Book Excerpt: The Introduction

by Stefano Carboni, Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia

The passage that most caught my attention in Tim Jacob’s introduction to the 2005 book celebrating the ceramic works of Victor Greenaway concerned that moment of stillness, silence, and expectation that all artists, writers, poets, musicians and performers share when they are on the verge of creating a new work. ‘Sitting there with the pot in one hand … waiting for it to say what it wants. … Nothing is happening. And then in a flicker, the soft bristle is unloading its glaze across the surface, fingers working the rolling brush, and it’s done. … It’s down and done. It’s a one shot game.’

Greenaway’s recently finished ceramic works fully communicate this feeling of stillness before quick release, of calm before lightning strikes. This is especially true of those that step away from the monochromatic or bi-chromatic glazes for which he is so well known, and take advantage of the extraordinary whiteness of the porcelain body in order to create a canvas for his quick, impressionistic brushstrokes. Often this reaction is emphasised by the characteristic deliberately broken or jagged rim that conveys a sense of spontaneity, improvisation, unfinished business, ingenious flaw, and which is fully part of his creative process.

And yet Greenaway’s painted bowls are also anchored in history, and in the land he has elected as his new home. The ethereal, weightless effect of the medium and of the quickly painted decoration is appropriately balanced by the prominent presence of the cylindrical foot. Its connection to the surface on which it rests, its material feeling, is further emphasised by the strong vertical or horizontal bands in stark blue-and-white or red-and-white. The profile may recall East Asian pottery but the painted decoration transforms these objects into contemporary global works.

The elected new land is Italy, more specifically the town of Orvieto in Umbria (80km south-west of Perugia, 130km north of Rome, 165 south of Florence) which rises spectacularly above a dramatic cliff and is surrounded by a magnificent landscape. Here Greenaway and his wife Judith have been spending most of each year since 2005, except for a few months in Nungurner on the Gippsland Lakes in Australia. The love affair with Italy started in the 1990s when he travelled there and formed a creative collaboration with Marino Moretti, a prominent potter in Umbria.

Orvieto, like most towns in Central Italy, is a place where history goes as far back as the Etruscans and the Romans, where artistic and architectural traditions hark back to the Medieval period and the Renaissance providing a constant source of inspiration for generations of Italian artists as well as international visiting artists, many of whom have been captivated by the beauty of the place and decided to stay on. Greenaway makes it clear that the ceramic works he has produced in the past few years have been inspired by the artistic achievements of ancient Etruria and the Roman Empire, and by the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The choice of porcelain, clear transparent glazes and sparkling white backgrounds is of course also a reference to the not-so-distant source of the best and purest white Italian marble, Carrara, another legendary material that has provided inspiration for the likes of Michelangelo and Bernini, all the way to Maurizio Cattelan. The miaolica tradition itself very much belongs to the geographical area of which Orvieto was and still is an integral and active part.

Whereas Greenaway is deservedly renowned for his prize-winning ceramics, the recent relocation to Italy has stirred up his passion for painting and drawing, to the point that one almost feels it has become an equal complementary activity to his pottery production. This new body of work fully reflects the prominence that painting has gained in Greenaway’s artistic practice. It is everyday Italian life that provides both the subject and the inspiration: urban landscapes seen from a distance as well as detailed silent corners of Umbrian piazzas, streets and houses; and individual portraits of friends, acquaintances and perfect strangers immersed in these outdoor scenes. Living in a small town in Italy sometimes means that you live in each other’s pockets but at its best it provides an intimate experience, a closer involvement and a better understanding of people’s attitudes and lives, all sensitively reflected in Greenaway’s portraits.

This ‘private’ passion for painting – private because until recently he has kept it almost as a personal secret, a disobedient derailment from his main form of artistic expression – is paramount to Greenaway’s development as an artist, especially after his move to Italy. He claims that it enhances his ‘creative process, by introducing new elements to my work such as colour and pictorial expression,’ which is a rather self-assured way to say ‘I’m not concerned about a loss of artistic identity since this is my new identity and I’m now ready to share it with the rest of the world.’

It may happen that a few of his long term fans will judge that painting is a welcome but unneeded distraction from what has always been his principal calling as an artist and a craftsman. Most of them, however, will surely acknowledge that Greenaway is following his destiny and that he has found new and different sources of inspiration and creative expression. Thus, they will respect and admire him even more, both as a person and an artist.