The character arc of Magdalene Odundo
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in 1950 in Nairobi, and educated in both India and Kenya. Between then and now sit graphics and commercial art at the Kabete National Polytechnic, a move to England in 1971 to follow graphic design, a change of discipline towards ceramics at the Cambridge School of Art, journeys in 1974 and 1975 to a pottery training centre in Abuja and to a pueblo in New Mexico to watch black-burnished vessels being made, a degree in 1976 and a masters at the Royal College of Art, teaching posts from 1976, a professorship in 2001, and a chancellorship from 2018. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Magdalene Odundo?
She arrived to study graphics. She left holding clay.
She was born in Nairobi in 1950 and had her early education in both India and Kenya. She studied graphics and commercial art at the Kabete National Polytechnic, and in 1971 moved to England to follow what she had chosen as her vocation, which was graphic design. She trained in Farnham in Surrey and completed her foundation art and graphics qualifications at the Cambridge School of Art, and it was there that she began to specialise in ceramics instead.
What she did next is the part that makes her. Rather than learn pottery from the English studio tradition sitting in front of her, she went and found the people who had never stopped hand-building. In 1974 and 1975 she visited the Pottery Training Centre in Abuja in Nigeria and went back to Kenya, to study traditional hand-built techniques. She also travelled to San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico to watch black-burnished vessels being made.
The method she came back with is slow and physical and has no wheel in it. The pieces are hand-built by coiling. Each one is burnished, covered with slip and burnished again. A first firing in an oxidising atmosphere turns them red-orange; a second in an oxygen-poor atmosphere turns the clay black. They are the techniques the Ancient Greeks and Romans used, and she takes inspiration from China and Mexico as readily as from Africa.
The graphic design never left. She still sketches natural forms and works out the design of the form on paper before the clay. Many of the vessels are reminiscent of the human body, following the curve of a spine or a stomach or the line of hair, and one of the best known is a black and ochre piece with a curved base and long neck in the shape of a pregnant woman.
She took her degree from West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1976 and a masters at the Royal College of Art in London. She taught at the Commonwealth Institute from 1976 to 1979 and at the Royal College of Art from 1979 to 1982, returned to teach at the Surrey Institute in 1997, and became Professor of Ceramics in 2001. In March 2016 she was inaugurated as an Emerita Professor, with the celebration held against the backdrop of her glass work Transition II. Since 2018 she has been Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts. Her work is in nearly fifty international collections, among them the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Museum of African Art, and she was made a Dame Commander.
The moments
Magdalene Odundo's timeline.
The 1950s
Born in Nairobi
Everyday. Nairobi, and schooling in two countries.
The 1960s
Graphics at Kabete
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She trained as a designer first.
The 1970s
England, for graphic design
Milestone, and it changed everything. She came for one discipline and found another.
She finds clay
Milestone, and it changed everything. A foundation course, and a change of trade.
Learn the local tradition, or go and find it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: travel to the hand-builders, taken, or learn it in Surrey. The hand-coiled, twice-fired vessels she came back making are in nearly fifty international collections.
Abuja, and then Kenya
Milestone, and it changed everything. She went to Africa to learn how to build a pot by hand.
A pueblo in New Mexico
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three continents, learning the same thing by watching.
A degree, and then the RCA
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The qualifications came after the travelling, not before.
She starts teaching
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Teaching, from the year she graduated.
The 1980s
Coiled, burnished, fired twice
Milestone, and it changed everything. No wheel. Coils, a burnishing stone, and two firings.
The 1990s
Vessels shaped like bodies
Milestone, and it changed everything. The designer never left. She still draws it first.
Back to Farnham to teach
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She went back to the school that trained her.
The 2010s
Emerita Professor
Milestone, and it changed her direction. They held the ceremony in front of her glass piece.
Chancellor
Milestone, and it changed everything. Chancellor of the university she arrived at as a student in 1971.
The 2020s
Fifty collections
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nearly fifty museums hold her pots.
She is chancellor of the university she first trained at, which is a neat circle for somebody who arrived in Farnham to study something else. What she set moving was a decision to go and learn from Abuja and a New Mexico pueblo rather than from the studio tradition in front of her, and the pots came out unlike anybody else.
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Magdalene Odundo: frequently asked questions
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Sources
- Magdalene Odundo, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Her teaching and professorial appointments at the University for the Creative Arts.
- The collections of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
- The London Design Medal, and her damehood.