Edmund de Waal

News

Whilst the British Museum is currently closed, Edmund de Waal and English PEN are planning a series of blogs, articles and interviews to take place in the lead up to Refugee Week in June. Many of these will feature authors who had been due to speak as part of the events programme accompanying library of exile, now sadly postponed. Please check back for more details, which will be added as they become available.

In this episode of The Modern House Podcast, Matt Gibberd speaks to Edmund de Waal about his work, life and home, as well as his top three living spaces around the world.

Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with Aanchal Malhotra, whose book Remnants of Partition is included in the library of exile. Watch online at Jaipur Literary Festival's website, link below.

This panel discussion explores the role of memory in writing about exile and displacement. Joining Edmund de Waal, guest speakers include award-winning poet Kayo Chingonyi, Chilean novelist Alia Trabucco Zerán and British Palestinian fiction-writer Selma Dabbagh.

Edmund de Waal will be discussing the library of exile as part of Jewish Book Week in this special event.

Using the diary of Polish-Jewish teenager Renia Spiegel as inspiration, Edmund de Waal explores the ability of personal stories to tell difficult truths, joined by translators Marta Dziurosz and Anna Blasiak, and chaired by writer Lisa Appignanesi.

Writer Tracy Chevalier meets Edmund de Waal at his studio for BBC Radio 4's Only Artists programme.

Delivered at the opening of Elective Affinities, this lecture explores de Waal's long relationship with the Frick and the meanings of collecting within his own life and artistic practice. Click below to play.

In this illustrated lecture, de Waal explores the way he works and some of the connections between his family stories and most recent exhibitions and projects in Vienna, at the Venice Biennale, and at the Frick Collection, New York.

This year's Kirker Lecture coincides with the unveiling of Edmund de Waal's major work for the Ghetto in Venice. Drawing on the themes of his psalm project - the poetry of exile, the co-existence of different communities and languages and the history of translation in Venice over the course of a thousand years, Edmund de Waal will consider the rich heritage of the Ghetto as a place of exchange in many different senses. This event is in aid of Venice in Peril.

The annual Gomes Lecture at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, delivered this February by Edmund de Waal, was entitled In Touch: Objects, Families, Stories. Previous lecturers include Neil McGregor, Sandy Nairne, and Professor Alison Richard. Click the speaker icon below for an audio recording of the lecture.

Edmund de Waal joins Ben Luke on The Art Newspaper's podcast to discuss the journey of his netsuke collection and the current state of nazi-loot restitution.

Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with author of the critically-acclaimed book East West Street, Phillipe Sands at the Well Walk Pottery in Hampstead, north London.

This year's chair of the Wellcome Book Prize judging panel, de Waal gave their annual lecture at the Hay Literary Festival, speaking about mortality and how it is reflected across different genres and art-forms. Titled Memory and Memorial: Writing About the End of Life, de Waal discussed the poetry of Anne Carson and Max Porter, the memoirs of Paul Kalanithi and Marion Coutts, and the writings of Atul Gawande and Julia Samuel. He also spoke about his own works and collaborations exploring themes and ideas of memorial.  

Irish author Mark O’Connell been awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize for his extraordinary debut To Be a Machine: Adventures among cyborgs, utopians, hackers and the futurists solving the modest problem of death. The prize judging panel of five people was this year chaired by Edmund de Waal, and includes neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow, journalists Bryony Gordon and Sumit Paul-Choudhury, and writer Sophie Ratcliffe. De Waal described the book as "a passionate, entertaining and cogent examination of those who would choose to live forever".

In honour of the late Martin Roth, de Waal was invited to give the inaugural lecture set up in his friend's memory. De Waal's talk, I walk the line: Art on the border, was delivered in January at the Albertinum in Dresden. Click below to listen to a recording of the lecture.

Edmund de Waal, James Ivory and Hilary Mantel are among the first participants in Frick Diptychs, a new series of small books to be published by the museum that pair masterworks from the Frick Collection with critical and literary essays. De Waal's essay will be on the subject of a pair of porcelain and bronze candlesticks by the 18th-century French metalworker Pierre Gouthière.

In his first talk for the Leo Baeck Institute, entitled 'On the eve of departure: Art and Exile', Edmund de Waal will talk about the telling of family stories through words and sculpture, touching on his writing of The Hare with Amber Eyes and works by Paul Celan and Walter Benjamin. 

Following on from a major collaboration in 2015, Edmund de Waal joins forces with Aurora Orchestra again, this time to explore the backdrop to Richard Strauss' work Metamorphosen. De Waal will take the audience on a tour around the ruins of German cities at the end of World War II before a live performance with guest conductor Andrew Marwood. 

To celebrate the opening of Edmund de Waal's exhibition, During the Night, the Kunsthistorisches Museum will be opening their doors for an all night programme of tours, talks, live music and readings. Join de Waal at 2.00am in the galleries to hear some of the stories and secrets behind particular objects in the exhibition. 

Edmund de Waal has been invited to give the annual Pilkington Lecture for the Friends of Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. His talk, entitled Give it shadow enough: Art and memory, will explore the intersections between the visual arts, poetry and memory making and draw on his own practice as a maker and that of other 20th century artists. The talk will be followed by supper in the galleries. 

Edmund de Waal joins this year's Erasmus Prize winner, AS Byatt, to talk about her life and writing. 

This November Edmund de Waal has been invited to give the keynote lecture for the Israel Museum's annual International Symposium on Collecting and Provenance. He will talk about the writing of The Hare with Amber Eyes, restitution and the history of lost collections. 

Edmund de Waal will be talking at The Chatsworth Festival, Art Out Loud, a festival of talks by artists, curators and writers.

Edmund de Waal will be delivering a lecture at the Literatur Haus, Graz, celebrating the launch of the German edition of The White Road.

Edmund de Waal will be talking with Mark Fisher at the Ledbury Poetry Festival about his Desert Island Poems: the poems that have mattered to him throughout his life.

For his lecture On Homelessness Edmund de Waal talked about place and displacement in poetry and the visual arts, from the German emigre poet Paul Celan to his own work as an artist and writer.

Edmund de Waal has been awarded the prestigious Windham Campbell prize for non-fiction for his memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes.

To mark the launch of white at the Royal Academy and the publication of The White Road, Edmund de Waal has collaborated with Aurora Orchestra to create a programme of events across London this Autumn, exploring the colour white through music, poetry and the visual arts.

Edmund de Waal delivered the 2015 British Art Lecture at Tate Britain, London.

Phaidon has now published a monograph about Edmund de Waal's work and practice. The book is the most comprehensive survey of his career to date and features texts by Emma Crichton-Miller, AS Byatt, Colm Toibin and Peter Carey. To celebrate its publication, de Waal gave a talk at the Victoria and Albert Museum about how and why he started making ceramics, the influences of other makers on his work, and future projects he is working towards. 

Following a year of filming with Alan Yentob, the Imagine documentary on Edmund de Waal's studio life and practice was broadcast on BBC One on 5th November. The film covers a remarkable year; from moving studios, travelling across Europe to research his next book, to sitting at his wheel and making thousands of vessels for his first major exhibition in the USA with Gagosian, New York. 

Edmund de Waal delivered a secular sermon on the art of tact, at Conway Hall as part of The School of Life's Sunday Sermons series.