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Studio pottery

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Bernard Leach vase

Studio pottery is made by modern artists working alone or in small groups, producing unique items or pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by one individual.[1] Much studio pottery is table ware or cook ware but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional or sculptural items. Since the 1980s there has been a distinct trend away from functional pottery (e.g. Grayson Perry) and some studio potters now prefer to call themselves ceramic artists, ceramists or simply artists. Studio pottery is represented by potters all over the world but has strong roots in Britain.

Since the second half of the 20th century ceramics has become more highly valued in the art world. There are now several large exhibitions worldwide, including Collect and Origin (formerly the Chelsea crafts fair) in London, SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York (international expositions of sculpture and applied art) that include ceramics as a major art form. Studio pottery is also sold at high prices, reaching several thousands of pounds for some pieces, in auctions houses such as Bonhams and Sothebys.

British Studio Pottery

Pre-1900

Notable studios included Castle Hedingham Ware, Martin Brothers and Sir Edmund Harry Elton.

1900-1960: Development of contemporary British ceramics

Several influences contributed to the emergence of studio pottery in the early 20th century: art pottery (for example the work of the Martin Brothers and William Moorcroft); the Bauhaus; a rediscovery of traditional artisan pottery and the excavation of large quantities of Song pottery in China.[1]

Leading trends in British studio pottery in the 20th century are represented by Bernard Leach, William Staite Murray, Dora Billington, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper.

Originally trained as a fine artist, Bernard Leach (1887–1979) established a style of pottery, the ethical pot, strongly influenced by Chinese, Korean, Japanese and medieval English forms. After briefly experimenting with earthenware, he turned to stoneware fired to high temperatures in large oil- or wood-burning kilns. This style dominated British studio pottery in the mid-20th century. Leach's influence was disseminated by his writings (e.g. A Potter's Book[2]) and the apprentice system he ran at his pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, through which many notable studio potters passed. Leach taught intermittently at Dartington Hall, Devon from the 1930s.

Other ceramic artists exerted an influence through their positions in art schools. William Staite Murray, who was head of the ceramics department of the Royal College of Art, treated his pots as works of art, exhibiting them with titles in galleries. Dora Billington (1890–1968) studied at Hanley School of Art, worked in the pottery industry and was latterly head of pottery at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She worked in media that Leach did not, e.g. tin-glazed earthenware, and influenced potters such as William Newland, Margaret Hine, Nicholas Vergette[3] and Alan Caiger-Smith.

Lucie Rie (1902–1995) came to London in 1938 as a refugee from Austria. She had studied at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule and has been regarded as essentially a modernist. Rie experimented and produced new glaze effects. She was a friend of Leach and was greatly impressed by his approach, especially about the "completeness" of a pot.[4] The bowls and bottles which she specialised in are finely potted and sometimes brightly coloured. She taught at Camberwell College of Arts from 1960 until 1972.

Hans Coper (1920–1981), also a refugee, worked with Rie before moving to a studio in Hertfordshire. His work is non-functional, sculptural and unglazed. He was commissioned to produce large ceramic candlesticks for Coventry Cathedral in the early 1960s. He taught at Camberwell College of Arts from 1960 to 1969, where he influenced Ewen Henderson. He taught at the Royal College of Art from 1966 to 1975, where his students included Elizabeth Fritsch, Alison Britton, Jacqui Poncelet, Carol McNicoll, Geoffrey Swindell, Jill Crowley and Glenys Barton,[citation needed] all of whom produce non-functional work.

After the Second World War, studio pottery in Britain was encouraged by two forces: the wartime ban on decorating manufactured pottery and the modernist spirit of the Festival of Britain.[5] Studio potters provided consumers with an alternative to plain industrial ceramics. Their simple, functional designs chimed in with the modernist ethos. Cranks restaurant, which opened in 1961, used Winchombe pottery throughout, which Tanya Harrod describes as "handsome, functional with pastoral but up to date air".[5] Cranks represented the look of the period. Elizabeth David's food revolution of the post-war years was associated with a similar kitchen look and added to the demand for hand-made tableware.

