From 5 April 2025, ceramics from the Anita Besson collection will go on display at Ruthin Craft Centre.  The exhibition has been curated by ceramicist Rhiannon Gwyn and is part of CELF, the national contemporary art gallery for Wales. The Anita Besson collection was bequeathed to the Derek Williams Trust in 2016.

Besson was born in Switzerland and settled in London in 1956. She opened Galerie Besson in London in 1988, having worked for London fine art galleries since 1961. As the first Bond Street gallery to show ceramics as fine art, Galerie Besson was highly influential. It closed in 2011, nearly 250 exhibitions later.

Besson exhibited only work that she loved. Alongside her favourites, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, she took pleasure in showing unfamiliar artists and artists from around the world, from Europe and Asia, Australia and the USA. Many artists became close friends, and their works form the bulk of her impressive personal collection.

Both Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and the Derek Williams Trust acquired important ceramics from Galerie Besson. Anita Besson was excited by the ambitious development of the ceramics collection in Cardiff and decided to bequeath her own collection to the Derek Williams Trust so that it could be shown to the public.

The exhibition continues until 15 June 2025.

Image: Anita Besson photographed at home in 2015. Behind her is a coffee set made by Elizabeth Raeburn and commissioned by Wolfgang Fischer to mark Anita’s departure from Fischer Fine Art in 1988 to open her own gallery. Photography: Miki Yamanouchi