I have moved about the natural world, among its concentrates, stones and fruits, handling the burst cups of buds and pods... Distilled in these forms are nature’s own generative propensity and an essential cohesion of form and function, qualities now sensed palpably with eye or finger-tip, now perceived more ethereally through a sympathetic recognition. These naturalistic models were worked into my ceramic pieces in such a way that, without obtruding themselves as copies of nature, they were made to inhabit, almost covertly, the ceramic material. My pieces thus, through their ability to recall something once seen or sensed in nature, release pleasure in the spectator.
Axel Salto
Organic Form
Axel Salto's Budding Ceramics
Axel Salto (1889-1961) is perhaps Denmark’s most important ceramicist. His expressive, organic forms are the result of an approach Salto defines as "creat[ing] in accordance with nature, rather than to copy its exterior."
Works from his Budding series—made with the rich, earthy hues—feature subtly protruding forms on the surface which heighten the tonal variation and luster of the glaze. Although made of clay, his Budding vases capture the essence of flora or what Salto calls "the wonder of growth, the inward urge in living things, which must come out."
