Place made
Sydney
Medium
painted underglaze decoration, overglaze gold lustre, decals & enamels on earthenware
Dimensions
86.0 x 52.5 cm (diam.)
Credit line
Gift of the Hon. Diana Laidlaw MLC, Minister for the Arts 1999
Accession number
993C7A
Signature and date
Painted near base, gold "S.B. 98".
Media category
Ceramic
Collection area
Australian decorative arts and design
Copyright
Courtesy the artist
  • From the early 1980s, Stephen Bowers began to apply an elaborate and sumptuous style of surface decoration to ceramics, a style that makes use of the techniques of fine painting in combination with layers of coloured glazes and lustre. Originating from a wide range of sources, his imagery varies in content from subjects drawn from popular Australian culture and flora and fauna, to that directly referencing European art traditions, especially the porcelain decoration of the eighteenth century. He frequently juxtaposes unlikely combinations of images, and in Antipodean palaceware selects them from two main sources – European historic pattern design and Australian flora and fauna.

     

    This large vase, one of a pair, was made by potter Mark Heidenreich in Sydney in 1989 using especially prepared clays. In 1994 Bowers finished decorating the first vase, now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney. This second vase, decorated in 1998, features sulphur-crested cockatoos, scrolling vine with banksia seeds and eucalyptus leaves amongst a smorgasbord of cultural references drawn directly from the history of international ceramics.

     

    Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design

     

  • From the early 1980s, Stephen Bowers began to apply an elaborate and sumptuous style of surface decoration to ceramics, a style that makes use of the techniques of fine painting in combination with layers of coloured glazes and lustre. Originating from a wide range of sources, his imagery varies in content from subjects drawn from popular Australian culture and flora and fauna, to that directly referencing European art traditions, especially the porcelain decoration of the eighteenth century. He frequently juxtaposes unlikely combinations of images, and in Antipodean palaceware selects them from two main sources – European historic pattern design and Australian flora and fauna.

     

    This large vase, one of a pair, was made by potter Mark Heidenreich in Sydney in 1989 using especially prepared clays. In 1994 Bowers finished decorating the first vase, now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney. This second vase, decorated in 1998, features sulphur-crested cockatoos, scrolling vine with banksia seeds and eucalyptus leaves amongst a smorgasbord of cultural references drawn directly from the history of international ceramics.

     

    Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design

     

  • [Book] AGSA 500.