Leach, Bernard
Item
Maker Name
Leach, Bernard
Studio name
Leach Pottery
Marks
Biography
The English potter and philosopher, Bernard Leach, is included in this registry because of ‘The Potter's Book’ published in 1940 and its world-wide influence. Most studio practices in the Western world owe, in some part, the roots of their practice to Leach, even if they have never heard of him. The idea of a studio pottery practice barely existed before the 1900s. Potters worked in family or village groups or in factories. Leach was not the first studio potter, by any means, but It was Leach who popularized the idea and the lifestyle that optimistically accompanies it. Post- WWII this notion caught fire, particularly within the Commonwealth, and with some American, European, African, Asian, and Indian followers.
In BC, Leach’s influence neatly fits in with the 1960s Back-to-the-Land movement and has had an enduring effect on a segment of the BC ceramic practice, separate from the Modernists, the Avant Garde, the conceptual and the funk movements.
Leach’s story is too large to tell here, but below is a sketch of the effect of the Leach diaspora in BC.
Born in Hong Kong in 1887 and raised in Japan and Hong Kong. Leach studied etching at the Slade School of Art, London, in 1908. He returned to Japan and there he discovered and studied ceramics. By 1920 he had returned to England with his friend Shoji Hamada and established what has become the famed Leach Pottery in St Ives. (Now known as the Leach Pottery and Museum.) They selected a lot in St Ives, built the pottery and built the first anagama kiln outside of Japan. In the service of preserving the art of craft - their big idea was to combine Western and Eastern arts, philosophies and ceramic traditions to make ‘simple’ functional table ware. The Pottery was a pottery with a hierarchy of artist, lead-potter and apprentices, where the craft of ceramic would embody art, philosophy and design, and the product accessible to all. However, the idea that percolated through was that an individual could acquire these skills, do all the tasks, market the work, and would have an independent live/work practice and a meaningful life.
At first, manned by local workers, the Leach Pottery started to attract attention, and after the publication of ‘The Potter's Book’ and as WWII ended the pottery and its lifestyle began to attract young people world-wide.
During the counter-culture years, starting in 1958, a string of four British Columbian potters, John Reeve, Glenn Lewis, Mick Henry and Ian Steele, apprenticed with Leach. They all came and went from the Leach Pottery several times. In the mid 1970s Martin Peters came for a shortened time to the Leach, leaving with John Reeve, planning to set up a similar pottery in BC, and in 1975 and 1977 BC potter Charmian Johnson assisted Leach, whose eyesight was failing, with cataloguing his collection. Glen Lewis returned in 2013 and 2017, and Debra Sloan was invited in 2014, 2017 and 2018 for sculptural residencies (related to Leach sculptures) and teaching.
British Columbia’s Leach apprentices all absorbed different aspects of the Leach/Mingei philosophies and brought their interpretations back to BC. Their different practices, particularly in attempting to run self-sufficient rural practices, continue to influence young potters around BC.
In 2004 there was massive and important exhibition ‘Thrown, Influences and Intentions of West Coast Potters', curated by Scott Watson, Lee Plested and Charmian Johnson, and from that exhibition came a scholarly book published in 2008, ‘Thrown, British Columbia's Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries’, Scott Watson, Naomi Sawada and Charmian Johnson.
A 2013 the exhibition ‘High Fire Culture’, curated by Norah Vaillant featured BC potters of the following generation, who had been influenced by the first generation. Also in 2013 Dianne Carr curated an exhibition, ‘Back to the Land’, which featured rural practices on the Gulf islands. In 2019, English scholar, Alex Lambley published her PhD Dissertation ‘Translation and Appropriation, Mingei Theory, Bernard Leach and his Vancouver Apprentices’.
St Ives and the Leach Pottery have been a draw to many BC artists who visited or studied. (other than BC ceramicists)
Emily Carr studied painting in 1902, painters, Bruno and Molly Bobak came in 1957, Vancouver poet, Gerry Gilbert and painter Susan Philips came in 1959, painters Gordon and Marion Smith in 1960, and Cris Giuffrida and collector Nerina Bene came in 1960, and in 1961 Vancouver poet Louis Hanssen came and married the famed Australian, Gwynn Hanssen Pigott and learned how to throw from her.
For a comprehensive description of the BC apprentices at the Leach Pottery and the modernist art scene in Vancouver, see Alex Lambely's PhD thesis, noted below.
Still being researched;
Anecdotal; Molly Carter said that Reg Dixon had apprenticed with Bernard Leach before WWII. But he may have studied with a potter in London who had studied with BL.
In BC, Leach’s influence neatly fits in with the 1960s Back-to-the-Land movement and has had an enduring effect on a segment of the BC ceramic practice, separate from the Modernists, the Avant Garde, the conceptual and the funk movements.
