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The gallery was the first public collection to acquire a work by Odundo in 1976 – a stoneware pot Esinasulo (Water Carrier) made following Odundo’s residency at the Abuja Pottery in Nigeria in 1951. Chief curator, Andrew Bonacina, said: “Odundo’s use of handbuilding and coiling, rather than throwing on the wheel, allows her to create oversized forms, distanced from traditional, domestically-scaled vessels and pushing them into the realm of sculpture.”

The purchase was made possible due to donations from the Art Fund, V&A fund, Henry Moore Foundation and the gallery’s collection. Odundo’s work continues to soar at auction, reaching a record £200,000 in 2020.

Bowled over A West Yorkshire gallery has acquired a ceramic vessel by one of UK’s most esteemed ceramic artists.

Asymmetric Vessel, by Kenyan-born Dame Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950) is one of the first new pieces the potter has completed in three years. It will now go on public show at The Hepworth Wakefield.

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This month sees a new role for the Duchess of Sussex’s dress and three must-see exhibitions

Above left Dame Magdalene Odundo in her studio, © Cristian Barnett

Above Dame Magdalene Odundo, Asymmetric Vessel, 2021

Above right The music room in the museum, © Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath Preservation Trust

BATH PLUG To commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Bath-based astronomer William Herschel (1738- 1822), the Bath Preservation Trust has been given £64,000 for a year-long programme of events in 2022 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Herschel Museum of Astronomy is located in the house where William and his sister Caroline, lived, worked and made several important discoveries during the late 1700s. It was in the garden of the home in 19 New King Street that William Herschel became the first person ever to see the planet Uranus in 1781.

Right Vivian Maier, Self-portrait, New York, 1953, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY

Left Vivian Maier,

New York, 1953, ©Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard

Greenberg Gallery, NY

NANNY GREAT This summer sees the UK’s first exhibition of the work of a mysterious Chicago nanny who led a double-life as one of the greatest street photographers of the 20th century.

Two years before her death, a vast hoard of negatives by Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was discovered stashed in a Chicago storage locker.

For 40 years Maier worked as a nanny in New York and Chicago while capturing life on the streets in her spare, producing an extraordinary body of work of more than 150,000 images. Since the 2013 Oscar-nominated documentary Finding Vivian Maier, she has attracted a cult following among collectors and photography fans.

The exhibition at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes opens on June 11.

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