EDMUND DE WAAL
Across his practice, Edmund de Waal (b. 1964) addresses the visual poetry of collecting and archiving, among other subjects. Recognised as an exceptional ceramist, de Waal models small unique vessels that form the base of his installations. His carefully composed vitrines offer lyrical narrations that result in a subtle dialogue between tradition and modernity, minimalism and architectural structure. Punctuated by notions of repetition and rhythm, the works are informed by the artist’s passion for literature as well as music and meditative contemplation.
‘I work with things. […] And then I arrange them, find places to put them down, on shelves or within vitrines, in houses and galleries and museums, move them around so that they are in light or in shadow. They are installations, or groupings, or a kind of poetry. They have titles, a phrase or a line that helps them on their way in the world.’
E. de Waal, ‘Irrkunst’, in Edmund de Waal: Irrkunst, exh. cat., Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications, 2016, p. 5
Image: untitled (let no air now be sung, 2024, porcelain, silver, aluminium, wood and glass, 122 x 95 x 19 cm.; 48 x 37 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. Photo: Alzbeta Jaresova
Artist Interview
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1964
Born in Nottingham, UK
1981–1983
Apprenticeship with Geoffrey Whiting, Canterbury
1983–1986
B.A. Hons. English Literature (First Class), Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
2004–2011
Professor of Ceramics, University of Westminster, London
2011
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to the Arts
2011–2019
Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2012–2022
Member of the Advisory Committee for The Royal Mint, London
Senior Fellowship, Royal College of Art, London
2021
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to the Arts
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2022–2023
Member of the Young Victoria and Albert Museum Committee, London
2024
Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Award
Lives and works in London, UK
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Architecture, Oxford
Banque Paribas, London
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
British Council, London
Cartwright Hall, Bradford
Contemporary Arts Society, London
Crafts Council Collection, London
Crafts Study Centre, Farnham
Dimensional, London
Fidelty Wordwide Investment, London
Fidelty Wordwide Investment, Luxembourg
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Geffrye Museum, London
Heythrop College, London
IBM Collection, Copenhagen
Ismay Collection, Yorkshire Museum, York
The Jewish Museum, Berlin
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt
Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Caroline
Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Ibiza, Ibiza
Museum of Western Australia, Perth
National Museum and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff
St. George´s Hospital, London
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden
Schroeder´s Bank, London
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
Stoke-on-Trent Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London
The University Church of Christ the King, London
The Usher Gallery, Lincoln
Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
University of Cambridge, Cambridge
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
World Ceramic Exposition Museum, Icheon
York Museum and Art Gallery, York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto (duo show)
Kunstsilo, Kristiansand, travelled from: CLAY, Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Middelfart
letters home
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2023
Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto (duo show)
CLAY, Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Middelfart
this must be the place
Gagosian, New York
to light, and then return (with Sally Mann)
Gagosian, New York
2022
Edmund de Waal and Unseen Pieces from The Feuerle Collection
The Feuerle Collection, Berlin
we live here, forever taking leave
Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
their bright traces
Gana Art Center, Gana Art Nineone, Seoul
2021
Letters á Camondo
Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris
sukkah
St Gabriel's Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury
2020
some winter pots
Gagosian, London
cold mountain clay
Gagosian, Hong Kong
tacet
New Art Centre, Wiltshire
library of exile
The British Museum, London (catalogue)
2019
library of exile
Japanisches Palais, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden
im Goldhaus
Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at the Frick Collection
The Frick Collection, New York
psalm
Canton Scuola Synagogue
Ateneo Veneto, Venice
breath
Ivorypress, Madrid
2018
the poems of our climate
Gagosian, San Francisco
– one way or other –
Schindler House, Los Angeles
Edmund de Waal: Early work: vessels from the Rosenheimer Collection
New Art Centre, Salisbury
white island
MACE - Museu d'Art Contemporani d'Eivissa, Ibiza
2017
Edmund de Waal and Giorgio Morandi
Artipelag, Stockholm (catalogue)
