Bernard Howell Leach, CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions. In decreasing order of seniority, these are:, CH The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion (January 5, 1887 – May 6, 1979), was a British The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land studio potter 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. Much studio pottery is table ware or cook ware but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional or sculptural items. Since the 1980 and art teacher.^[1] He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery"^[2]

Biography

Leach was born in Hong Kong Hong Kong[note 3] is one of two special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China; the other is Macau. Situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven and brought up in the Far East. His father was a colonial judge in Hong Kong and his maternal grandparents were missionaries in Japan. As a young man he studied etching at the London School of Art before settling in Japan where he became fascinated with pottery and studied under the great master Kenzan.^[3]

Early years

Leach was born in Hong Kong Hong Kong[note 3] is one of two special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China; the other is Macau. Situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven, but spent his young adult years in Japan where he came into contact with a group of young Japanese art lovers who called themselves Shirakaba The Shirakabaha was a Japanese literary movement centred on the magazine Shirakaba, first published in 1910. It also refers to members of the group who share the same ideas and literary style (白樺). Through them he learned about William Morris William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems ( and the Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in Britain and flourished between 1880 and 1910. It was instigated by the artist and writer William Morris in the 1860s and was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin (1819–1900). It influenced architecture, domestic design and the decorative arts, using simple. It was in Japan that Leach began potting under the direction of Shigekichi Urano (Kenzan VI) and befriended a young potter named Shoji Hamada Shōji Hamada (December 9, 1894 – January 5, 1978) was a Japanese potter. He was a significant influence on studio pottery of the twentieth century, and a major figure of the mingei folk-art movement, establishing the town of Mashiko as a world-renowned pottery centre. With Hamada, he set up the Leach Pottery The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom at St. Ives, Cornwall St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial emphasis and the town is now primarily a holiday resort in 1920, including the construction of a traditional Japanese wood burning kiln. The two of them promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies. In their work they focused on traditional Korean, Japanese and Chinese pottery Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery can also refer to the material of which the potteryware is made. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today, in combination with traditional techniques from England and Germany, such as slipware Slipware is a type of pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip was placed onto the leather-dry clay body surface by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of clays and other minerals such as quartz, feldspar and mica and salt glaze Pottery referred to as salt glazed or salted is created by adding common salt, sodium chloride, into the chamber of a hot kiln. Sodium acts as a flux and reacts with the silica in the clay body. A typical salt glaze piece has a glassine finish, usually with a glossy and slightly orange-peel texture, enhancing the natural colour of the body beneath ware. They saw pottery as a combination of art, philosophy, design and craft – even as a greater lifestyle. However, many in the West considered their pottery crude by the refined standards of the day. Publishing A Potter's Book in 1940 defined Leach's craft philosophy and techniques, and became his breakthrough to recognition.

In the 1930s Leach met Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the others. Friend and mentor, Tobey shared, a fellow artist and teacher at Faith Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. The word faith can refer to a religion itself or to religion in general.[clarification needed]. In 1934, Tobey and Leach traveled together through France and Italy, then sailed from Naples to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where they parted company, Leach heading on to Japan. Leach formally joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1940. A pilgrimage to the Bahá'í shrines in Haifa Haifa (Hebrew: חֵיפָה‎ Ḥeifa ; Arabic: حَيْفَا‎ Ḥayfā (help·info)) is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 265,000. Another 300,000 people (almost all of them Jewish) live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as,, Israel Israel , officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (help·info), Medīnat Yisrā'el; Arabic: دَوْلَةُ إِسْرَائِيلَ‎, Dawlat Isrā'īl), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the, during 1954 intensified his feeling that he should do more to unite the East and West by returning to the Orient "to try more honestly to do my work there as a Bahá'í and as an artist..."^[4]

Midlife

Leach advocated simple and utilitarian forms. His ethical pots The ethical pot theory and style was popularized by Bernard Leach in his book A Potter's Book published in 1940. He expanded the theories that ethical pots should be utilitarian, "naturally shaped" and originally as conceived should derive from "Oriental forms that transcended mere good looks." Leach had previously spent stand in opposition to what he called fine art pots In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery, so excluding glass and also mosaic, normally made from glass tesserae. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art, which promoted aesthetic concerns rather than function. Popularized in the 1940s after the publication of A Potter's Book, his style had lasting influence on counter-culture Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. It is a neologism attributed to Theodore Roszak and modern design in North America during the 1950s and 1960s. Leach ran a modern cooperative workshop which created a catalogue of handmade pottery for the general public. He continued to produce pots which were exhibited as works of art.

Many potters from all over the world were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, and spread Leach's style and beliefs. His British associates and trainees include Michael Cardew, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie (1895 in Berkshire – 1985 in Wiltshire) was a pioneer in modern English Studio pottery, Nora Braden, David Leach and Michael Leach (his sons), Janet Darnell Janet Darnell Leach, , was an American studio potter working in later life at St Ives, Cornwall in England. She was married in 1956 to Bernard Leach, the famous British studio potter (whom Leach married, 1956), William Marshall, Sylvia Hardaker, Kenneth Quick and Richard Batterham. His American apprentices include Warren MacKenzie (who likewise influenced many potters through his teaching at the University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fifth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,140 students in 2008–2009), Byron Temple, Clary Illian and Jeff Oestrich. He was a major influence on the leading New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also potter Len Castle Leonard Ramsay "Len" Castle, DCNZM, CBE is a New Zealand potter. Born in Auckland in 1924, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946 from University of Auckland and trained as a secondary schoolteacher, eventually taking a lecturing position at the Auckland College of Education. Self taught, he began making his first pottery in 1947 who travelled to London to spend time working with him in the mid-1950s. Many of his Canadian apprentices made up the vibrant pottery-scene of the Canadian Westcoast during the 1970s in Vancouver Vancouver is a coastal city located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is named for British Captain George Vancouver, who explored the area in the 1790s. The name Vancouver itself originates from the Dutch "van Coevorden", denoting somebody from Coevorden, a city in the Netherlands.