Harrod notes that several potteries were formed in response to this fifties boom. There was in turn a demand for potters trained in workshop practice and able to throw quickly. As this training was not offered by the art schools of the period, the Harrow Art School studio pottery diploma was created to fill the gap. According to Harrod, "the production potter of the Harrow type had a good innings well into the seventies", by which time the market for this style of pottery was falling away.

1960s - Current: Modern British potters

Spira - Medium size open poem bowl (43cm x 38cm x 12 cm)

From the 1960s onwards, a new generation of potters, influenced by Camberwell School of Art and including Ewan Hendersen, Alison Britton, Elizabeth Fritsch and Gordon Baldwin,[4] began to experiment with surfaces, glazes and abstract ceramic objects, to critical acclaim. The number of studio potters has continued to increase in recent decades. More galleries and auction houses sell studio pottery, raising prices and providing some potters with higher incomes. The number of potters has increased: in the mid 1970s the Craft Potters Association had 147 members; by the mid 1990s it had 306.[6] Elizabeth Fritsch has work represented in major collections and museums world wide and in Britain, she is one of the most highly valued contemporary ceramic artists working today.

Current contemporary potters of note include include Edmund de Waal, Rupert Spira and Julian Stair and Richard Slee who both teach at Camberwell College of Arts. In Britain, Grayson Perry is probably the best known living potter, having won the Turner Prize in 2003.

Organisation

A representative body for studio pottery in the UK is the Craft Potters’ Association, which has a members’ showroom in Great Russell Street, London WC1, and publishes a journal, Ceramic Review.

North American Studio pottery

Pottery had been an integral part of the North American Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century. However, interest in pottery as art waned the first decades of the 20th century when industrially produced pottery and dinnerware came to dominated the marketplace.

Some ceramic artists in North America adopted the approach and vision of the emerging Studio Pottery movement in Britain and Japan. In addition, American folk pottery of the southeastern United States was seen as an American contribution to the Studio Potter esthetic. University programs at Ohio State University, under the direction of Arthur Eugene Baggs in 1928, and the University of Southern California, under Glen Lukens, began training ceramic students in presenting clay ware as art. Baggs had been intimately involved in the Arts and Crafts movement at Marblehead Pottery and, during the 1930s, he revived academic and public interest in the salt glazing method for studio ceramics. European artists coming to North America contributed to the public appreciation of pottery as art, and included Marguerite Wildenhain, Maija Grotell, and particularly Gertrude and Otto Natzler.

Significant studio potters in North America include Otto and Vivika Heino, Warren MacKenzie, Paul Soldner, Peter Voulkos and Beatrice Wood.

Major Studio Pottery Collections

Ceramics can be seen in many public galleries and museums. Those below have major collections:

Some private galleries specialise in the works of leading potters, for example:

Private and art center Galleries in the USA featuring leading contemporary potters:

Studio Potters

References

  1. ^ a b Emmanuel Cooper, Ten Thousand Years of Pottery (British Museum Press, 2000) ISBN 0-7141-2701-9
  2. ^ Leach, Bernard. A Potter’s Book, Faber and Faber, 1988. ISBN 0-5710-4927-3
  3. ^ Julian Stair, "Dora Billington", Crafts, 154, September/October 1998
  4. ^ a b Gowing, Christopher, and Rice, Paul, British Studio Ceramics in the 20th Century, Barrie and Jenkins, 1989, p. 113. ISBN 0-7126-2042-7
  5. ^ a b Harrod, Tanya, "From A Potter's Book to The Maker's Eye: British Studio Ceramics 1940-1982", in The Harrow Connection, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, 1989
  6. ^ Potters, The Craft Potters' Association members directory, 3rd edition and 11th edition.
  7. ^ University of Michigan | UMMA
  8. ^ University of Michigan Museum of Art

9.Peter Davies ."5 Devon Potters" ISBN 0-9548083-0-4

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