Gordon Baldwin was probably happiest with the term “sculptural potter” to describe himself. He disliked most definitions because they did not adequately encompass his art, one that explored broadly and complexly the potential of the “vessel”. He investigated this in lyrical big bowls and striking articulated and enclosed pieces, using the premise of containment to gauge ideas about painting and drawing on new types of form.
Baldwin, who has died aged 92, was a modernist in ceramics, but he never eschewed his traditional roots because they enabled him to evolve a highly original language. It led to some of the most convincing and liberated clay sculpture since the second world war.
