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REBEL: MARGUERITE WILDENHAIN GETS HER GLAZE ON “Let us use the hands for what they were meant to be: the tools of a creative man, not just the repetitive instrument of unimaginative procedures.” –Marguerite Wildenhain, from her Open Letter to Bernard Leach, 1953
Otto Hagel, Marguerite Wildenhain throwing a pot, c. 1945 Hello to the fabulous master ceramicist Ms. Marguerite Wildenhain, who, in 1953, wrote a particularly sassy open letter to celebrated British potter, Bernard Leach. The letter is a candid four-page rebuttal in response to Leach’s objections to the heterogeneousness of American ceramics (apparently there were too many styles). In her note to the artist, Wildenhain advocates diversity and creativity within the arts – specifically American arts; its many expressions, she writes, is its greatest beauty.
Marguerite Wildenhain, c. 1971, glazed stoneware She begins her letter: … If the aim of your lecture is to narrow down to one way of life, one special manifestation of art, one century of one certain culture the manifold ways of the creative potters of the world, if your aim is to “save” our 20th century by taking over the forms, the techniques, the way of life and the work methods of the Orientals of the 8th or 10th century of contemporary rural population in Japan – it is obvious that we must reject that. Holy cow, that was sharp – get it, girl! Wildenhain, save for a few romantic tangents, articulates her beef (and beliefs) in an assertive, matter-of-fact way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to track down Leach’s reaction to the letter, although – whether good or bad – I wager he had strong feelings toward it. A bit more from Wildenhain’s fascinating letter: … A country like America cannot have just one expression, it forcibly must have as many forms of expression as the total life has. That is America’s beauty its greatest and for nothing in the world (I say that as a European born American) would I want to see just one single form, one single way of thinking grow on this continent. Our tradition is the free choice of each. You cannot possibly believe that the U.S. craftsmen would grow roots by imitating Sung, be those as beautiful as they are. How could anything but the worst makeshift value grow out of a conscious imitating any form that is not related to the mind and soul of our generation, our country, our time? 10 MONTHS AGO
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