Paul Scott, Artist

Dr Paul (Christopher) Scott^[1] (b. October 5, 1953, Darley Dale, Derbyshire) is a Cumbrian based artist, author, curator, gardener, and professor noted for his characteristic blue and white artworks in glazed ceramic and research into printed vitreous surfaces.

Education and Early Career[edit]

Scott studied at S. Martins College, Lancaster from 1972 to 1977 where he was awarded a Bachelor of Education (2.1 Hons). He was actively involved in student politics and elected President of the Students Union (sabbatical post 1975 - 1976). He went on to teach art and ceramics for eight years at two comprehensive schools, Malvern Hall Solihull and Morton in Carlisle, before leaving the teaching profession to become a full-time artist, author and researcher in 1985.

Career & Practice[edit]

Collectively referred to as 'Scott's Cumbrian Blue(s)', Scott "creates ceramic artwork that blurs the boundaries between art, craft, and design. His artwork explores the unexpected movement of images through materials, media, cultures, politics, histories, and geographies, and invites us to see these objects in a new way. Scott is an authority on printed vitreous surfaces, and the author of Ceramics in Print, and Horizon: Transferware and Contemporary Ceramics, co-edited with Knut Astrup Bull."^[2]

Examples of Scott's artwork can be found in private and public collections around the world, including in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum London, The Crafts Council, UK Government Art Collection, The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design Norway, National Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Wales Cardiff, National Museums Liverpool, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Sydney, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn Art Museum, USA. Commissioned, site-specific works by Scott, can also be found in Hanoi Vietnam and at the Skælskør Sculpture Park in Denmark, as well as in museums, gardens and other public spaces throughout Britain.

Ingrid Svenson of PEER writes:

"For over twenty years, the basis for Paul Scott’s work has been the enormous variety of industrially made transfer-ware ceramics that have been produced during the last 250 years and have graced the tables of households throughout Britain. The scenes and imagery that are the hallmark of these highly decorated but functional objects entered the popular imagination largely by stealth as furniture for the home."

"Scott works onto these everyday objects as a collagist might, re-purposing these cultural artefacts in such a way as to offer new narrative interpretations that encourage re-examination. Drawing from his encyclopedic knowledge of and fascination with the material, he alters, erases and adds new images to the intricately detailed scenes and patterns of these domestic items, whereby the imagery is ruptured and recalibrated for a contemporary world. Scott’s interventions enable him to explore a range of issues from ecology to the refugee crisis."

"In the same way that mechanical reproduction did for art – as noted by Walter Benjamin – the technical ability to transfer detailed etched images onto fired ceramics, coupled with advances in mechanisation of the pottery industry at factories such as Wedgwood and Spode, meant that large numbers of the population could afford this decorative mass-produced tableware. Scott emphasises the placement of his work in a continuum whereby the conditions of industrially produced ceramics in the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the types of imagery used – and the contradictions implicit within them – become the ground for his current work."^[3]

Through investigations into museum collections and ceramic industry archives such as Spode, Wedgwood (UK), Blaafarveværket, Egersund (Norway), Royal Copenhagen (Denmark), Rörstrand, Gustavsberg (Sweden), Regout/Sphinx (Netherlands), and Syracuse (USA), Scott gleans information for both his creative practice and publications.

These investigations have resulted in multiple publications including the noted Ceramics and Print (A&C Black 1994), a comprehensive handbook on the use of print techniques in contemporary ceramics, and is now in its 3rd Edition and published in the UK, USA, and Australia and translated into German and Spanish, as well as other publications such as Painted Clay (A&C Black 2000) and Horizon, Transferware and Contemporary Ceramics (Arnoldsche 2015).

A recipient of the The Alturas Foundation Artist in Residence Award Scott's current research project, New American Scenery, involves artwork informed by documentary and artistic research into historical archives of transferware, prints, related material and the wider American landscape which is created using historical pearl and transfer wares, collage, installation, and print.

Reviews of his work included Antiques Magazine

http://alturasfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Paul-Scott-Antiques-Magazine-Jan-Feb-2016.pdf

Abridged CV[edit]

EDUCATION

2010 Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University, PhD

1976 – 1977 S. Martins College, Lancaster, B. Ed. (2.1.Hons) Art and Design

1972 – 1975 S. Martins College, Lancaster, Certificate of Education

SELECT AWARDS | GRANTS | RESIDENCIES

2015 Artist Award, The Alturas Foundation, funding for New American Scenery project.

Cumbria Life Culture Awards, Visual Artist of the Year 2015.

