1. Emmanuel Cooper is a potter, writer, critic, and editor of Ceramic Review:
The International Magazine of Ceramic Art and Craft. This article is adapted
from his biography of Bernard Leach, Bernard Leach: Life and Work (New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 2003).
2. When Leach took pots from the kiln he allowed them to cool rapidly in
the open air. The glaze invariably crazed, but the colors were often bright.
Post-firing reduction, a technique developed in America and one not used
by Leach, was achieved by taking the pot directly from the kiln and placing
it in an airtight container with a combustible material such as sawdust,
leaves, or newspapers. The heat of the pot would cause the combustible to
smoulder, resulting in blackened bodies and luster glazes.
3. Bernard Leach, A Potter’s Book (London: Faber and Faber, 1940).
4. Charles Harder, head of the design department, made salt-glazed domestic
stoneware.
5. See Susan Peterson, “Refiections: Part 1—Leach at Alfred,”
The Studio Potter 9, no. 2 (June 1981).
6. The American Crafts Council grew out of Aileen Webb’s efforts during
the Depression. She was also involved with America House (est. 1940), the
School for American Craftsmen, the Museum of Contemporary Craft (1956),
and the World Craft Council (1964). For accounts of Aileen Osborn Webb,
see Rose Slivka, “Our Aileen Osborn Webb,” Craft Horizons (June
1977): 10–13, and Rose Slivka, “Aileen Osborn Webb, David Campbell:
A Reminiscence,” Craft Horizons (August–September 1993): 133–41.
7. Slivka, “Our Aileen Osborn Webb,” pp. 10–13.
8. Bernard Leach, “American Impressions,” Craft Horizons 10, no.
4 (winter 1950).
9. Daniel Rhodes, Stoneware and Porcelain: The Art of High Fired Pottery
(1959; reprint, London: Pitman Publishing, 1978), p. 39.
10. Mark Tobey, letter to Bernard Leach, April 4, 1958, Leach Archive, no.
12239.
11. Bernard Leach, letter to Lucie Rie, November 4, 1952, Rie archives.
12. Susan Peterson, “Bernard Leach: Two Recollections,” The Studio
Potter 8, no. 1 (1979– 1980): 3.
13. Bernard Leach, “The American Journey with Yanagi and Hamada,”
n.d., private collection.
14. This piece is now in the collection of the Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts
Art Museum), Tokyo.
15. Bernard Leach, A Potter in Japan (London: Faber and Faber, 1960), p.
34.
16. Peterson, “Bernard Leach: Two Recollections,” p. 3.
17. Leach, Potter’s Book.
18. Interview with the author, March 21, 1997.
19. The foundation had been set up by Archie Bray on the property of the
Western Clay Manufacturing Company two years earlier to provide facilities
and advanced ceramic studies within the state. Voulkos (1924–2002)
was one of the most infiuential and significant potters of postwar America.
Autio (b. 1926) remained at Archie Bray until 1956. Glenn Adamson’s
review of Louana M. Lackey’s book Rudy Autio (2002) appears in this
issue of Ceramics in America.
20. Quoted in Rose Slivka and Karen Tsujimoto, The Art of Peter Voulkos
(Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1995). This was a turning point in Voulkos’s
life, as shortly afterward he was invited to teach at Black Mountain College,
where he came into contact with the ideas of the abstract expressionist
painters. The connection stimulated him to produce more abstract sculptural
forms in ceramics.
21. Leach, “American Journey with Yanagi and Hamada,” p. 6.
22. Ibid., p. 8.
23. The couple often worked as a team and together developed many ideas.
24. E. James Brownson, “Midwest Craftsmen’s Seminar,” Ceramics
Monthly (March 1953): 10, 28.
25. Ceramics Monthly (March–April 1953); Leach Archive, no. 1728.
26. Marguerite Wildenhain, letter to the editor, Craft Horizons (May–June
1953): 43–44.
27. Bernard Leach, letter to Lucie Rie, March 16, 1960, Rie archives.
28. Janet Leach, “A Few Impressions of Current American Pottery,”
Pottery Quarterly: A Review of Ceramic Art 7, no. 25 (1961): 12–16.
29. Bernard Leach, letter to Lucie Rie, March 16, 1960, Rie archives.
30. Bernard Leach, letter to Warren MacKenzie, March 16, 1960, private collection.
31. Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925) is the Austrian founder of anthroposophy.
He evolved a study of spiritual concerns opposed to conventional occultism,
and his educational theories of using the arts therapeutically were widely
infiuential.
32. Bernard Leach, letter to Lucie Rie, March 16, 1960, Rie archives.
33. John P. McElroy, “A Visit from Bernard Leach,” The Studio
Potter 27, no. 1 (December 1958): 18–19.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Byron Temple worked at the Leach Pottery from 1959 to 1962, and again
from 1978 to 1979. He also made pots at Lambertville, New Jersey.
37. Bernard Leach, letter to Warren MacKenzie, May 16, 1960, private collection.
38. Leach, “Current American Pottery,” pp. 12–16.
39. Bernard Leach, letter to Lucie Rie, March 10, 1950, Rie archives. |