A major exhibition of international contemporary sculpture at Messums Wiltshire highlighted a new school of European artists using clay to comment on contemporary issues from pollution to war. The astonishing range of techniques used to create the works are powerful reminders of the enduring importance of the handmade in art as well as the stories that underpin European identity. From Odysseus to Odin, ancient myths and folk tales have always been a prompt for artists’ imagination and now, as Europe dissembles, interest in them amongst artists of all genres – but particularly those using clay – is proliferating.

From Bertozzi and Casoni’s exquisitely wrought sculpted heads made of fruits and flowers to Kim Simonsson’s Moss People wandering the forests without a home, the show was an important commentary on our times.

The exhibition moved to Messums Wiltshire from the Koç Foundation in Istanbul where it attracted over 40,000 visitors. It showed how Homeric, German and Norse mythology continues to inspire some of the best figurative sculpture in the world.

The exhibition featured works by fourteen artists from nine countries including: Sam Bakewell, Giampaolo Bertozzi and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni, Claire Curneen, Christie Brown, Phoebe Cummings, Bouke de Vries, Kim Simonsson, Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, Carolein Smit, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen and Vivian van Blerk.

‘This show demonstrates the enduring potency of historic narratives manifested in the material of clay – the oldest and most universal artistic material around’ said Johnny Messum, director of Messums Wiltshire. ‘It focuses on how clay, often used simply to manufacture vessels and other utilitarian objects, holds the potential of being one of the most delicately wrought and yet powerful in the hands of artists who have exceptional skill and vision, expressing human emotion with the greatest degree of subtlety.’

He added: ‘Ancient myths have echoed down the generations and the human characteristics and archetypes they feature have inspired an exciting new wave of artists.’

In the accompanying catalogue are essays by Glen Brown, Professor of Fine Art at Kansas University; Paul Greenhalgh, Director of the Sainsbury Centre and Catherine Milner, Curatorial Director of Messums are featured in a full colour 300-page catalogue featuring photographs by Sylvain Deleu.

In a separate exhibition in the Long Gallery at Messums Wiltshire were works by Michael Flynn whose sculptures are held by over 40 museums and in Messums London, an exhibition of ceramic vessels by Korean master makers Lee Hun Chung and Ree Soo Jong.