture 'Monopoly' below.

Again I think this is a comment on war (amount of money it costs ). With money in general there is corruption, people steal it, the prison number shows this.

Also man's life (in the west anyway) is made up of things costing money. Mankind cant do without it?

Looking at Stephen's work, I am knocked out! I dont think I could get near to acheiveing anything as confrontational and thought provoking as these. Hence my more moderate approach to my work going forward.

Hannah Barlow, Doulton Artist

There almost couldn't be a bigger gap between the work of Stephen Dixon and the next artist I am going to talk about, Hannah Barlow.

Whereas Stephen has a lot of (hidden) meanings portrayed in his work, Hannah Barlow uses the traditional English method of slip decoration, sgraffito, and her subjects are life like, mainly animals and convey a feeling of well-being. One is contemporary , one lived in the last century. One male, one female? One a totally freelance artist, one working for a company on ware that is produced in a factory.

There were 4 siblings that went on to work in Ceramics in the Barlow family, Arthur, Florence and Lucy, but Hannah was the most talented. She worked in sgraffito, drawing animals, and was noted for her ability to show movement in her pictures.

She joined Doulton in 1871 and stayed for 42 years. Her brother Arthur also accepted a job there. As children they had a dog, cat as well as goats, pigeons, cocks and hens. This is perhaps the nucleus of Hannah's private zoo, from which she used to sketch.

Hannah enrolled in the Lambeth School of Art in 1868, being a friend of John Sparks, the principal. John had persuaded Henry Doulton to start up an art studio at the Lambeth factory.

Hannah concentrated on bird subjects using sgraffito . I have sketched some fancy hens and made a sgraffito dish from a sketch of a yellow golden pheasant. I note she uses two layers of contrasting slip sometimes, this is something I started doing.

She developed rhumatism in her right hand which became permanently and partially paralysed. She then trained herself to use her left hand with no detrimental effect to her work.

When Doulton became more popular, future stars such as Eliza Simmance and Frank Butler worked there as well as Hannah and Arthur's younger sister, Florence. This expansion also allowed for the introduction of new developments, the first of which was Faience.

Hannah and Florence worked together in a studio. It was the done thing for more accomplished artists to be assisted by others, applying borders and backgrounds.

Florence became a master of Pate-sur-pate ware when it was introduced in 1878.

Pate sur pate is a French term meaning "paste on paste", and is the method of decorating on one body with another of a different tint.

Hannah did not humanise the animals she drew, as was the Victorian fashion.

Arthur, meanwhile, produced more abstract work, featuring foliate and carved decoration in a more formal style. His work was well respected.

Lucy Barlow came to work in Lambeth as a decorator, working mainly on pots produced by her sisters, adding borders and other details to complement their bird and animal studies.

Some of Hannah's work