BERNARD LEACH – (1887 – 1979) The legacy of British ceramic artist Bernard Leach encompasses his widely read books, his prolific production of pottery, his many lectures and demonstrations and the students who worked with him. Raised in the East and captivated by the Eastern traditions of ceramic art, Leach‟s passion was to “…merge the art of the technical West with that of the organic East” 1 even as Leach did in his own work and his own philosophy. For most of his long life Leach crossed the barrier between Eastern and Western cultures trying to blend the best of each to attain a pure and simple style of art and living, the “unknown craftsman” of his writings, creating for the love of the materials and the purity of the function. The visit of Leach and Hamada to America had a major effect on the revival of functional pottery and the influence of traditional Japanese pottery on Western ceramic art. As probably the most influential British potter of the twentieth century, his concepts of the practice and role of the potter continue to generate both admiration and controversy among present-day potters. 1. Garth Clark. The Potter’s Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995, 147.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT – BERNARD LEACH “…since the potter belongs to our own time and aspires to the position of a creative artist, he is divided in his allegiance between contemporary movements in his own art and this challenge from the classical periods of the East. I hope that out of total inheritance we are moving towards balance… …We are no longer simple-minded peasants. We inherit all, and we stand alone…The quality which appears to me fundamental in all pots is life in one or more of its modes; inner harmony, nobility, purity, strength, breadth and generosity, or even exquisiteness and charm. But it is one thing to make a list of the virtues of man and pot and another to interpret them in the counterpoint of convex and concave, hard and soft, growth and rest for this is the breathing of the Universe in the particular.”1 1. Quoted in: Garth Clark. The Potter’s Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995, 154.

RESUME – BERNARD LEACH 1887

Born, Hong Kong

1897

Beaumont School, Old Windsor Park, England

1903

Slade School of Arts

1906

Clerk, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, London, England

1908

London School of Art, London, England

1909

Etcher, Tokyo, Japan

1910

Married Muriel Hoyle

1911-1920

Studied pottery with Ogaka Kenzan VI, Japan

1920

Founded St. Ives Pottery, Cornwall, England, with Shoji Hamada

1932-1934

Instructor, Dartington Hall School, Devon, England Founded Shinner‟s Bridge Pottery

1934-1935

Japan

1941-1973

Potter and teacher, the St. Ives Pottery

1943

Divorced Muriel Hoyle Leach

1944

Married Laurie Cookes

1952

Japan

1956

Divorced Laurie Cookes Leach Married Janet Darnell

1962

Commander of the Order of the British Empire

1966

Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class, Japan

1973

Companion of Honour

1974

Japan Foundation Cultural Award

1977

Retrospective exhibition, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

1979

Died, St. Ives, Cornwall, England

1997

Retrospective exhibition, Crafts Council, England

BIOGRAPHY – BERNARD LEACH British artist Bernard Leach‟s early years were spent in the East, a part of the world that would ultimately influence the direction of his art. His British parents were wealthy, his father a colonial judge in Hong Kong at the time of Leach‟s birth. His mother died during childbirth and the infant Leach was taken to Japan to live with his maternal grandparents in Kyoto. After his father‟s remarriage, Leach moved back with his father and for the next few years the family moved between Hong Kong and Singapore. An only child, Leach remembered his early years as solitary ones, primarily spent drawing and making his own amusements. It was not until Leach was 10 that he first moved to England where he was enrolled in the Beaumont School, a Jesuit boarding school near Windsor. The curriculum was very strict, Leach an indifferent

