!
e m o c e b o of how t ng i e b r o f famous wn unkno
THE
D R A N R E B , H C A E L R E T POT
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Greetings fr om
and beyond
Bernard Leach * Leach was born in 1887 in Hong Kong, but spent his young adult years in Japan where he came into contact with a group of young Japanese art lovers who called themselves Shirakaba (白樺).
Thursday, March 22, 2012
“ (Bernard Leach) first encountered pottery while in Japan in 1911, when attending a dinner party he was asked to decorate a teabowl. The bowl was a raku bowl and it was soon returned to him fired and still warm , it was this encounter that was to set the course of his life. Thursday, March 22, 2012
*Through them he learned about William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was in Japan that Leach began potting and befriended a young potter named Shoji Hamada.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
With Hamada, he set up the Leach Pottery at St. Ives, Cornwall in 1920, including the construction of a traditional Japanese wood burning kiln.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The two of them promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies. In their work they focused on traditional Korean, Japanese and Chinese pottery, in combination with traditional techniques from England and Germany, such as slipware and salt glaze ware. Thursday, March 22, 2012
A recurring theme of his decoration “is nature, trees and birds, perhaps standing for freedom and fauna, wild grasses and flowers all beautifully represented and glowing with fire of life. A favourite pattern the Tree of Life perhaps best encapsulates Leach's spiritual side as does his pilgrim motif, which may represent Leach himself alone but not loney, traveling life's great journey.�
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
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Leach formally joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1940. A pilgrimage to the Bahá'í shrines in Haifa, Israel, during 1954 intensified his feeling that he should do more to unite the East and West by returning to the Orient "to try more honestly to do my work there as a Bahá'í and as an artist...”
Thursday, March 22, 2012
on spirituality.......
[
In the Bahá'í Faith, religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, and most recently the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. In Bahá'í belief, each consecutive messenger prophesied of messengers to follow, and Bahá'u'lláh's life and teachings fulfilled the end-time promises of previous scriptures. Humanity is understood to be in a process of collective evolution, and the need of the present time is for the gradual establishment of peace, justice and unity on a global scale.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
]
the philosophy...
`
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Leach advocated simple and utilitarian forms he called “ethical pots�. His ethical pots stand in opposition to what he called fine art pots, which promoted aesthetic concerns rather than function.
Ethical pot was first coined by Oliver Watson in his book Studio Pottery: Twentieth Century British Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum
A back-to-basics pottery movement that endorsed plainer utilitarian styles over fine art. Other names for pots in this style are the ego-less pot or utilitarian pot.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Ethical pot was first coined by Oliver Watson in his book Studio Pottery: Twentieth Century British Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum
A back-to-basics pottery movement that endorsed plainer utilitarian styles over fine art. Other names for pots in this style are the ego-less pot or utilitarian pot.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The proponents were theoretically opposed to the expressive pots or fine art pots of other post-war potters such as William Staite Murray, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
According to ceramic art critics of today, this pot style was intended to be modernist, useful, and "democratic in usage" as opposed to the the fine art pot and also opposed to industrial art.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
*They saw pottery as a combination of art, philosophy, design and craft – even as a greater lifestyle. However, many in the West considered their pottery crude by the refined standards of the day. Publishing A Potter's Book in 1940 defined Leach's craft philosophy and techniques, and became his breakthrough to recognition. Thursday, March 22, 2012
the legacy..... Leach was instrumental in organizing the only International Conference of Potters and Weavers in July 1952. among them Shoji Hamada and US-based Bauhaus master potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Another important contributor was Japanese aesthetician Soetsu Yanagi, author of The Unknown Craftsman. "The most important outcome of the conference was that it helped organize the modern studio pottery movement by giving a voice to the people who became its leaders‌it gave them [Leach, Hamada and Yanagi] celebrity status‌[while] Marguerite Wildenhain emerged from Dartinghall Hall as the most important craft potter in America." art cornwall.org Thursday, March 22, 2012
Many potters from all over the world were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery, and spread Leach's style and beliefs. His British associates and trainees include He was a major influence on the leading New Zealand potter Len Castle who travelled to London to spend time wor king with him in the mid-1950s. Many of his Canadian apprentices made up the vibrant pottery-scene of the Canadian Westcoast during the 1970s in Vancouver. Thursday, March 22, 2012
British apprentices include...
Michael Cardew Nora Braden David Leach (his son) Michael Leach (his son) Janet Darnell (whom Leach married) William Marshall Sylvia Hardaker Kenneth Quick Richard Batterham. American apprentices include...
