Walter Keeler
"The pottery tradition is at the heart of all my work. Pottery for use has been central to all settled human communities. Seldom merely functional, it has been a vehicle for expression and the fulfilment of a delight in the pleasure of handling a sensual and incredibly versatile material; the useful bound up with the intellect and the imagination."
Working in Monmouth, Wales
1958-1963 Harrow School of Art, London, NDD Pottery
1994-2002 Professor of Ceramics, UWE, Bristol
“I discovered pottery as a boy, becoming intimate with fragments of ancient pots picked up on the beaches of the Thames in London. They infiltrated my mind and my senses, giving me an insight to the syntax of thrown pottery; a sense of what is authentic, which I only understood as I gained experience in the craft.
So my work is informed by my passion for pots from the past, but also by making and firing, and the world and times in which I live. Sometimes I make simple useful things like mugs or jugs, on other occasions my work is less straightforward, making demands, even challenging the user to negotiate with an unexpected pot to do an ordinary job. I hope my pottery brings with its seriousness, some humour and sensual pleasure.”
Walter Keeler has work in the following public collections:
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum, Aberdeen
Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol
Carmarthenshire County Museum, Carmarthen, Wales
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham
Cleveland Craft Centre, Middlesbrough
Crafts Council, London
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Leeds School Loan Service, Leeds
Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester
National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool
Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
National Museum & Gallery of Wales, Cardiff
Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Newport, Wales
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich
Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham
Paisley Museum & Art Gallery, Paisley
Peterborough City Museum and Art Gallery, Peterborough
Portsmouth City Museum, Portsmouth
Royston and District Museum, Royston, Hertfordshire
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
Somerset County Museum, Taunton, Somerset
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, Swindon
Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales
University of Derby, Derby
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Yorkshire Museum, (WA Ismay Collection), York
Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Princesshof Keramiekmuseum, Leewarden, The Netherlands
Musee Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland
National Museum of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden
Muzej Grad, Bistrica, Slovenia
Musée National de Céramique, Sèvres, France
Musée Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, USA
Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
Works for Sale