student who excelled primarily at art. In 1903 with his father in ill health, his parents returned to England and Leach began his formal art training at the Slade School of Art, studying under Henry Tonks. His schooling was cut short with his father‟s death and for a short time Leach worked as a clerk in the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation in London. Leach hated the commercial world, and upon receiving his inheritance when he turned 21, he completed his art training at the London School of Art in 1908, concentrating in etching. In 1909 Leach returned to the East, moving to Japan to teach etching and make a living as an artist. He and his wife, his cousin Muriel Hoyle whom he married in 1910, were to remain there for the next 11 years, living on the small amount he earned from his work and a legacy from his father. A chance introduction to ceramics at a party in 1911 would prove a turning point in his career. Leach was introduced to the raku technique and was so drawn to it that he apprenticed himself to Ogata Kenzan VI (Urano Shigkichi), the then master of raku. Leach excelled as a student and in 1913 Kenzan presented Leach and fellow apprentice Kenkichi Tomimoto with their “Densho,” their proof of succession to become the seventh Kenzan at the master‟s death, and invited him to have his own kiln and workshop. Over the next few years Leach would have several successful exhibitions and come to know a number of the Japanese ceramic artists and art historian and writer Soetsu Yanagi, the leader of the Mingei movement which emphasized the traditional Japanese crafts. In addition to his artistic development, Leach found in the East a spiritual connection, becoming interested in Eastern religions and eventually espousing the Bahai faith; his theories of the East as representing the spiritual and the West the material evolved. “Art, as we endeavour towards perfection, is one with religion, and this fact is better recognized in the East…All from West to furtherest East are unitive and not dualistic. Our dualism commenced when we separated intellect from intuition…,” Leach wrote in Drawings, Verse and Belief.1 Leach‟s pottery ultimately burned down, and in 1920 he, along with his wife and their three children, moved back to England where they settled in St. Ives, Cornwall, with the generous funding of a local patron, Frances Horn. Accompanying the Leaches was Shoji Hamada, a potter that Leach had met in Japan and who was skilled in glazes and kiln firing, and together they built a climbing kiln for high temperature and an updraught kiln for earthenware and raku. The early years were difficult, the amount of loss in the kiln quite high, and the art pottery which they were producing too innovative for the British market. After three years Hamada returned to Japan to continue his studies and work but the two would remain close friends and colleagues for the rest of their lives. To increase sales Leach began focusing on functional domestic ware, accepting the idea of production pottery, and taking in students who also helped with the production work. One of his first students was Michael Cardew who would make his own name in ceramic art and later Leach‟s son David. Leach also began writing, his first book A Potter’s Outlook, published in 1928. Leach remained at St. Ives until 1932 when he accepted an offer from Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst to set up a pottery making handmade tableware at Dartington Hall, a progressive school and colony in Devon. At the time, his marriage to Muriel was ending and he had become attracted to Laurie Cookes, a worker at the Pottery whom he would later marry, so the move from St. Ives served as a personal transition as well. Leach was invited to return to Japan in 1934 to tour country potteries. He spent over a year traveling with Soetsu Yanagi both in Japan and Korea, studying the traditional pottery and crafts, and forming his philosophy of the simple craftsman, leading ultimately to the publication of A Potter’s Book in 1940. In his absence the St. Ives Pottery was run by his son David, who enrolled in a course of pottery management, much to his father‟s disapproval, and set about introducing changes to make the pottery more businesslike and viable. By the time Leach returned to England and moved in with Laurie, the idea of a pottery at Dartington had been

