Chris Carter
Totemic Stoneware (series 3)
2010, 94 cm
That Chris Carter is a consummate craftsman there is
little doubt. Many years ago Lucie Rie told Chris, “You
can throw better than I can.” If she were alive today
and could see the development of his work it would
be interesting to see what she would have made of
his artistry. For there is little doubt that he has
crossed over that strange and ethereal border that
we have created between art and craft and that he is
a true artist, by which I mean that the objects he
makes have an element inherent to them that gives to
the owner or viewer of his work a special feeling – a
quality in the work that is not present in most of the
objects around us.
This quality manifests itself in different ways in
different art works. Carter’s pots have a quiet
authority that doesn’t scream and shout. (They
are more of a Nicholson White Relief than a James
Ward painting of Gordale Scar.) The pots sit quietly
waiting to be noticed, contemplated and eventually,
with patience, understood or rather appreciated
because we can no more understand a piece of art
than we can understand a meal when we are hungry.
It is then that the surfaces, the edges, the volumes
start to weave their magic spell and you enter their
world much like being absorbed in the music of
a string quartet.
It is not fashionable these days for an artist’s work to be soothing or
contemplative yet there is an inherent human need for the deeply pleasing. It
is manifest in the neolithic axes which Carter wonders at in his studio – he
has a small collection of these, all but one
he has found himself whilst field walking. That early man made many truly beautiful
objects and seems to have deliberately made them to be beautiful is something
that inspires Carter and guides him. That someone 5000 years ago cared is
something that we could all gain by contemplating. It is the start of a human
tradition.
Carter, of course, is part of the more modern tradition of the studio potter.
He is the heir to Rie and Coper. That these great potters have influenced him
there can be no doubt and he has taken their lessons and absorbed them and they
are part of his myriad of ideas. Carter is respectful of their work yet he has
his own strong inner vision which make his pots unmistakably his own.
Carter
has spent his whole life making pots. Unusually he has supported a family entirely
from the sale of his ceramics. This has been a hard and demanding existence and
it has brought him scant financial reward. Indeed at times his financial existence
has been perilous and it is still fragile – a fire at his studio some years
ago was nearly the end. Yet the rewards of his labours transcend the financial.
There can be few overpaid members ofour society who have attai ned such a lasting
achievement and who give such enjoyment and nourishment to their fellow men and
women. And this nourishment of mankind will continue through the centuries as
his pots are discovered anew by coming generations for they have a quality and
power that
will undoubtedly last.
In the end Chris Carter is just this man in a shed in a field in the
countryside and much like the Neolithic man making his axe and many special
people through the millennia, he is making things for himself but they
will be appreciated by his fellow men and their
ancestors. These are objects that will enrich our lives.
John Hart
Full
colour catalogue available.