Leach’s story is too large to tell here, but below is a sketch of the effect of the Leach diaspora in BC.
Born in Hong Kong in 1887 and raised in Japan and Hong Kong. Leach studied etching at the Slade School of Art, London, in 1908. He returned to Japan and there he discovered and studied ceramics. By 1920 he had returned to England with his friend Shoji Hamada and established what has become the famed Leach Pottery in St Ives. (Now known as the Leach Pottery and Museum.) They selected a lot in St Ives, built the pottery and built the first anagama kiln outside of Japan. In the service of preserving the art of craft - their big idea was to combine Western and Eastern arts, philosophies and ceramic traditions to make ‘simple’ functional table ware. The Pottery was a pottery with a hierarchy of artist, lead-potter and apprentices, where the craft of ceramic would embody art, philosophy and design, and the product accessible to all. However, the idea that percolated through was that an individual could acquire these skills, do all the tasks, market the work, and would have an independent live/work practice and a meaningful life.
At first, manned by local workers, the Leach Pottery started to attract attention, and after the publication of ‘The Potter's Book’ and as WWII ended the pottery and its lifestyle began to attract young people world-wide.
During the counter-culture years, starting in 1958, a string of four British Columbian potters, John Reeve, Glenn Lewis, Mick Henry and Ian Steele, apprenticed with Leach. They all came and went from the Leach Pottery several times. In the mid 1970s Martin Peters came for a shortened time to the Leach, leaving with John Reeve, planning to set up a similar pottery in BC, and in 1975 and 1977 BC potter Charmian Johnson assisted Leach, whose eyesight was failing, with cataloguing his collection. Glen Lewis returned in 2013 and 2017, and Debra Sloan was invited in 2014, 2017 and 2018 for sculptural residencies (related to Leach sculptures) and teaching.
British Columbia’s Leach apprentices all absorbed different aspects of the Leach/Mingei philosophies and brought their interpretations back to BC. Their different practices, particularly in attempting to run self-sufficient rural practices, continue to influence young potters around BC.
In 2004 there was massive and important exhibition ‘Thrown, Influences and Intentions of West Coast Potters', curated by Scott Watson, Lee Plested and Charmian Johnson, and from that exhibition came a scholarly book published in 2008, ‘Thrown, British Columbia's Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries’, Scott Watson, Naomi Sawada and Charmian Johnson.
A 2013 the exhibition ‘High Fire Culture’, curated by Norah Vaillant featured BC potters of the following generation, who had been influenced by the first generation. Also in 2013 Dianne Carr curated an exhibition, ‘Back to the Land’, which featured rural practices on the Gulf islands. In 2019, English scholar, Alex Lambley published her PhD Dissertation ‘Translation and Appropriation, Mingei Theory, Bernard Leach and his Vancouver Apprentices’.
St Ives and the Leach Pottery have been a draw to many BC artists who visited or studied. (other than BC ceramicists)
Emily Carr studied painting in 1902, painters, Bruno and Molly Bobak came in 1957, Vancouver poet, Gerry Gilbert and painter Susan Philips came in 1959, painters Gordon and Marion Smith in 1960, and Cris Giuffrida and collector Nerina Bene came in 1960, and in 1961 Vancouver poet Louis Hanssen came and married the famed Australian, Gwynn Hanssen Pigott and learned how to throw from her.
For a comprehensive description of the BC apprentices at the Leach Pottery and the modernist art scene in Vancouver, see Alex Lambely's PhD thesis, noted below.
Still being researched;
Anecdotal; Molly Carter said that Reg Dixon had apprenticed with Bernard Leach before WWII. But he may have studied with a potter in London who had studied with BL.
First name
Bernard
Last name
Leach
Career dates (start and end)
1920
1979
Date of Birth
1887
Date of Death
1979
Place of Birth
Hong Kong
Place of Death
Studio location
Formal Education
Links to Further Resources
For a comprehensive overview of BC potters and Leach see;
2019/22 Translation and Appropriation, Mingei Theory, Bernard Leach and his Vancouver Apprentices. PhD Alexandra Lambley Clark, Falmouth University, England
2019/22 Translation and Appropriation, Mingei Theory, Bernard Leach and his Vancouver Apprentices. PhD Alexandra Lambley Clark, Falmouth University, England
2009 "Thrown, British Columbian Apprenticed of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries", Naomi Sawada, Scott Watson, UBC Belkin ( with record of Marks)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Leach
1997 St Ives Artists; Bernard Leach by Edmund de Waal
https://www.martygrossfilms.com/films/leach/leach_on-bernard-leach.html
Source
Debra Sloan
Linked resources
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