abandoned, partly because of the slow progress and partly because of the political unrest as the threats of war increased. When war broke out in England and David was called to serve, Leach returned to St. Ives to take over the Pottery, continuing to produce ware under difficult circumstances. After David‟s return from the war, he again took over management of the pottery production leaving his father free to travel, giving lectures and demonstrations. The marriage of Leach and Laurie was foundering, and in 1952 Leach once again returned to Japan for a long visit, received by the art community there with warmth and esteem. His book A Potter’s Portfolio had been published in 1951, and in 1952 he organized the International Conference of Craftsmen in Pottery and Textiles which delegates attended from Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Leach, Hamada, and Yanagi also traveled to the United States, giving lectures and demonstrations, introducing the potters of the West to the arts and philosophies of the East, and encouraging the rise of the functional pottery movement in the West. Leach would later write of this exchange of ideas and cultures in his book Beyond East and West. He was also to meet American potter Janet Darnell and she would become his third wife in 1956. David left the St. Ives Pottery to establish his own pottery at Lowerdown Cross, Devon, and Janet Leach became the manager of St. Ives, continuing to operate it until 1983. Leach focused on making pots, and while nearly 70, some of the work done at this time is among his best. He published three more books during this time: A Potter in Japan, Kenzan and his Tradition, and A Potter’s Work. He continued to travel, exhibit and lecture until 1972 when failing eyesight brought his years of creating ceramic art to an end. That year he wrote The Unknown Craftsman. Drawings, Verse and Belief was published a year later; Hamada: Potter in 1975; A Potter’s Challenge in 1976; and Beyond East and West was completed with the help of his secretary and published in 1978. The following year Bernard Leach died in St. Ives at the age of 92. Janet Leach inherited the Pottery after Leach‟s death and soon ended the production of functional ware; she continued to make pots until her death in 1997. Over the next few years the Pottery came under governmental protection for its cultural heritage, and restoration of the property into a museum and showroom began. The legacy of Bernard Leach lives on, however, in his sons and grandsons. David Leach‟s workshop produced tableware as well as stoneware and pottery and David‟s three sons became potters as well. Bernard Leach‟s second son, Michael, also set up a pottery and his son operates a pottery. Emmanuel Cooper has written that Leach‟s pots “fall into those inspired by the West and those by the East.” The earthenware dishes and pots with their honey-colored glazes, slip-trailing and combing drew from English traditional pottery and the decorations reflected Leach‟s strong graphic abilities. The Eastern influence shows up in some of the decorative motifs but more significantly in the raku ware and the high-fired stoneware and porcelain. Cooper notes that to the English eye the stoneware and porcelain appears very Eastern while to the Japanese they seemed very Western. He usually made sketches of his pieces before making them, and often the decoration was as carefully sketched out as the pot. The decorations were integrated with the shape of the pot itself, and the entire piece – shape, decoration, material and tools – was designed to produce a harmonious whole. It is not surprising, however, that such a prolific, well-known, passionate artist should engender controversy and criticism, both of his art and his philosophies. As Garth Clark said in The Potter’s Art: “Part of a balanced appraisal … requires that his achievements as a potter and scholar be viewed separately.”3 Clark states that Leach‟s pottery was somewhat academic, that he did not have the easy touch with clay that others such as Cardew and Hamada exhibited, although his pots were good, his best ones particularly so, and his decorations showed his gifts.

Clark notes also that Leach never came to terms with the modern movements in ceramics, remaining, in the words of Michael Cardew „a perfectly preserved Edwardian.‟”5 John Britt, writing in Critical Ceramics found numerous contradictions among Leach‟s stated beliefs and his own work and practices. What is unchallenged, however, is the place Bernard Leach occupies in ceramic history and particularly in ceramic art history of the twentieth century, where his influence on the revival of functional ceramics, the forging of the relationship of Eastern and Western ceramic traditions, his contributions to the ongoing discussion of art theory and practice, as well as his writings and work assure him of a pre-eminent position. During his lifetime Leach was the recipient of a number of awards that honored his contributions to the world of art, among them: Commander of the Order of the British Empire; Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class, Japan; Companion of Honour; and the Japan Foundation Cultural Award. Retrospectives of his work were held in 1977 and 1997. Since his death many of his papers and a large number of his own pots as well as those he collected of other artists have been housed in the Bernard Leach Archive at the Crafts Study Centre, United Kingdom. 1. Quoted in: Sonja van Kerkhoff. “Bernard Leach.” http://www.bahailibrary.org/bafa/l/leach.htm 2. Emmanuel Cooper. Bernard Leach, Life & Work. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, xiii 3. Garth Clark. The Potters Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995.153 4. Ibid., 154. 5. John Britt. “The „Unknown Craftsman is Dead.” Critical Ceramics (6 April 2000).