2013 Grant, Arts Council England, for research into the Spode Copper Plate Archive.

Artist Residency, Clay Studio Philadelphia, PA

Artist Residency, Ferrin Gallery Cummington MA

2011 Artist Residency, Medalta, Medicine Hat Alberta, Canada.

2010 Grant, British Council, for Cumbrian Blue(s) contribution to the Hanoi Mosiac Mural

2009 Shortlisted Artist, British Ceramics Biennial,

Grant, British Council for exhibition at Rörstrand Museum, Lidköping, Sweden.

2008 Artist Residency, International Ceramic Studios, Kecskemét, Hungary.

2007 Artist Residency, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver Canada.

Artist Residency, Vale Visiting Artist, Denison University, Granville, Ohio, USA.

2006 Grant, British Council, for exhibition blås&knåda, Stockholm, Sweden.

Artist Residency, University of South Australia/The Jam Factory, Adelaide Australia.

2005 Grant, MIRIAD, for Sensuous Knowledge conference, Bergen, Norway.

Grant, British Council, for Body Blue, Galleri Nørby Exhibition, Copenhagen.

2004 Grant, Arts Council, research into ceramic print collections in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

2002 Artist Award, Encore Bursary, Northern Arts, research into industrial engraved print and ceramics, and creative appropriation/use of archival material.

2001 Northern Arts Travel grant for International Ceramic Center, Denmark.

2000 Grant, Newcastle University Grants Committee, for research in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Artist and Industry collaborations.

1998 Grant, British Council & Northern Arts, for International Ceramic Studios, Hungary.

1997 Grant, British Council & Northern Arts, for International Ceramic Studios, Hungary.

1996 Artist Award, Northern Electric Arts Awards.

SELECT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

2018

KODA, Bergen Museums, Norway

Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia

The Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2017

Government Art Collection, UK .

University of Wales Ceramic Collection, UK

Guldagergård Sculpture Park, Skælskør, Denmark

2016

National Museums Scotland, Scotland

New York Historical Society, USA

Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Norway

Guldagergård Sculpture Park, Denmark

2015

Bury Art Museum, Bury, UK

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA

Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, USA

National Museums Liverpool, UK

Potteries Museum, UK

RISD Museum, Providence, USA

Touchstones, Rochdale, UK.

2014

Contemporary Art Society for Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, UK

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

National Museum of Wales at Cardiff, UK.

National Museums Liverpool, UK.

Chipstone Foundation, USA.

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

National Museum of Art Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

Alturas Foundation, USA.

Arizona State University Art Museum, USA.

Newark Art Museum, USA.

Brooklyn Museum, USA.

2013

Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA.

Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.

The Crafts Council, UK.

Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK.

2012

Musé Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland.

Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada.

Arizona State University Art Museum, USA.

2011

Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.

National Museum of Art Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

The Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent, UK.

Statens Konstråd, National Public Art Council, Sweden.

Handelsbanken, Stockholm, Sweden.

Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK.

2010

Ateliers D’Art de France, France Danish Arts Foundation, Copenhagen.

Bury Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

2009

Rörstrand Museum Lidköping, Sweden.

Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK.

2008

Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.

Nordenfjeldske Kunstinustrimuseum (National Museum Decorative Arts) Trondheim, Norway.

Manchester Metropolitan University Library, Special Collections, UK.

Manchester City Art Gallery, UK

GalleryOldham, UK.

Museum Bellerive, Collection of Decorative Arts, Zurich, Switzerland.

International Ceramic Studios, Kecskemét, Hungary.

2007

Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada.

Denison University, Granville, Ohio, USA.

2006

National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.

Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum, Gustavsberg, Sweden.

Handelsbanken, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ceramic Research Center, Guldagergård, Denmark.

University South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

Jam Factory, Adelaide, Australia.

2005

Museum Ariana Geneva, Switzerland.

York City Museum, and Art Gallery, UK.

2004

Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

2003

Tullie House, Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

2001

Expo Ceramic Museum, Kyonggido, South Korea.

Nelson Mandela Foundation, Houghton, South Africa.

Bankfield Museum, Halifax.

Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, UK.

Copeland Borough Council Collection, UK.

Oregon College of Art and Craft Collection, Portland, USA.

Kohler Company, USA.

Red Deer College, Alberta, Canada.

2000

University of Wales Ceramics Collection.

Gustavsberg Sanitaryware Company, Gustavsberg, Sweden.

International Ceramic Center, Skælskør, Denmark.

1999

Cumbria County Council Print Loan Collection, UK.

1998

International Ceramic Studios, Kecskemét, Hungary.

1997

International Ceramic Studios, Kecskemét, Hungary.

1996

Air UK/KLM Airways Northern Arts, USA.

1991

University of Wales Ceramics Collection, UK.

1990

Newcastle Arts Centre, UK.

Leicestershire Education Committee Collection for Schools and Colleges, UK.

