Carol McNicoll
{{Short description|English studio potter (1943–2025)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Carol Margaret McNicoll (24 December 1943 – 3 March 2025) was an English studio potter whose work was mainly decorative slipcast ware, she is credited with helping to transform the British ceramics scene in the late 1970s.{{cite book | title=Carol McNicoll (Craft) | publisher=Lund Humphries Publishers | author=Harrod Tanya | year=2003}}
Biography
McNicoll was born in Birmingham on 24 December 1943, and brought up in Solihull, Warwickshire (now West Midlands). She attended a foundation course at Solihull College of Technology{{cite web |url= http://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Carol+McNicoll |title=Biography – Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Information Centre |first= |last= |work=bmagic.org.uk |year=2014 |quote=attended a foundation course at Solihull College of Technology (1966–67) |accessdate=23 October 2014}} and then studied fine art at Leeds Polytechnic from 1967 to 1970. In 1968 she made a film with three other students titled Musical which collaged and parodied existing musicals; the comedian Roy Hudd was invited to open the premiere.{{cite book | title=Roxy Music and Art-Rock Glamour: Faber Forty-Fives: 1969–1972 | publisher=Faber and Faber | author=Bracewell Michael | year=2011}} McNicoll was awarded a Princess of Wales Scholarship to attend Royal College of Art from 1970 to 1973,{{cite book | title=Studio Pottery | publisher=Phaidon | author=Watson Oliver | year=1993 | pages=220 | isbn=071482948X}} where she felt women were "marginalised" and "attention went to the men who were interested in industrial ceramics".{{cite book | title=Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels Vincentelli | publisher=Manchester University Press | author=Vincentelli Moira | year=2000 | isbn=978-0719038402 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/womenceramics00moir }}
McNicoll worked as a wardrobe assistant at theatres in Birmingham and London in the early 1960s.{{cite web |url= http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/craft/art25361 |title=Top Of The Pots – Carol McNicoll Takes Over Hove Museum |first=Kristen |last=Bailey |work=culture24.org.uk |year=2014 |quote=McNicoll worked as a wardrobe assistant. |accessdate=22 October 2014}} In 1970 she designed costumes for Brian Eno of Roxy Music who was then her boyfriend.{{cite book | title=Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music | publisher=University of Michigan Press | author=Auslander Philip | year=2006 | pages=196}}{{cite web |url= http://www.paulgormanis.com/?tag=carol-mcnicholl |title=Carol McNicoll |first= |last= |work=paulgormanis.com |year=2014 |accessdate=22 October 2014}} Her black cockerel feathered boa collar achieved an iconic status in the fledgling glamrock period. McNicoll supervised the design of the cover for Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets album with one of her teapot designs being featured on the sleeve cover.{{cite web |url= http://www.printmag.com/article/the-album-covers-of-brian-eno/ |title=The Album Covers of Brian Eno |first= |last= |work=printmag.com |year=2014 |accessdate=23 October 2014}} She also worked as a machinist for the fashion designer Zandra Rhodes,{{cite web |url= http://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Carol+McNicoll |title=Biography |publisher=Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Information Centre |first= |last= |work=bmagic.org.uk |year=2014 |quote=worked as a machinist for the fashion designer Zandra Rhodes |accessdate=22 October 2014}} who in 1972 commissioned her to make a unique dinner set,{{cite web |url= http://www.zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk/2013/02/the-button-flower-print.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130330172650/http://www.zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk/2013/02/the-button-flower-print.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 30 March 2013 |title=Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection: The Button Flower print |first= |last= |work=zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk |year=2014 |accessdate=23 October 2014}} consisting of pink coffee cups with hands for saucers.{{cite web |url= http://midcenturymagazine.com/beautiful-objects/midcentury-meets-zandra-rhodes/ |title=Zandra Rhodes: The Fashion Designer talks to MidCentury|first= |last= |work=midcenturymagazine.com |year=2014 |quote=pink coffee cups with hands for saucers |accessdate=23 October 2014}}