Warren MacKenzie Byron Temple Clary Illian Jeff Oestrich Thursday, March 22, 2012
Popularized in the 1940s after the publication of A Potter's Book, his style had lasting influence on counter-culture and modern design in North America during the 1950s and 1960s. Leach ran a modern cooperative workshop which created a catalogue of handmade pottery for the general public. He continued to produce pots which were exhibited as works of art. Thursday, March 22, 2012
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5 January 1887 ‒ 6 May 1979 Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
garth clark on the leach legacy
Thursday, March 22, 2012
"With!six!decades!of!hindsight!on!the!developments!of! studio!ceramics!(or,!as!Garth!Clark!feels!is!the!lack!of! development),!Clark!narrows!down!the!blame!to!Bernard! Leach,!declaring!that,!"Instead!of!responding!to!our!own! times,!most!functional!ceramists!are!still!trying!to! channel!the!dead!potters!of!the!Sung!Dynasty.!In!the! process!they!have!become!Bernard!Leach's!orphans,!lost! children!with!no!place!in!the!family!of!contemporary!life."! It!isn't!so!much!that!he!regrets!the!existence!of!Bernard! Leach!as!he!feels!the!influence!has!taken!the!majority!of! studio!ceramists!in!its!grip.!...!Clark!says"in!order!to!be!a! participant!in!modern!times,!ceramists!must!disavow! themselves!of!the!romanticism!of!the!life!of!the! 'unknown!craftsman'!who!is!just!managing!to!scrape! together!his!means!while!performing!a!greater!service!of! bringing!handmade!art!to!the!masses,!a!life!even!Leach!had! to!admit!was!not!feasible."
garth clark on the leach legacy
Thursday, March 22, 2012
"With!six!decades!of!hindsight!on!the!developments!of! studio!ceramics!(or,!as!Garth!Clark!feels!is!the!lack!of! development),!Clark!narrows!down!the!blame!to!Bernard! Leach,!declaring!that,!"Instead!of!responding!to!our!own! times,!most!functional!ceramists!are!still!trying!to! channel!the!dead!potters!of!the!Sung!Dynasty.!In!the! process!they!have!become!Bernard!Leach's!orphans,!lost! children!with!no!place!in!the!family!of!contemporary!life."! It!isn't!so!much!that!he!regrets!the!existence!of!Bernard! Leach!as!he!feels!the!influence!has!taken!the!majority!of! studio!ceramists!in!its!grip.!...!Clark!says"in!order!to!be!a! participant!in!modern!times,!ceramists!must!disavow! themselves!of!the!romanticism!of!the!life!of!the! 'unknown!craftsman'!who!is!just!managing!to!scrape! together!his!means!while!performing!a!greater!service!of! bringing!handmade!art!to!the!masses,!a!life!even!Leach!had! to!admit!was!not!feasible."
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
garth on leach continued..... Clark has called Bernard Leach’s ideals a “patchwork of blind faith, myth, contradiction, obstructionism and sentimental fantasy”; He believes it is a philosophy of working, that he believes not to be practical for working let alone even beginning to address the needs of ceramics for the future . For all his scathing criticism, however (including the mouthy and hard to miss reference of Leach, comparing the man to an “eight-hundred-pound gorilla in a tweed suit” as a metaphor for his impact on the ceramics community, specifically the “negative and anachronistic elements of the movement he spawned” that is “contained and quarantined” . “Leach does call for the fusion of tradition with the needs of modern life .” One of the biggest disagreements Clark seems to have with Leach is Leach’s swearing by the human touch over the machine. By contrast Clark calls for more reliance on machine and factory process for today’s artisan visions to be realized, and most importantly, calls out the illogic of the handmade pot being producible at pricing for mass markets. Thursday, March 22, 2012
While Clark believes that the movement would have been healthier without
the Leach influence after 1940, I think the Leach influence has contributed to such neo-classicism as has emerged thus far. Whether Randy Johnston, Sandy Simon, Jeff Oestreich, and Mark Pharis, to name just a few, have
rebelled against their Leach indoctrination (via MacKenzie), or synthesized their way out of its limitations by gathering from broader sources, the fact remains that it took time for each one of them to mature.
