Val Barry

One of the truly original potters thrown up in that immense creative exuberance of the 70's. Her pots are almost unique.Incredibly thin,and quite minimalist in decoration.Inspired by Chinese Pottery,and in particular the Sails of Chinese Junks.She was 30,before she trained at Sir John Cass school of art,and evening classes at the RCA. A brief career. By the mid 80's,she had abandoned pottery for working in bronze and other materials. Yet her pots are almost forgotten now. Which is a pity. Because they are simply gorgeous.
There are a couple in the V&A
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?listing_type=imagetext&offset=0&limit=15&narrow=1&extrasearch=&q=val+barry&commit=Search&quality=1&objectnamesearch=&placesearch=&after=&after-adbc=AD&before=&before-adbc=AD&namesearch=&materialsearch=&mnsearch=&locationsearch=

How tall is that amazing piece? I've only ever seen her work in books - wonderful

That particular one is 40 cms at the highest. And the base is 4.5 cms at its greatest width. I've actually just had to measure it,and I actually find the measurements quite surprising. I have four others of hers,which I will actually photograph when I get a new camera.This is a stored imagwe.

did Val mark her work?

Mark.

A little unusual this one , beautifully made and stands 9" x 8" , slim and the form has a slight deliberate twist impressed ? B

I never did get around to posting the rest of the Val Barry we have.

I hope you don't keep cats in the house

These have always been in a cabinet. Those narrow bases do make them fragile!

An interesting piece as to what happened to Val Barry and illustrations of her work from auction house Bearnes,
https://www.bhandl.co.uk/articles/2019/04/12/val-barry.aspx

a very interesting story, I would love to see her bronze sculptures

The actual catalogue of the Val Barry Estate sale. She died in 2018. Nos 121 to 158, you have to scroll down from the top. Worth looking at. In particular the 'Guardsmen' pieces are particularly striking. Pity she ever gave up ceramics, she was a very interesting maker,

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bearneshamptonandlittlewood/catalogue-id-bearne10075

Sailing along...

hi, I remember the sale at Bearnes and we should have bought some of Val Barrys pieces but instead we bought a painting.I do like her work and you can definitely see the sculptor in her and unlike many other potters she was more in tune with what was being created in other mediums . As you know a number of good potters found clay too restrictive and moved on to sculpture .

Three Val Barry from the Bill Ismay collection at COCA York