Jim Malone
goldmark
Price £10
Jim Malone
Jim Malone Celebrating Malone at 70 and 40 years a potter
Max Waterhouse Ray Pearson
goldmark 2016
130. Baluster Jug Three pellets. Salt glaze 21 x 13.5 cm
131. Baluster Jug Three pellets. Salt glaze 17 x 12.5 cm
Jim Malone by Max Waterhouse Rivers are born slowly. At first a trickling stream, babbling over pebbles and earth, with time the water runs a stronger, more purposeful current, smoothing out its banks, deepening its channel, rolling away all obstacles obstructing its flow. As the years pass by it follows an evermore-assured course until it has curved and carved its way through the landscape, dragging away detritus and bringing with it precious life. So too with the work of Jim Malone. A potter now of 40 years’ experience since setting up his first studio in 1976, the evolution of his pots has been gradual, almost subconscious. Working within a repertoire of historical, functional forms - 13th century Chinese, 16th century Korean - he has slowly but surely refined each silhouette, removing all that is unnecessary and inelegant. The resulting work may appear simple; in reality, it is the culmination of some four decades of throwing with an ever-watchful eye, looking and responding to the shaping of the clay, striving to give his material the clarity of its own voice. In this exhibition – Malone’s third at the Goldmark Gallery – the experience drawn from those years spent at the kick-wheel is clear to see. Round-bellied Korean bottles and Tenmoku vases, draped in copper pours,
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110. Tall Bottle Porcelain. Cobalt fish drawing 45 x 17 cm
sit side by side with medieval-style jugs and ash-glazed mixing bowls, demonstrating Malone’s supreme ability as a thrower as well as the breadth of influence in his work. Two tall porcelain bottles, proudly sporting their leaping fish designs, belie the slippery nature of this type of clay. Porcelain is a notoriously rebellious material; to have achieved such height and conviction of form as Malone has here is no mean ceramic feat. Despite evidencing Malone’s obvious ability as a potter, however, the work in this exhibition seldom shows off. In his introduction to The Unknown Craftsman, the seminal text by the critic Soetsu Yanagi, the great maker Bernard Leach recalls the words of his friend discussing the role of the artist-craftsman: Take heed of the humble; be what you are by birthright; there is no room for arrogance. Too many makers, Yanagi felt, were ‘overproud’ of their individualism: their work had become an imposition of character, in which expression of the self superseded all other things. It is a difficulty of which Malone has always been acutely aware, avoiding what Michael Cardew termed the deliberately willed injection of personality and aiming instead for openness in every process: What I have tried to do is create an environment in which the kind of pots that I want to produce can happen, because you can’t contrive it, you can’t make them happen; you have to let them happen. The pots of this exhibition are works of great humility, showing deference to the elemental materials of which they are composed and through which they were formed. In their restraint and their
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135. Tall Bottle Ridged. Incised pattern. Granite & Nuka glazes 51 x 23 cm
lack of macho ego they leave room to accommodate the lives and values of their new owners. Their power lies not in a brashness of surface or brazen use of form, but rather what Hamada described as the unseen root where the real strength of an object resides. Like the river, there is little engineering here: the swell of each teabowl, shaped with care and trimmed only at the foot, is born from the natural rhythms of its throwing, the ebb and flow between wheel and clay. And, like the river, those busying themselves with the fussiness and flamboyance of much contemporary ceramics will have failed to notice Malone’s pots cutting great swathes through the landscape of modern studio pottery, quietly but purposefully running that greater, more enduring course. In a lecture delivered in 1880 the great textile designer and champion of crafts William Morris once offered his audience a ‘golden rule’: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. Faced with the extraordinary work in this exhibition, the celebration of a lifetime’s dedication to this ancient art, it is a rule one would be hardpressed to break. Max Waterhouse Writer and editor