Leach was instrumental in organizing the only International Conference of Potters and Weavers in July 1952 at Dartington Hall The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity working for the advancement of the arts, sustainability and social justice, where he had been working and teaching. It included exhibitions of British pottery and textiles since 1920, Mexican folk art, and works by conference participants, among them Shoji Hamada and US-based Bauhaus master potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Another important contributor was Japanese aesthetician Soetsu Yanagi, author of The Unknown Craftsman. According to Brent Johnson, "The most important outcome of the conference was that it helped organize the modern studio pottery movement by giving a voice to the people who became its leaders…it gave them [Leach, Hamada and Yanagi] celebrity status…[while] Marguerite Wildenhain emerged from Dartinghall Hall as the most important craft potter in America."^[5]

Later years

He continued to produce work until 1972 and never ended his passion for travelling, which made him a precursor of today's artistic globalism. He continued to write about ceramics even after losing his eyesight. The Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum , in The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2) in London held a major exhibition of his art in 1977. The Leach Pottery The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom still remains open today, accompanied by a museum displaying many pieces by Leach and his students.

Honours

• Japan Foundation Cultural Award, 1974.^[6]
• Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry, or religion, 1973 (UK).^[7]
• Order of the Sacred Treasure The Order of the Sacred Treasure is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. It is awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance). It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit (hosho), 1966 (Japan).^[8]
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions. In decreasing order of seniority, these are:, 1962.^[9]

See also

• Studio pottery 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. Much studio pottery is table ware or cook ware but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional or sculptural items. Since the 1980
• Janet Leach Janet Darnell Leach, , was an American studio potter working in later life at St Ives, Cornwall in England. She was married in 1956 to Bernard Leach, the famous British studio potter
• David Leach
• Leach Pottery The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom
• ethical pot The ethical pot theory and style was popularized by Bernard Leach in his book A Potter's Book published in 1940. He expanded the theories that ethical pots should be utilitarian, "naturally shaped" and originally as conceived should derive from "Oriental forms that transcended mere good looks." Leach had previously spent
• Marguerite Wildenhain
• Bahá'í Faith in Japan

Notes

1. ^ Cortazzi, Hugh. "Review of Emmanuel Cooper's Bernard Leach Life & Work. Japan Society (UK).
2. ^ British Council: Artist biography
3. ^ Leach Pottery Studio: Biography notes
4. ^ Weinberg, Robert. (1999). Spinning the Clay into Stars: Bernard Leach and the Bahá'í Faith, pp. 21, 29.
5. ^ Johnson, Brent, "A Matter of Tradition" in Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology, (Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, eds.), p. __.
6. ^ Japan Foundation: Awards
7. ^ Bernard Leach archive: bio notes
8. ^ Sims, Barbara R. (1998). Unfurling the Divine Flag in Tokyo, p. 66.
9. ^ Bahá'í Arts Dialogue: Biography notes

References

• Cooper, Emmanuel. (2003). [[Bernard Leach Life & Work.]] New Haven: Yale University Press Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous. 10-ISBN 0-300-09929-0 (cloth)
• Johnson, Brent. (2007). "A Matter of Tradition" in Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, eds.. Decorah, Iowa: South Bear Press. ISBN 978-0-9761381-2-9 (cloth)
• Sims, Barbara. (1998). Unfurling the Divine Flag in Tokyo: An Early Bahá'í History. Tokyo: Bahá'í Publishing Trust of Japan. ISBN 4-938975-06-8
• Watson, Oliver. (1997). Bernard Leach: Potter and Artist, London: Crafts Council.
• Weinberg, Robert. (1999). Spinning the Clay into Stars: Bernard Leach and the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: George Ronald Publishers. 10-ISBN 0-85398-440-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-85398-440-5 (paper)

Writings

• A Potters Book Faber & Faber,London 1978 (reprint of 1940) ISBN 978-0-571-10973-9
• Beyond East and West: Memoirs, Portraits and EssaysFaber and Faber; New edition edition (Sep 1985) ISBN 978-0-571-11692-8
• Drawings, verse & belief Noyes Press (1974) ISBN 978-0-8155-5020-4

External links

• Leach Pottery
• Further information
• Studio Pottery
• Leach Source Collection and Bernard Leach Archive held at the Crafts Study Centre and hosted online by the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)
• Historic Leach pottery at Stoke-on-Trent Museums
• "Accidental Masterpiece". Ceramics. Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum , in The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2). http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ceramics/object_stories/accidental_masterpiece/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
• artcornwall.org journal for art and artists in Cornwall
• "Bernard Leach, 'Cup and Saucer'". Ceramics. Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum , in The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2). http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ceramics/points_of_view/pots/leach/index.html. Retrieved 2007-12-09.

Categories: 1887 births | 1979 deaths | Arts and Crafts Movement artists | English potters Categories: English artists | British potters | English people by occupation | St Ives artists | Commanders of the Order of the British Empire | Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour | British people of Hong Kong descent Categories: British people by ethnic or national origin | British people of Asian descent | People of Hong Kong descent | Chinese community in the United Kingdom | British people of Chinese descent | English Bahá'ís

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