2024
Chinese Tang Dynasty earthenware figure of horse and rider, steel, gold leaf and marble
h53 x w26 x d13cm
Unique

Bouke de Vries (b. 1960) was born in Utrecht, The Netherlands and studied at the Design Academy, Eindhoven, and Central St Martin’s, London. After working with John Galliano (1981-83), Stephen Jones (1983-85) and Zandra Rhodes (1985-89), he decided to change careers and studied ceramics conservation and restoration at West Dean College (1989-1992), subsequently working as a ceramics restorer, alongside his artistic practice.

Using his skills as a restorer, his ‘exploded’ artworks reclaim broken ceramics after their accidental trauma. He has called it ‘the beauty of destruction’. Instead of reconstructing, he deconstructs them. Instead of hiding the evidence of this most dramatic episode in the life of an object, he emphasises their new status, instilling new virtues, new values, and moving their stories forward.

De Vries’ more contemplative works echo the 17th and 18th century still life paintings of his Dutch heritage, especially the implied decay in the flower paintings of the Golden Age (a tradition in which his hometown of Utretch was steeped – de Heem, van Alst, van Huysum). By incorporating contemporary items, he has evolved a new vocabulary of symbolism. These ‘dead natures’ – natures morts – give everyday household objects, a plate, a milk jug, a teapot, a modern poignancy that refers back to the vanitas and memento mori paintings of the past.

As a ceramics conservator de Vries has been faced with issues around perfection and worth on a daily basis, where even an almost invisible hairline crack, a tiny rim chip or a broken finger render a once-valuable object practically worthless; literally not worth the cost of restoring. There is something incongruous about the fact that such an object, although still imbued with all the skills it took to make it – be it first-period Worcester, Kang-xi or Sevres – can so easily be consigned to the dustbin of history. ‘The Venus de Milo is venerated despite losing her arms. Why not a Meissen muse?’, says de Vries.

Moreover, even when an object is ‘worth’ restoring, some owners prefer to hide the damage as much as possible, to deny the evidence of what was probably the most dramatic episode in the life of the piece. Especially since modern methods mean other options are available.

In his new series of ‘exploded’ artworks, the spaces in between the fragments become an essential part of the structures and the objects sometimes take on a cubist quality. With some works the viewer may be confused as to where the original makers of the piece stop and where the artist begins, making the work biographical and giving it new currency.

The figurative pieces address life today just as they addressed life then at the time they were made. Subversion is never far away. The Meissen muse becomes a binge drinker, giving us the finger in a scene where William Hogarth meets Vicki Pollard.

The mountings chosen for some of these works allude to objects already in museums: prehistoric pots with missing areas often utilise perspex as in the Pre-Industrial Utensils collection at the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen; and classical sculpture, where missing sections of elbow or shin are replaced by metal dowels.

De Vries has had solo exhibitions in institutions around the world, including the Sir John Soane Museum, London; the Frick Collection, Pittsburgh; the Legion of Honour Museum, San Francisco; the Lightner Museum, Florida; and Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. His work can be found in international collections such as the National museum of Scotland, the National Museum of Norway, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. De Vries lives and works in London.