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Jim Malone by Ray Pearson It was in the year 2000, after thirty years working in the automotive industry, that I decided upon a complete change of direction. Having been exposed to it as a teenager at school, I altered course and started on the path of a new career in what was one of the great loves of my life: pottery. Realising I had left it too late to make it as a working potter, my wife and I resolved to create an educational establishment for ceramics to encourage the next generation. This has evolved into the Solway Ceramics Centre, running residential courses in throwing and firing together with weekly open-studio sessions for local makers. This was a life-changing decision, many years in the planning. Some fifteen years earlier I took the first step on that journey, enrolling on an evening vocational course at what was then the Carlisle Art College where I first met my course tutor: Jim Malone. Juggling ceramics and a day job soon became a massive commitment, and it is a testament to Jim’s teaching style and encouragement that I managed to complete the two-year programme. His demonstrations were mesmerising, and I left the course feeling that here was truly a master of his art. Initially, Jim’s work seemed self-evidently well made – but I, like a lot of newcomers to pottery, was over impressed by technique, speed and perfection. It took perhaps a full term to realise that, over time, once you are more aware of the inherent
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qualities of clay – qualities that so many perfectionist potters inadvertently remove – you absolutely begin to ‘get it’. The quality of his work is worth that wait. I have since thought long and hard about why I am so drawn to Jim’s pots. For one, he has a total respect for his basic material. At the Centre we employ many top potters to demonstrate or teach on our behalf. I often watch them at work ‘conquering’ the clay, dominating the throwing process with consummate skill and ability, making the clay submit to their demands and ending up with a perfect piece from their mind’s eye, like a classical pianist delivering a virtuoso performance from the manuscript. When I observe Jim throwing, there is instead a ‘partnership’ between him, the momentum wheel, and the emerging pot, coaxing, encouraging, and persuading, using clay’s plasticity to achieve the form he requires, like a jazz musician responding to the flow of the music. The resulting work, collaboration rather than competition, is subtly different every time and possesses a quiet beauty. It is well known that Jim has never been interested in trends or changing fashions in ceramics; he is influenced by the same historic examples that inspired the work of Leach, Hamada, and Cardew. He has an instinctive sense of form and, with his intimate knowledge of clays, slips and glazes, always manages to inject each making cycle with freshness and vitality. The only turning he employs is when a pot requires a foot ring: to him, it is poor craftsmanship to turn in the making of the basic form, often ruining the natural fluidity of a piece.
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After knowing Jim well for the last thirty years, his work, I now realise, is not only a consequence of the skills he learned at Camberwell, and then working in a production environment with Ray Finch; it comes from the low technology environment with which he has surrounded himself, his solitary, contemplative approach coupled with a non-materialist lifestyle – walking the dogs and tending his beloved garden with his partner, Janice, in the tranquil setting of the Solway plains. Living only four miles from Jim’s workshop, I am able to drop in regularly during making sessions and witness the shelves filling up with row after row of magnificent jugs, bottles and bowls. The last time I was there, overwhelmed by the volume of large, majestic pots, it suddenly occurred to me that as he rapidly approaches his 70th birthday, having endured 40 years of the physically demanding work of the lone potter, this would be one of the last times we will be able to see work of this quality in this quantity. Do take this opportunity to see this beautiful body of work by a man who, I believe, is making some of the best pots around today. Ray Pearson Co-owner of Solway Ceramics Centre, North Cumbria
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3. Big Globular Jar Tenmoku 48 x 33 cm