McNicoll made sculptural functional ceramics and lectured widely including at Camberwell College of Arts from 1986 to 2000.{{cite web |url= http://www.caa.org.uk/exhibitions/archive/2008/cup/carol-mcnicoll/ |title=Contemporary Applied Arts: Carol McNicoll |first= |last=|work=caa.org.uk |year=2014 |accessdate=23 October 2014}} In 2001 she was short-listed for the Jerwood Prize for Ceramics.{{cite web |url= http://www.uwe.ac.uk/sca/research/etc/cmbadge.htm |title=Carol McNicoll |first= |last= |work=uwe.ac.uk |year=2010 |quote= 2001 she was short-listed for the Jerwood Prize for Ceramics |accessdate=22 October 2014}} Later work was constructed from slipcast and found objects such as toy soldiers, using commercial and self made transfer decoration.{{cite web |url= http://www.caa.org.uk/exhibitions/archive/2008/cup/carol-mcnicoll/ |title=Contemporary Applied Arts: Carol McNicoll |first= |last= |work=caa.org.uk |year=2014 |accessdate=23 October 2014}}
McNicoll said of her work "I am entertained by making functional objects which are both richly patterned and comment on the strange world we have created for ourselves."{{cite web |url= http://www.axisweb.org/features/profile/open-frequency/carol-mcnicoll/ |title=Open Frequency 2013: Carol McNicoll, selected by Dr Glenn Adamson – Open Frequency, Features |first= |last=|work=axisweb.org |year=2014 |accessdate=23 October 2014}}
She exhibited internationally and in 2003 City Gallery at Leicester, England presented a major retrospective of her work.{{cite web |url= http://www.holburne.org/ceramics-symposium-2/ |title=Ceramics Symposium |first= |last= |work=holburne.org |year=2014 |quote=a major retrospective of her work |accessdate=22 October 2014}} Her work is in the V&A's modern collection.{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/aug/31/shopping.homes |title=Interiors: It's a jumble out there|work=The Observer |first= Dominic |last=Lutyens |year=2014 |quote= examples of her work in the V&A'. |accessdate=22 October 2014}}
McNicoll lived and worked in a converted piano factory in Kentish Town in London, designed by her friend the architect Piers Gough in exchange for a McNicoll tea set.{{cite book | title=Modern British Potters and their studios | publisher=A&C Black | author=Whiting David | year=2009}} She died on 3 March 2025, at the age of 81.{{cite web |title=Carol McNicoll, potter behind playful 1970s works like Three-Spouted Teapot and Unravelling Vase |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/03/08/carol-mcnicoll-new-ceramics-1970s-three-spouted-teapot/ |website=The Telegraph |date=8 March 2025 |accessdate=8 March 2025}}
Exhibitions
- Well meaning cultural commodities, Barrett Marsden Gallery London 2008
- Taiwan biennale exhibition curated by Moyra Elliott, 2010
- Ceramics – Carol McNicoll, Ken Eastman, Alison Britton, Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris, 2010
- Ideal Home – Carol McNicoll, Jacqui Poncelet, Sam Scott, Marsden Woo Gallery London, 2011
- 5 Divas: Carol McNicoll, Jacqui Poncelet, Janice Tchalenko, Elizabeth Fritsch, Alison Britton, Helene Aziza Paris, 2012
- Pieces together: Carol McNicoll, Sam Scott, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf London, 2012
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Further reading
- Harrod, Tanya and Roselee Goldberg. (2003) Carol McNicoll (Craft) Lund Humphries Publishers. {{ISBN|978-0853318835}}
- Turner, Ralph. (1985) Carol McNicoll Ceramics Crafts Council. {{ISBN|978-0903798839}}
- Harrod, Tanya and Murray, Peter Carol 2000 McNicoll Knick Knacks Yorkshire Sculpture Park
External links
- [https://collections.vam.ac.uk/name/mcnicoll-carol/3002/ Carol McNicoll at the V&A]
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Category:Alumni of Leeds Beckett University