Edmund de Waal

The lessons of Jewish Book Week

The lessons of Jewish Book Week

This year’s Jewish Book Week was a huge success. Events were packed, Kings Place was buzzing and there was a terrific line-up of big names and fascinating subjects, from Simon Schama and Edmund de Waal to Einstein, Ben-Gurion and fashion designers from Weimar Berlin…

JR OutLoud: Listen to a guided audio tour of the Jewish Museum’s exhibition Shaping Ceramics with artist Janet Haig

Janet Haig is one of the ceramicists whose pieces (pictured above), as well as a film showing how she works, are featured in Shaping Ceramics at the Jewish Museum London. The exhibition explores the work of pioneering ceramicists, tracing their influence on subsequent generations of ceramic artists whose Jewish heritage has shaped their work. Polish-born artist Haig joins JR's arts editor Judi Herman here for a very personal tour of the exhibition, discussing the experiences that have moulded her work: from the hardships of the war years in a Siberian prison camp with her mother, to her formative childhood in Australia (where she studied painting) after they discovered that their closest family had perished in the Holocaust, to her arrival in the UK in 1962 and work teaching in a boys’ school.

Haig reveals that her first inspiration might go back as far as those harsh days in Siberia: “My mother was able to take one object with her [to Siberia] and she suddenly saw this little pot (I still have it in my possession), which she grabbed hold of because, as I was a baby, she thought it would be useful to warm things up. It’s enamel, blue on the outside, white on the inside and maybe that has had some kind of inspiration on my pots.”

Shaping Ceramics: From Lucie Rie to Edmund de Waal runs until Sunday 26 February, at Jewish Museum, NW1 7NB. 020 7284 7384. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

Watch ceramic artist Janet Haig demonstrate the ancient pottery-making technique of hand building on Monday 23 January, 11.30am-12.30pm, £7.50, £6.50 concs, at Jewish Museum, NW1 7NB. 020 7284 7384. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

Continue reading to see images of work featured in the exhibition, as mentioned in the interview; and find out more about key artists in the exhibition in the January 2017 issue of Jewish Renaissance.

Wind Rush by Antonia Salmon

Wind Rush by Antonia Salmon

Lifting Form by Antonia Salmon

Lifting Form by Antonia Salmon

Pot by Hans Coper

Pot by Hans Coper

Form by Hans Coper

Form by Hans Coper

Emergence by David Breuer-Weil

Emergence by David Breuer-Weil

Porcelain Bottle by Ray Silverman

Porcelain Bottle by Ray Silverman

Thrown Stoneware Form by Ray Silverman

Thrown Stoneware Form by Ray Silverman

Bowl by Lucie Rie

Bowl by Lucie Rie

Buttons by Lucie Rie

Buttons by Lucie Rie

Apples by David Cohen © Benedict Johnson

Apples by David Cohen © Benedict Johnson