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134. Tall Bottle Combed bands. Tenmoku & ash glazes 53 x 26 cm
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45. Deep Bowl Cut sided. Tenmoku & ash glazes 13 x 21 cm
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49. Big Deep Bowl Impressed pattern. Ash & Tenmoku glazes 17 x 31 cm
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1. Globular Jar Granite & ash glazes. Engraved willow design 47 x 31 cm
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54. Dish Engraved grasses design. Granite & ash glazes with Nuka pours 5 x 31 cm
31. Bottle Fluted. Tenmoku & ash glazes 26 x 16 cm
63. Tall Jug Fluted. Tenmoku & ash glazes 24 x 14 cm
14. Footed Bottle Fluted. Nuka 34 x 20 cm
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120. Teapot & Six Yunomi Tenmoku 22 x 17 cm
21. Footed Bottle Squared. Brushed slip with iron painting 34 x 13 cm
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34. Globular Jar Brushed slip with iron painting 21.5 x 18 cm
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5. Tall Bottle Kaki glaze, wax resist pattern 42 x 22 cm
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30. Bottle Kaki glaze. Wax resist pattern 27 x 15 cm
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115. Lidded Pot Ridged & stamped. Two ash glazes 16 x 13 cm
114. Lidded Pot Ridged & stamped. Two ash glazes 16 x 14 cm
6. Tall Necked Bottle Tenmoku with copper pours 41x19 cm
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20. Footed Bottle Squared. Tenmoku with copper pours 29 x 12 cm
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153. Footed Bottle Flared neck. White slip, iron motif 28 x 18 cm
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53. Big Dish Brushed slip with iron painting 7 x 34 cm
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146. Cylinder Bottle Flattened. Combed pattern. Olive Nuka 26 x 11 cm
143. Flattened Bottle with Lug Engraved willow design. Ash & local clay glaze 33 x 13 cm
118. Big Bin Ridged & stamped. Tenmoku 52 x 37 cm
Biographical Notes 1946
Born Sheffield, England
Education 1972-6
Camberwell School of Art and Crafts, London
1975
Studied at Winchcombe Pottery, Gloucestershire
1976
B.A. Hons. Ceramics, First Class Honours
Grants 1976
Crafts Council, New Craftsman Grant
1993
Northern Arts Bursary
Workshops 1976-1982 Horseshoe Pass, North Wales 1984-2001 Ainstable, Cumbria 2001-2003 Burnby, York 2003
Lessonhall, Cumbria
Teaching Over forty years, Malone has given many lectures and demonstrations to colleges and ceramic societies around the country. 1980
Artist in Residence, Cardiff College of Art
1980
Visiting Lecturer, Camberwell School of Art
1981-2
Visiting Lecturer, Wrexham School of Art
1982-90
Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle
Publications 1980
Tradition and the Individual Talent Christopher Reid, Crafts Magazine No.45
1983
A Point of View Jim Malone, Pottery Quarterly No.14/56
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55. Tall Jug Pellets. Tenmoku 36 x 17.5 cm
1989
British Studio Ceramics in the Twentieth Century Paul Rice and Christopher Gowing.
1990
British Studio Pottery in the V&A Collection Oliver Watson
1992
Video – Jim Malone - Artist Potter made by Alex McErlain
1993
Jim Malone in Conversation Ceramic Review, March issue
2002
The Art of Throwing Alex McErlain
2003
Ash Glazes, 2nd Edition Phil Rogers
2008
A Guide to Collecting Studio Pottery Alistair Hawtin
2009
Modern British Potters and their Studios David Whiting
2010
The Man and the Pot Ceramic Review Issue 243
2012
Throwing Richard Phethean
Exhibitions Over the past forty years Malone has exhibited widely in this country and around the world.
Private Collections Malone’s work is represented in many private and public collections including: Victoria and Albert Museum, London Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Ulster Museum, Ireland York Art Gallery Bolton Museum and Art Gallery Southampton Museum and Art Gallery Cleveland Craft Centre, Middlesborough Manchester Metropolitan University Liverpool Museum and Art Gallery Crafts Council Permanent Collection, London The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
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Text: © Max Waterhouse, 2016 © Ray Pearson, 2016 Pot photographs: © Vicki Uttley / Jay Goldmark Location photographs & portraits: © Jay Goldmark Design: Porter / Goldmark ISBN 978-1-909167-37-7 Goldmark, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 goldmarkart.com
goldmark Uppingham Rutland