University of Wales Ceramics Collection, UK.

1988

Cleveland Contemporary Art Collection, Middlesbrough, UK.

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017

Home Truths, PEER London.

2016

Cuttings, Ruins, Refugees and Wild Roses, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Trees and Cuttings, Cheeseburn Sculpture Park, Northumberland, UK.

2015

Scenery –  Gardens, Bridges, Trucks, Turbines and Willows, Benson Hall Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, with Andrew Raftery.

Confected Borrowed and Blue, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Teesdale, UK.

Confected Borrowed and Blue, Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire, UK.

Confected Borrowed and Blue, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales

Confected Borrowed and Blue, The Potteries Museum and Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.

2014

Confected Borrowed and Blue, Holburne Museum, Bath Spa, UK.

2013

Cumbrian Blue(s) at the Erie Art Museum, Erie PA, USA.

Cumbrian Blue(s), Words by the Water Festival, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Cumbria, UK.

Horizon, Rom 8, with Herbert Wiegand, KHiB, Bergen, Norway.

2012

Blue and White Horizons, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.

2011

blås&knåda, Stockholm, Sweden

2010

Illustrious Wonderers, with Kurt Weiser and Stephen Bowers, Anne Linnemann Studio Galleri, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2009

Cumbrian Blue(s) at Rörstrand, The Rörstrand Museum, Lidköping Sweden.

2008

Bovall Gallery, with Lillemor Petersson, Bovallstrand, Sweden,

Cumbrian Blue(s), 21st Century Showcase Manchester City Art Gallery, UK.

2007

Confected Landscapes, Cultural Wall paper and Contemporary Vignettes, Sir Kenneth Green Library, Special Collections Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

2006

blås&knåda, Stockholm, Sweden.

2005

Parcours Céramique Carougeois, Peter Kammerman Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland.

Body Blue, Galleri Nørby, with Ann Linneman, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2003

Cumbrian Blue(s), Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, UK.

2002

Remember Me, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Remember Me When This You See, University of Wales Ceramics Collection, Aberystwyth, Wales.

2001

Blue and White(haven) (contemporary interpretations of a collection): Beacon Museum and Art Gallery, Whitehaven, Cumbria, UK

1999

Grove Gallery, University of California, San Diego, USA

1998

Art.tm, Inverness, Scotland.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

2015

Author, Editor, originator, Horizon, Transferware and Contemporary Ceramics, Arnoldsche Art Publishers/National Museum of Art Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

Beyond Bravura, Stephen Bowers, Ceramic Review 266, March/April 2014, Book Review.

2013

Peppers, Pixies, and Pickled Onions: The extraordinary artwork of Jim Cooper, Ceramic Review 261, May/June 2013.

2012

Ceramics and Print, 3rd edition, Bloomsbury, UK / University of Pennsylvania Press, USA, ISBN 978 1 4081 5149 5

2011

Willows, Windmills and Wild Roses, Recycling and Remediation, Catalogue/Conference Essay, Ting Tang Trash, Upcycling, Permannenten Vestlandske Kunstindustriemuseum, KHiB, Bergen.

2010

The Hanoi Mosaic Mural, Ceramic Review 244, Sept/October.

2006

Yosoh.com: The work of Scott Rench, Ceramics Monthly Paddy Killer, Exhibition Catalogue Essay.

2001

Author, Ceramics and Print, 2nd Edition, A&C Black, UK / University Pennsylvania Press, USA / Haupt Verlag, Switzerland, ISBN 0 8122 1800 0

Willows, Bombs and Cop-outs:, for In-Print, Evolution in Contemporary Printmaking, Touring Exhibition Catalogue, Quay Art Hull, UK.

2000

Author, Painted Clay, Graphic Arts and the Ceramic Surface, A&C Black, UK / Watson Guptill, USA, ISBN 0 7136 4754.

1999

Originator, contributor and catalogue editor, The Plate Show, Collins Gallery, Glasgow, Scottish Arts Council,.

1998

Consultation/curation, contributor, editor, Glazed Expressions, Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, Catalogue, ISBN 1 902643.

1997

Author Hot off the Press: Teacher’s Notes, Bellew/Crafts Council.

1996

Originator, contributor, and editor, Hot off the Press, book, Bellew/Crafts Council, Book, ISBN 1 85725 119 9.

1994/96

Author Ceramics and Print, A&C Black, Book, ISBN 0-7136-3746-3.

SELECT PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

2016

Capita Symonds, Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Maryport Town Map/signage, Cumbria, UK.

2013/2014

Contemporary Art Society and a consortium of four museums: Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, National Museums Liverpool, Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery.

2012/13

Guldagergård Sculpture Park, Skælskør Denmark, 5m tall printed porcelain tree.

