Ann Stokes: Artists' Potter monograph explores ceramicist's career and domestic artistry

The 2009 monograph 'Ann Stokes: Artists' Potter' documents the ceramicist's unconventional career, which unfolded largely outside commercial galleries and dealer representation. Edited by Tanya Harrod and published by Lund Humphries, the 128-page volume includes contributions from Gray Gowrie, Richard Morphet, and Hilary Spurling. Ann Stokes, widow of writer Adrian Stokes, created functional pottery alongside sculptural works like large alligators, a rhinoceros gifted to Ernst Gombrich, tables, tile patterns, and recent large wall reliefs and earthenware trees. Working primarily as a self-trained artist, Stokes collaborated with painters and developed a distinctive approach embracing surface imperfections and bold coloration. Her ceramics, described as facilitating domestic life with dreams and sensuality, were meant for practical use rather than mere display. The book features personal photographs including a portrait of Stokes and her second husband Ian Angus by painter William Coldstream from 1979-80, and an image of Stokes hanging from a tree by Jim Dine taken when she was in her fifties. Priced at $70 with ISBN 9781848220072, the publication originated from Farnham, Surrey. Stokes maintained homes in London's Hampstead neighborhood at Church Row and in Cortona, Italy, where her residences contained both Adrian Stokes's paintings and her own ceramic works.