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Marianne
Heller´s Gallery for English Ceramics was launched in 1978 in a
room of her house in Sandhausen near Heidelberg in Germany. The enterprise
very quickly gained momentum, only the best pots by the best English potters
were put on show. David Leach, Colin Pearson, Michael Casson, Richard
Batterham, John Maltby, to name only a few, were presented in one man
shows. In 1982 Marianne Heller inaugurated her Potters´ Seminars which
soon became an institution, attracting collectors, potters and amateur
enthusiasts who pilgrimaged to Sandhausen every year in midsummer. The
best potters demonstrated at the wheel, talked about their craft, and
imparted freely their knowledge and expertise.
Over
the years Marianne Heller carefully widened the spectrum of her gallery,
inviting representatives of modern contemporary British ceramics, again
from the very beginning only the best. Alison Britton was among the first
to make a strong impact on what was then still a reasonably conservative
public. Gordon Baldwin, Ewen Henderson, Ken Eastman, Philip Eglin, Richard
Slee, Walter Keeler and many others showed their work. Meanwhile the gallery
attracted people from all over Europe and it was only a question of time,
when Marianne Heller´s reputation as one of the leading gallerists and
experts of modern ceramics should occasion profound changes in the gallerist´s
policies. Having presented leading German ceramists she was the first
to invite East European artists to show their work after the fall of the
Iron Curtain.
In
the end the beautiful showrooms in the Heller´s house at Sandhausen could
no longer accommodate what twenty years after its opening had grown into
an institution of international renown. Marianne Heller moved into spacious
and beautifully situated rooms in a central area of Heidelberg in 1998.
There the Gallery Marianne Heller was opened with an exhibition of works
of those four great old men of English ceramics who had accompanied and
supported Marianne Heller´s venture almost from the beginning. The Heroes
David Leach and Colin Pearson, Ewen Henderson and Gordon Baldwin. The
second climax of 1998 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the gallery
was Women in Europe which showed work by 45 women artists from 15 European
countries. On occasions like these the gallery turns into a forum of ceramic
art where you will not fail to meet the most prominent artists as well
as museum people and collectors.
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