Mid-century artist and studio potter Joan Hoverstadt shunned the limelight for a life of education. This unique retrospective shines a light on a fascinating body of work hidden from the art world for over 50-years  

THE ARTIST

Name Joan Hoverstadt

Born 1924, Lytham St. Annes

Lives Manchester

Medium Pottery, Ceramic Art, Watercolour, Sculpture

BIOGRAPHY

Joan Hoverstadt was born in Lytham in 1924 to Herbert and Katie Swann.  Herbert was a professional footballer who played for Tottenham Hotspur, Bury FC, Crystal Palace and Plymouth Argyll at the beginning on 20th century.  He features heavily in her paintings and many ceramics. Hoverstadt attended teacher training college in Bingley and studied art at Blackpool School of Art in the late 1940s, where she met her husband.  

They moved to Manchester in the spring of 1952 where they both taught at Manchester School of Art. Joan taught painting on the college’s Foundation course and worked alongside Don McKinlay, Barry White, Norman Stevens, and Norman Adams. After retiring in the mid 1970s, Joan became a moderator at art colleges across the North West of England.  She co-wrote a book about Victorian Scraps with Alastair Allen and designed decorative tins, including one of the Tardis featuring Tom Baker.  

In her sixties Joan went back to Manchester School of Art to study Ceramics and taught life drawing to students in lieu of paying course fees.  From the 1980s this became the principle focus of her practise and she built a large workshop in the garden of her Withington home. Joan’s final works include a series of watercolour paintings concentrating on fantasy figures, inspired by familial imagery in paintings she completed in the 1950s. Joan chose to concentrate on education and work; her exhibition at the Manchester School of Art in 1963 was the last time her work was seen in public. 

This unique collection of unseen works at the Weavers Factory Gallery gives a unique insight into an important mid-century Northern female artist and studio potter.