Footnotes

Provenance
Acquired directly from the Abuja Pottery Train Centre circa 1970's;
Thence by direct descent;
A private collection.

Ladi Kwali began pottery making at the age of six years old. As it was a traditional practice for women in her community of Gwarin Yamma people, she learnt by descent from her aunt. After receiving great admiration from the Emir of Abuja who collected her works, she was further acknowledged by Michael Cardew with great acclaim upon his research tour of Abuja in 1950. The following year, he would invite Ladi Kwali to join the Abuja Pottery Training Centre. Already an established potter with her own shop in the nearby town of Minna, Kwali was the first woman to join the training centre in 1954.

In this rare and impactful work, a beautiful sense of Ladi Kwali's preference for traditional Gwari pot making comes through. The slight irregularity to the surface and narrow base in comparison to the drum of the vessel, it could easily be concluded that this work was hand made without the assistance of a wheel that were introduced to the centre by Michael Cardew. Formulated by a dragging upward motion by the potter and coiling (the layering of bands of clay to allow an arch to form to the top of the vessel) Ladi Kwali had become well known for her near performative techniques in circling the vessel. Cardew recorded her process in his book Pioneer Pottery:'She moves rhythmically backwards round the pot, sometimes in a clockwise direction, sometimes (as in a dance) reversing to avoid giddiness.' (Michael Cardew, Pioneer Pottery, (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1969), p. 105).

The geometrical etchings created by a cutting action rather than scratching in order to enable as much precision in the work as possible, contrast the roundness of the vessel. Traditionally, Kwali used eathenware to produce her pots, however, as Susan Vogel noted, 'over her whole working life she made just one change – the switch from earthenware to stoneware' this change was only due to the conditions and material available to the pottery. (Susan Vogel, Ladi Kwali, Michael Cardew and a Tangled Story of African Studio Pottery, ed, Kerstin Pinther, Alexandra Weigand, Flow of forms/Forms of flow, Design Histories between Africa and Europe, (Germany: Transcript publishing, 2018), p, 108).

This process became a central feature to her and Michael Cardew's demonstrations performed throughout Europe during the years 1962-63 and America during 1972. These tours contributed to her fame along with her MBE that was awarded to her in 1962 and, in 1970, she was further awarded an honorary doctorate from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. Through these acknowledgments and artistic exposure, Kwali would influence a number of the next generation of potters, and the result was a new found global respect for her practice.

Bibliography
Jareh Das, Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art (Two Temple Place: London, 2022)
Michael Cardew, Pioneer Pottery, (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1969), pp, 104-105.
Susan Vogel, Ladi Kwali, Michael Cardew and a Tangled Story of African Studio Pottery, ed, Kerstin Pinther, Alexandra Weigand, Flow of forms/Forms of flow, Design Histories between Africa and Europe, (Germany: Transcript publishing, 2018.