(60) 683-9623

Potters Guild of British Columbia

1349 Cartwright St,, Ciranville [sland
Vancouver, B.C. VaH 3JRT

OCTOBER 1993

ISSN 6319 812xX

NORTHWEST CLAY SYMPOSIUM

On the September 18th weekend, I had the
good fortune to attend most of two days of
the NW Clay Symposium in Seattle (see
notes on exhibitions), Beside observing
Mark Burns, sculptor, and Sandy Simon,
potter, in separate workshop venues, my
weekend travel partner, Jackie White, and |
sal in on bee afternoon sessions of panel
discussions at the University of Washington.
The sessions, whether workshop, slide
presentation, or discussion, were a
fascinating window on the work and world
af US clay enthusiasts, Whether they be
potters, ceramic artists, or entrepreneurs
who make their livelihood by using clay, it
became clear that we should rejoice in
working in whatever way we enjoy best.
There's room for all of us!

Matthew Kangas, a Seattle-based ceramic
critic and writer, encouraged everyone
WOKING a5 potters of ceramic artists io take
onthe challenge of today’s markets for their
work. Whether functional ornen-funetional,
or any combination in between, ceramic
work has potential to become an important
element in the world of art.

The British article reprinted below, courtesy
of Gillian McMillan, expresses something
of this encouragement: in fact, the final
paragraph could well have been Kangas'
parting shot to the Seattle symposium

PRTC ipanis- pe

Why modern pottery
fires the imagination

in the Fifties and Sinies, Sritivh pottery
wes, broddly speaking, moable for ity
quantity rater than tre quality, bur if wes
cheap, eqriestly funcional anal poycterr.
Craftsheps abounded, ane modestly priced

brown catfee sets and mugs seemed fo be
everywhere. Nowadays, the work af leading
British potters fetches thousands of pounds
and is highly prized by American and
Continental ac well as domestic collectors

Ait tty broad poputariry iy genie, anal it iv ra
be found maaly it speciatisr galleries and
the classter surviving craft outlets.

The sew exhibition af the Barbican Art
Gallery in London, The Raw and the
Cooked, marks a further narrowing of the
gap between the potter's status and thar of
scnipters and pauters. Nor only ts ir being
held ina verve normally devoted ta fine
rather than applied arts, duct it specifically
involves sculptors working inclayas wells
leading ceramicist: (as Hey are sometimes
called)

Winn te perspectives af port-Second
World Wer Arinein, tis evolution looks like
something new, fnfactitecheses the Twenties
and Thirties. It was in [920 that Bernard
Leach, who became fre leader of the
renaissance of stidio pettery in Europe,
returned fronihiis senntnal J! years in Japan.
beach wer aot jie! ad greet poner wise
work fused Oriental and Eaplish medieval
traditions, butaltoa gifted proselytiser whe
lectured widely, Inthe Thirties, an era ir
whiek many leading painters and sculpt
also designed plates, glass and textiles, he
and fis rival William Statte-Murray
echibited in contemporary ant galleries in
Lonion doneside ating like fen Nicholson.

Leach ‘sdorninaice was diated by mhearrivel
rom Aastra and Germany (nthe late Thinties
af Licte Rie arul the tare Hans Coper, as
well as By on aninl-Griental group at the
Central School of Arts and Crafts. Ifirwar
Leach whe saved studio ponery from edr-

enincion, Rieand Coperdid much te rescue
itfromihe post-wardebasement of the Leach
tradition, At Camberwell and the Rayal
College of Art they taughu the likes af fan
Godfrey, Ewen Henderson and Elizabeth
Fritsch, whe are sow tv fhe vanguard and
when en dughrathers, like Sara Radiane,
wha are acw cloce behind them.

The auction houses led first by Sotheby's in
the earty Seventies, then by Christie's anal
now by Banham 's- have played a substantial
part oin dhe vperading of contemparary
cerdelcs. Hans Coper's prices have soared
Jrom afew hundred pownds at the time of his
death ara] in (98), te 88,000 pounds fora
pair afeandle-halders in 1989. a record for
2 contemporary ceranile. Lucy Rie's top
price (s jurt under [5,000 pouneds.

Another important contribution har come
from the Crafts Council, which since 197!
hat fostered talent with [fs apparans of
start-up grant foreguipment, itsexhibitions,
and its slide index af the bese available
work, The Victoria and Albert Museurn has
played its part with exhibitions and
purchases of contemporary work - foreign
as weil as British. So have the feve brave
specialist galleries inthe commercial sector,

As the Berbican show reaffinns, the joy af
pots is thet they combine the tactile qualities
and formal porsbilitnes of reulpture, while
their tier and outer surfaces con acquire
the decorative qualities of painting. If the
fine arts stray too far inte the reales of the
bizarre and the conceptual, as sculpture ii
now doing, they could find pottery moving

In to plug fre gap.

Lede from The independent, July 19, 1993