b. 1932, Lincoln
Brief biography
Gordon Baldwin was born in 1932 in Lincolnshire, and he studied painting and pottery at the Lincoln School of Art, where he met his future wife, Nancy. Baldwin then moved to London and studied ‘Industrial Ceramics’ at the Central School of Art. Teaching was a large part of the artist’s life, holding positions at the Central School of Art, Goldsmiths College, Camberwell and most significantly at Eton, teaching sculpture and ceramics for nearly four decades.
Baldwin’s work was seminal in the progression of British Studio Ceramics, key in the development of what came to be called ‘The Abstract Vessel’, contemplating the vessel as an idea rather than as a function. His work in the Fifties was figurative, informed by his teachers at Central, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. From the Sixties he started working on progressively more abstract forms, influenced primarily by the Surrealists: Giacometti, Arp and Brancusi were crucial in the development of his sensibility. Over the years he became more interested in the notion of vessel and in that of contained space, exploring the idea of “inscape” and the relationship between form and painted surface. His interests and sources were very wide, touching on poetry and literature, modern and contemporary music and contemporary dance. Nature and the landscape of North Wales were also important reference points. As an artist and a teacher, Baldwin’s influence was enormous, both on several generations of ceramic artists, including the “New Ceramics” group and their successors, and on many of his students at Eton.
Gordon Baldwin exhibited extensively, both in the UK and in Europe and collected worldwide. Notable exhibitions include: “Gordon Baldwin: a retrospective view” at the Cleveland County Museum, “Gordon Baldwin: Mysterious Shapes” at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 1989 and “Gordon Baldwin: Objects for a Landscape” at the York Art Gallery in 2012.
Natalie Baerselman le Gros
Freelance Curator, Writer, Editor Specialising in Modern and Contemporary Ceramic Arts
PhD, University of East Anglia