Lettres de Londres
Espace Muraille, Geneva (catalogue)
2016
During the Night
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (catalogue)
Irrkunst
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (catalogue)
ten thousand things
Gagosian, Los Angeles (catalogue)
Edmund de Waal: Rhythm In White
Gardiner Museum, Toronto
2015
White: a project by Edmund de Waal
Royal Academy of Arts, London
if we attend
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
the lost and the found
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2014
another hour
Southwark Cathedral, London
Lichtzwang
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Theseus Temple, Vienna
atmosphere
Turner Contemporary, Margate (catalogue)
2013
On White: Porcelain Stories from the Fitzwilliam Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Atemwende
Gagosian, New York (catalogue)
2012
a thousand hours
Alan Cristea Gallery, London (catalogue)
Edmund de Waal at Waddesdon
Waddesdon Manor (catalogue)
a local history
Alison Richard Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
2010
From Zero
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
night works
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2009
Signs and Wonders
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (catalogue)
Very Moveable Things: An Intervention
Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
2007
A Sounding Line
Chatsworth, Bakewell
Edmund de Waal at Kettle´s Yard
Kettle´s Yard, Cambridge (travelled to Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) (catalogue)
2006
Vessel, perhaps
Millgate Museum, Newark-on-Trent
2005
a line around a shadow
Blackwell: The Arts & Crafts House, Bowness-on-Windermere
Arcanum: Mapping 18th-Century European Porcelain
National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff (catalogue)
2004
Porcelain Room
Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2002
A Long Line West
Egg, London
Porcelain Room
Geffrye Museum, London
1999
Modern Home
High Cross House, Dartington Hall School, Devon (catalogue)
1998
Egg, London
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Mind the Gap: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens
The Shape of Things
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
ALL ABOUT THE VESSEL
Kunstquartier Gmunden, Bad Ischl
Fragments of Memory. The Treasure of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (with Edmund de Waal, Josef Koudelka and Julian Rosefeldt)
Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden
In Margin
8smicka Art Foundation, Humpolec
2023
Rudolf Levy (1875–1944) – Magician of Colour
Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Artists’ Buttons
Loewe Store, London
Artists’ Buttons
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
ADORE: Garry Fabian Miller
Arnolfini, Bristol
Underneath Everything: Humility and Grandeur in Contemporary Ceramics
Des Moines Art Center
UK vs USA: Post–War to Present
Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London
2022
Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art
Hayward Gallery, London
Feuerle Collection, Berlin
that other world, the world of the teapot. tenderness, a model
Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover
Sensational Books
Bodleain Library, Oxford
The Fourth Dimension
Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan
Living With Art We Love
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
2021
The Flames: The Age of Ceramics
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM), Paris (catalogue)
Imago Mundi
Centro de Iniciativas Culturales, University of Seville
Morandi. Resonancia infinita
Fundación MAPFRE, Paseo de Recoleto, Madrid (catalogue)
Maggie's Centre, Southampton
Masterpieces in Miniature: The 2021 Model Art Gallery
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal presents Henry Moore
Henry Moore Foundation Studios & Gardens, Hertfordshire
2020
Summer show
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2019
An Exhibition fro Notre-Dame
Gagosian, Paris
Stuff Matters
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
2018
Samla, sortera, ta hand om
RIAN Designmusem, Falkenberg
The Precious Clay
The Museum of Royal Worcester
Actions. The image of the world can be different
Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge
2017
Benjamin and Brecht. Thinking in Extremes
Akademie der Künste, Berlin
L'Expérience de la couleur
Musée national de la céramique à Sèvres
Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Story of Art: Gifts from the Collection of Lucinda Herrick and Charles S. Moffett ’67
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Orchestra of Letters
The Lettering Arts Centre, Snape Maltings
Matière Grise
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
Spring Installation
Gagosian, Paris
Edmund de Waal & Ai Weiwei: Kneaded Knowledge. The Language of Ceramics
National Gallery, Prague
Material: Earth
Messums Wiltshire, Salisbury
The Ron Sloman Collection: Contemporary Ceramics
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
2016
Edmund de Waal & Ai Weiwei: Kneaded Knowledge. The Language of Ceramics
Kunsthaus Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum (catalogue)
