Friends Study Morning - Flux:Parian Unpacked and Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery

An impressive one room installation, Flux: Parian Ware at The Fitzwilliam Museum (6 March – 1 July 2018) by ceramic artist and curator Matt Smith, will feature over 300 sculptural parian busts depicting well – known figures from history, especially from the 19th Century. Parian is a fine, unglazed porcelain resembling marble which can be poured.  It is made by adding flux to porcelain which can make the clay unstable during firing. The unpredictability of this material provides a platform which we can examine our changing views of history and our changing opinions of those individuals depicted – accepting that our understanding of the past is always in flux.

 

Dr Vicky Avery and Helen Ritchie, both of the Applied Arts Department, will provide Friends with insight into this exhibition before leading the group to tour both Flux and Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery exhibitions.