Tony Evans (1942-2009) Welsh/American, Large Ceramic Disc on Metal Stand. Nine rectangles with various dotted patterns in center. Signed on back along with a "Made in U.S.A." sticker. 

Size With Stand: 28 x 28 x 34 in. 

Anthony Glyn Evans (known best as Tony Evans) was born in Wales in 1942. A polymath who eventually found his calling in art, Evans started his scientific life at Imperial College studying dislocation motion in the fluorite structure with Peter Pratt. Using discrete mathematics he was able to create and explain more efficient uses for materials in both engineering and ceramics, and after graduate studies he was employed at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Europe’s most prestigious and best equipped laboratory, where he worked with Roger Davidge on concepts of ceramic fracture. After a short period at UCLA with Alan Tetelman, he moved to the National Bureau of Standards to work with Shelley Wiederhorn, who had pioneered the effect of water on subcritical crack growth in glass. His innovative contributions to materials were enormous, and were recognized with the highest accolades in science and engineering, including becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering on the eastern side of the Atlantic, and a member of the National Academy of Science and National Academy of Engineering on the western side. Evans permanently relocated to the United States in the 1970s, settling in California to teach and work at Rockwell Science Center, where he initiated a collaborative study concerning the detection of strength limiting flaws in ceramics. After further work at Berkeley and UCSB as the inaugural chair of the Materials Department, the United States government tapped him to analyze stress fractures on both nuclear weapons and power plants, and soon he was making weekly trips to Washington D.C. On one of these trips he first encountered Japanese raku pottery at an exhibition in the Smithsonian, and he eventually left academic work to become a sculptor full-time, obsessed with perfecting the technique. He continued to give lectures at Harvard and Princeton while building his own home studio back in California, and devoted his final years to producing a vast array of plates, sculptures, and other objects in ceramics, art glass, and mixed media. Tragically, he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer in 2009, dying before the end of the year despite a grueling battle with the disease. Taken far too soon, Evans nevertheless completed a stunningly vast body of works that are displayed in museums across the globe and collected worldwide, and his innovative glaze techniques continue to influence contemporary ceramics artists.