clary illian
We are not that many generations out from Leach and, in one
on the leach legacy
elements of wheel-thrown pottery is, to the beginner, the
on garth clark
sense, each new ceramic student is only one generation out. The "reminder of a pure note" as it applies to the formal
introduction of a pure note. Even a very good teacher who can cram all of the options into an introduction to clay has to wait for
the student's skills and experience to catch up to demands for individuation. Excellence is not only a product of intellect and
intention, but is also a process of developing an intelligence based in the act of making. This expressive level of competence
takes time to develop for each student, and time to percolate out into the standards of the clay community.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
the
final
words Thursday, March 22, 2012
“I intend my work to effect people who use it the way the green countryside affects someone who normally lives in the city: The fresh air & the green of the trees and grasses restores the soul & refreshes the spirit. If my work can do this, in a small way, it is successful.� Thursday, March 22, 2012
“I make functional pottery in an effort to preserve local culture. In our modern throw away society my main goal is to inspire other people to make their own creative work .Human beings have always worked with their hands. We are creators. We cannot survive by consuming only.� Thursday, March 22, 2012
FURTHER READING Thursday, March 22, 2012
Bernard Leach and the Japanese Folk Craft Movement: The Formative Years author- Brian Moeran Journal of Design History Vol.2 Nos. 2 & 3 1989 pages 139-144 The Myth of Yangi's Originality: The Fromation of "Mingei" Theory in Its Social and Historical context Yuko Kikuchi Journal of Design History, Volume 7, No.4 (1994) pp. 247-266 Homo Orientalis: Bernard Leach and the Image of the Japanese Craftsman Edmund de Wall Journal of Design History vol.10, No.4, Craft, Culture and Identity (1997) pp. 355-362 Bernard Leach- St Ives Artists Edmund de Waal The "Unknown Craftsman" is Dead John Britt Ceramics Monthly pp.106-112 Confessions of a Neo-Leachian John Britt Ceramics Monthly pp.94-96 Leach's Circular Logic John Britt Ceramics Monthly pp.108-112
pp: 15-17 Contemporary Functional Pottery Linda Sikora pp: 18-22 The Spice of Life Mark Pharis pp: 23-25 Reflecting on the Future Julia Galloway pp:26-32 The Funcion of Ceramics- Walter Ostrom interviews Paul Greenhalgh pp: 40-46
Shards- Garth Clark on Ceramic Art Garth Clark The Future of Functional Pottery Part One An Argument for Free Design pp.375-388 The Future of Functional Pottery Part Two Bernard's Orphans pp389-408 The Purist, the Symbolist, The Stylist: Utility in Contemporary American Ceramics pp. 409-430
The Studio Potter June 2005 Volume 33 Number 2 Bernard's Orphans- Searching for Neo in Classical Garth Clark pp:6-14 Thoughts on Reading Garth Clark's Essay Clary Illian
Art and Fear Observations on the Perils (and rewards) of Artmaking David Bayles and Ted Orland
The Apprentices The Leach Pottery at St. Ives
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Leach pine mills pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
David Leach pine mills pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
David Leach pine mills pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
David Leach pine mills pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
John Leach muchelney pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
John Leach muchelney pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
John Leach muchelney pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
John Leach muchelney pottery
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Byron Temple Louisville, kentucky
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Byron Temple Louisville, kentucky
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Byron Temple Louisville, kentucky
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Byron Temple Louisville, kentucky Thursday, March 22, 2012
Byron Temple Louisville, kentucky Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Cardew
Thursday, March 22, 2012
cornwall, england
Michael Cardew
Thursday, March 22, 2012
cornwall, england
Michael Cardew
Thursday, March 22, 2012
cornwall, england
Michael Cardew
Thursday, March 22, 2012
cornwall, england
Michael Cardew Thursday, March 22, 2012
cornwall, england
mingei
in the usa
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Greetings Fr om
and beyond
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Stillwater, Minnesota
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren and Alix MacKenzie become Bernard Leach’s first American apprentices at the Leach Pottery in England. Returning to Minnesota, they help make the state a hub of functional studio pottery; Warren becomes an esteemed teacher.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warren Mackenzie Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Taylors Falls, Minnesota
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jeff Oestriech Thursday, March 22, 2012
ClaryEly,Illian Iowa Thursday, March 22, 2012
ClaryEly,Illian Iowa Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Clary Illian
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Simon Athens, GA
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Simon
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Michael Simon
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Berkeley, CA Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sandy Simon Thursday, March 22, 2012
Randy Johnston River Falls, Wisconsin
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Randy Johnston Thursday, March 22, 2012
Randy Johnston Thursday, March 22, 2012
Randy Johnston Thursday, March 22, 2012
Mark Pharis Roberts, wi
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Mark Pharis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Mark Pharis
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Linda Christianson lindstrom, Mn Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Bakersville, NC
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Will Ruggles & Douglass Rankin Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay Bakersville, NC
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay Bakersville, NC Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay Thursday, March 22, 2012
Suze Lindsay
Thursday, March 22, 2012
end
Thursday, March 22, 2012