Covered bowl by Colin Pearson c.1975
'Studio pottery' is made by artists working alone or in small groups, producing unique items or
pottery in small quantities. 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, and especially late, 20th century ceramics have become more highly respected in the arts world. While previously there was little international market for ceramics outside of Japan with the onset of potters such as
Hans Coper and
Lucie Rie ceramics began to grow in stature as being desirable artistic objects valuable in their own right as art and not just as a functional objects. This trend has continued and there are now several large exhibitions worldwide, including Collect and Origin (formery the Chelsea crafts fair) in London, SOFA CHICAGO and SOFA NEW YORK (international exposititons of sculpture objects & functional art) that include ceramics as a major art form. Ceramics indeed are also now sold in their own right at auctions houses such as
Bonhams and
Sothebys.
British Studio Pottery
General Information
A representative body for studio pottery in the UK is the
Craft Potters’ Association, which has a members’ showroom in Marshall Street, London W1, and publishes a journal, ''Ceramic Review''.
Pre 1900
It is generally considered that studio pottery emerged in the late 19th century out of the
Arts and Crafts Movement in applied art, which was intended to rediscover high standards of design that its practitioners believed had been eroded by machine production and large-scale manufacture. However, with the notable exception of
William de Morgan (1839-1917), there were few ceramic artists directly associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. The precursors of studio pottery were the "art potteries" of the period, including:
★
Martin Brothers of the Martinware Pottery from 1873
★ Fishley Pottery from the early 1800s
★
William Moorcroft (potter)
★
Della Robbia Pottery (1894-1901)
★ William and Edward Taylor of the
Ruskin Pottery from 1898
★
Charles Vyse (1882-1971)
★
Salopian Art Pottery
1900 - 1990: Development of contemporary British ceramics
Leading trends in British studio pottery in the 20th century are represented by
Bernard Leach,
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''
[1]) 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.
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 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.
[2] 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 Briton,
Jacqui Poncelet,
Carol McNicoll,
Geoffrey Swindell,
Jill Crowley, and
Glenys Barton, 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.
[3] 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".
[4] 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.
1990 - Current: Modern British potters
Spira - Medium size open poem bowl (43cm x 38cm x 12 cm)
The number of studio potters has continued to increase. In the mid 1970s, the Craft Potters' Association had 147 members; by the mid 1990s there were 306.
[5]
Contemporary British potters include
Edmund De Waal,
Rupert Spira Julian Stair,
Richard Slee and
Gordon Baldwin.
Grayson Perry is probably the best known living potter having won the
Turner Prize in 2003.
Major Studio Pottery Collections
While ceramics can be seen in many public galleries and museums, studio pottery, being a relatively new art form, is shown in quantity at only a few. Those below have major sections:
★
Victoria and Albert Museum
★
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
★
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
★
Stoke on Trent Museum
★
Art Gallery, Gateshead
Some private galleries specialise in the works of leading potters, for example:
★
Barret Marsden Gallery
★
Galerie Besson
★
Joanna Bird
Studio Potters
References
1. Leach, Bernard. ''A Potter’s Book'', Faber and Faber, 1988. ISBN 0-5710-4927-3
2. Gowing, Christopher, and Rice, Paul, ''British Studio Ceramics in the 20th Century'', Barrie and Jenkins, 1989, p.113. ISBN 0-7126-2042-7
3. 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
4. ibid., p.32
5. ''Potters'', The Craft Potters' Association members directory, 3rd edition and 11th edition.
External links
★
Fishley Pottery
★
Charles Vyse
★
William Moorcroft
★
Leach Pottery
★
V&A Museum studio pottery podcast
★
Contemporary Applied Arts
★
Ceramic Review magazine
★
A Ceramic History: Pioneering Definitions 1900-1940 The Studio Pot by Edmund de Waal''
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