Shaping Ceramics: From Lucie Rie to Edmund de Waal
Jewish Museum, London
la mia ceramica
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
Seeing Round Corners
Turner Contemporary, Margate
FOUND
The Foundling Museum, London
A Material Legacy: Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection of Contemporary Art
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (travelled to Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton)
Generosity: The Art of Giving
Kinský Palace, National Gallery, Prague
Artificial Realities
East Wing Biennial, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Modern Japanese Design
Manchester Art Gallery
2015
CERAMIX - Ceramics in art from Rodin to Schütte
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (travelled to Cité de la Céramique, Sevres)
Resistance and Persistence
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
wavespeech: Edmund de Waal & David Ward
The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector
Barbican Art Gallery, London (travelled to Sainsbury Centre, Norwich) (catalogue)
Chromophobia
Gagosian, Geneva
2014
Then and Now
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (catalogue)
2010
The Artist´s House
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2009
Kettle´s Yard at Tate
Tate Britain, London
2008
Inside/Outside
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2007
Edmund de Waal & Garry Fabian Miller
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
The Long View
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2006
Still life
New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
2005
Premio Faenza: The International Competition of Ceramic Art
Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenze
Transformations: Language of Craft
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2004
A Secret History of Clay
Tate Liverpool, Liverpool
2003
Masterpieces of European Decorative Art
Fondazione per il Libro la Cultura, Turin
White
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
World Ceramic Exposition
Icheon
2000
Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
1999
Ceramics and the Memory of Architecture
Galerie Heller, Heidelberg
The New White
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications: Edmund de Waal. Irrkunst, Berlin, 2016
Phaidon (Ed.): Edmund de Waal, London, 2014
Gagosian Gallery (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. Atemwende, New York, 2013
Alan Cristea Gallery (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. a thousands hours, London, 2012
The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor (Ed.): Edmund de Waal at Waddesdon, Waddesdon, 2012
Edmund de Waal: The Pot Book, London, 2011
Alan Cristea Gallery (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. From Zero, London, 2010
Victoria and Albert Museum (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. Signs and Wonders, London, 2009
Kettle´s Yard (Ed.): Edmund de Waal at Kettle´s Yard, Cambridge, 2007
Blackwell - The Arts & Crafts House (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. A line around a shadow, Bowness-on-Windermere, 2005
National Museum and Galleries of Wales (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. Arcanum: Mapping 18th Century European Porcelain, Cardiff, 2005
High Cross House, Dartington Hall (Ed.): Edmund de Waal. Modern Home, Devon, 1999
Others
Artipelag (Ed.): Edmund de Waal, Giorgio Morandi, Stockholm, 2017
Kunsthaus Graz (Ed.): Kneaded Knowledge - The Knowledge of Ceramics, Edmund de Waal, Ai Weiwei, Cologne, 2016
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (Ed.): CERAMIX - Ceramics in art from Rodin to Schütte, Heule, 2015
Galerie Max Hetzler (Ed.): Then and Now, Berlin, 2014
Tate Liverpool (Ed.): A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley, Liverpool 2004 Elisabeth De Waal: Donnerstags bei Kanakis, Wien, 2014
Videos
Publications
Edmund de Waal: letters home
Exhibition Poster
2024
€ 15.00
Edmund de Waal: a sort of speech
Exhibition Poster
2019
Edition of 100
€ 20.00
la mia ceramica
Lynda Benglis, Ida Ekblad, Lucio Fontana, Günther Förg, Liz Larner, Fausto Melotti, Navid Nuur, Pablo Picasso, Sterling Ruby, David Salle, Josh Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, Rebecca Warren, Edmund de Waal
Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2016
With an introduction by Edmund de Waal
€ 35.00
Edmund de Waal: Irrkunst
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2016
With a text by Edmund de Waal (German / English)
€ 45.00
THEN AND NOW
Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal, Rebecca Warren
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris 2014
With a text by Jurriaan Benschop
€ 15.00
Selected Press
artnet November 2024
The Times September 2024
The Brooklyn Rail October 2023
Exberliner November 2022
The Times of Israel October 2021
Financial Times March 2020
Texte zur Kunst December 2019
Time Out 27 May 2019
The Financial Times May 2019
The Guardian April 2019
The Los Angeles Times November 2018
Artforum October 2018
Neue Zürcher Zeitung November 2016
Berliner Zeitung May 2016
DIE ZEIT May 2016
art - Das Kunstmagazin June 2015
Financial Times March 2014
The Guardian May 2014
