Linda Roth
Curator of Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Clay in Conversation:
Taxile Doat and Kate Malone
LIVE
The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
2 PM
Monday, November 9, 2026
and
ZOOM
2 PM
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Vase “Cybele’s Favorites,” Taxile Doat Studio, hard-paste porcelain, c. 1900-1904, H: 5 1/2 in. Private Collection. Photo Allen Phillips.
What can two ceramic artists separated by more than a century say to one another through clay? This lecture explores the unexpected dialogue between French ceramist Taxile Doat (1851–1938) and contemporary British artist Kate Malone (b. 1959), whose work will be featured in two related exhibitions at The Wadsworth.
Although they worked in different eras and cultural contexts, Doat and Malone share a remarkable set of concerns. Both are inspired by the forms and processes of nature, drawing upon seeds, gourds, fruits, flowers, and organic growth as sources for artistic invention. Both combine rigorous technical knowledge with a willingness to embrace risk and experimentation, pushing clay, glaze, and fire beyond conventional expectations. And both have devoted their careers not only to making extraordinary objects but also to advancing the field of ceramics through teaching, research, and the sharing of knowledge.
The lecture will introduce Doat, one of the most innovative ceramic artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Trained at the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, he transformed traditional techniques into vehicles for artistic experimentation and became a pivotal figure in the development of modern studio ceramics. His work bridged industry and individual expression, European and Asian traditions, technical mastery and artistic imagination.
It will also examine the career of Kate Malone, one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary ceramists. Known for her exuberant forms, crystalline glazes, and joyful engagement with the natural world, Malone has spent decades exploring the creative possibilities of ceramic materials. Although separated from Doat by more than a century, she shares his fascination with nature as a source of artistic invention, his commitment to technical innovation, and his belief that experimentation lies at the heart of ceramic practice.
Through images, stories, and close examination of selected works, Clay in Conversation reveals how two artists, separated by time but united by curiosity, transformed clay into a medium of innovation, beauty, and discovery—and why their work remains so compelling today.
Linda H. Roth is the Charles C. and Eleanor Lamont Cunningham Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts at The Wadsworth in Hartford, where she has worked for more than four decades. She holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Over the course of her career, Roth has organized numerous exhibitions and gallery installations devoted to European decorative arts, ceramics, and collecting history, including Passion and Porcelain: Pre-Revolutionary French Ceramics from the Wadsworth Atheneum; Theater, Dance, and Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century, and Morgan: Mind of the Collector. Her scholarship has focused on French ceramics, particularly Sèvres porcelain and the artists associated with the manufactory.
Roth's publications include studies of Sèvres porcelain, J. Pierpont Morgan as a collector, and the French ceramist Taxile Doat. She is the author of “Taxile Doat (1851–1938): Artist and Alchemist” in A Passion for Porcelain: Essays in Honour of Meredith Chilton (2019) and numerous articles for the French Porcelain Society and other scholarly journals. She is currently preparing a major exhibition and publication devoted to Doat, alongside a companion exhibition of works by contemporary British ceramist Kate Malone.