2010/11

Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, Artwork for Contemporary Craft Collection.

The Hanoi Mosaic Mural, Vietnam, 40 linear meters mosaic.

2009

Cumbria County Council/North West Development Agency, Maryport Business Centre, signage, glass and tiling.

Northern Print Studios, Willow Creek, Gallery WC, printed porcelain tiles, walls plus washbasin.

2008

Capita Symonds, Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, lead artist, town refurbishment, Maryport Cumbria, with specific responsibility for signage, town centre maps, and interpretation artwork.

2006

Allerdale District Council, Artworks for new public conveniences in Workington Town Centre Cumbria, collaboration with writer Robert Drake Bett Homes/Arts Council, Tiled artworks in a wall surrounding housing development, Ponteland, Northumberland.

2003

Allerdale District Council, 60 meters of printed porcelain tiling inserted into the surface of sandstone wall as part of 300m Flood Defence Wall North Quay, The Harbour, Maryport, Cumbria.

2000

Ove Arup and Partners, Newcastle Upon Tyne, artwork/signage for 4 offices.

1999

The New Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Arts Council Lottery Funded/Northern Arts, 6 painted/printed porcelain wall panels, Cumbria County Council, print loan collection.

1998/99

Mottram St Andrew, Arts Council Lottery Funded, painted/printed porcelain wall panels.

1998

Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, Arts Council Lottery Funded/Northern Arts/Northumbrian Water/Deloitte and Touche, 3 panels for Ophthalmic Services Reception.

1997

Year of the Visual Arts, Tullie House: Clock, Commission, Northern Arts/Air UK, Underglaze painting on porcelain panel.

1996

Living at Belsay: Contemporary craft in a historic setting, Crafts Council/Northern Arts Funded, Painted porcelain fire screen.

1994

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, Gateshead MBC, Northern Arts funded, Porcelain wall panels main entrance.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018

Home Treasures, Blaafarveværket, Modum Norway.

Revive, Remix, Respond, The Frick, Pittsburgh, USA.

2017

Angie Lewin: A Printmaker’s Journey, Discovery Centre, Winchester, UK.

2016

True Blue, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway.

Renewed Past, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

Unconventional Clay: Engaged in Change, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA.

Mending Revealed, Allsop Gallery, Bridport, UK.

The Art of Inventive Repair, Ferrin Contemporary at New York Ceramics and Glass Fair, New York and Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA, USA.

2015

Blue and White, British Printed Ceramics, V&A Museum, London.

Modern History, Contemporary Visual Arts Network, Bury Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

Immersion, Becoming You, Waterfall Mansion, New York City, USA.

2014

The Best is Not too Good for You, Contemporary Art Society/Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Hidden Agenda, Socially Conscious Craft, Berwick Visual Arts, Naughton Gallery at Queens Schrift und Objekt, Galerie Handwerk München, Germany.

2013

Setting the Scene, Farnham Crafts Study Centre Crafting a Continuum, UK.

Rethinking Contemporary Craft, Arizona State University Art Museum, Touring to Bellevue Arts Museum Washington, Boise Art Museum Idaho, Fort Wayne Museum of Art Indiana, Nora Eccles Museum of Art Utah State University, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Texas, USA.

The Nature of Mending Contemporary Blue and White, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA.

2012

Subvert, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide, Australia.

Collect, with the Bluecoat Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, London,UK.

Langenthal, Musée Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland.

Rule Britannia, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada.

The Tree, Gallerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany.

2011

Ting Tang Trash, Upcycling Permannenten Vestlandske Kunstindustriemuseum, Bergen.

Ceramic Cities, Dialogues in Design, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.

Collect, with the Bluecoat Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.

Bernardaud Foundation, Limoges, France.

Transferwork, Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany.

2010

Ceremonial Dishes, L’artelier Ceramique, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Craftism – Objects to Change the World, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead,UK.

Fired Up: Ceramics & Meaning, Gallery Oldham Liverpool/Shanghai Exposure Exhibition, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK.

Renegade Potters and Extreme Craft, Ink_d Gallery, Brighton, UK.

Hand Made, Fortnum and Mason, London, UK.

Taking Time, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, plus touring, UK.

Korero Ceramics in Conversation, installation in Yinggee Ceramics Museum, Taipei County for 2010 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Taiwan.

PRESS COVERAGE

Exhibition | ‘Home Truths,’ Paul Scott’s Brutal Blue and White Porcelain Plates, C-File, May 17, 2017

Getting the blues: Transfer ware translated by three contemporary artists, Antiques Magazine, February 9, 2016

REPRESENTED BY

Ferrin Contemporary (North America)

The Scottish Gallery (UK)

Taste Contemporary Craft (Europe)

References[edit]