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY – BERNARD LEACH Books and Catalogs Barrow, Terry. Bernard Leach; Essays in Appreciation. Wellington: Editorial Committee of the N.Z. Potter, 1960. Birks, Tony, Cornelia Wingfield Digby, and Peter Kinnear. Bernard Leach, Hamada & Their Circle. Oxford: Phaidon, 1990. Clark, Garth. The Potter’s Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995. Cooper, Emmanual. Bernard Leach: Life and Work. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. DeWaal, Edmund, and Bernard Leach. Bernard Leach. London: Tate Gallery Pub., 1998. Farleigh, John. Fifteen Craftsmen on Their Crafts. London: The Sylvan Press, 1945. Hamada, Shoji, and Bernard Leach. The Quiet Eye: Pottery of Shoji Hamada & Bernard Leach. Monterey, CA: Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, 1990. Held, Peter. Innovation & Change. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Art Museum, 2009. Leach, Bernard. The Art of Bernard Leach. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1977.

_______. Bernard Leach. London: P. Lund, Humphries & Co., 1950-1959?. _______. Bernard Leach: Commemorative Compendium on the Occasion of the Conferment of the Honorary Freedom of the Borough. St. Ives, Cornwall: Burrough Council, 1968. _______. Bernard Leach: Fifty Years a Potter. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1961. _______. Beyond East and West: Memoirs, Portraits, and Essays. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1978. _______. Drawings, Verse & Belief. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1974. _______. An Exhibition of the Art of Bernard Leach. Osaka: Asahi Shimbun, 1980. _______. Kenzan and his Tradition, the Lives and Times of Koetsu, Sotasu, Korin, and Kenzan. London: Faber & Faber, 1966. _______. A Potter in Japan, 1952-1954. New York: Transatlantic Arts, 1967. _______. A Potter’s Book. London: Faber & Faber, 1940, 2nd ed. 1945, 3rd ed. 1975. _______. The Potter’s Challenge. New York: Dutton, 1975. _______. A Potter’s Outlook. London: New Handworkers‟ Gallery, 1928. _______. A Potter’s Portfolio. New York: Pitman, 1951. _______. Studio Pottery from the Eagle Collection. Gateshead, England: Shipley Art Gallery, 1991. Leach, Bernard, and Shoji Hamada. Hamada, Potter. Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1975. Leach, Bernard, and J. P. Hodin. A Potter’s Work. London: Evelyn, Adams & Mackay, 1967. Leach, Bernard, and Carol Hogben. The Art of Bernard Leach. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1978. Leach, Bernard, and Robert Weinberg. Spinning the Clay Into Stars. Oxford: G. Ronald, 1999. Leach Tradition. St. Louis: Pro-Art, 1987. Nine Potters. London, Fischer, 1986. Peterson, Susan. The Craft and Art of Clay. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1992. Shoji Hamada, 1894-1978 and Bernard Leach, 1887-1979. Hamilton, N.Z.: The Museum, 1980. Six Master Potters of the Modern Age. New York: Babcock Galleries, 1995.

Watson, Oliver. Bernard Leach: Potter and Artist. London: Crafts Council, 1997. Whybrow, Marion. Leach Pottery St. Ives. St. Ives: Beach, 2006. Yanagi, Muneyoshi, and Bernard Leach. The Unknown Craftsman: a Japanese Insight Into Beauty. Tokyo; Palo Alto, CA: Kodansha International, 1972.

Periodicals “Alternative Perspectives on Bernard Leach.” Studio Potter 27 no. 1 (December 1998): 3-23. “Alternative Perspectives on Bernard Leach, Part II.” Studio Potter 27 no. 2 (June 1999): 3-34. “Bernard Leach: A Creative Force.” Ceramic Review no. 108 (November/December 1987): 3142. Britt, John. “Leach‟s Circular Logic.” Ceramics Monthly 47 no. 5 (May 1999): 108+. _______. “The „Unknown Craftsman‟ Is Dead.” Ceramics Monthly 48 no. 2 (February 2000): 106+. Cardew, Michael. “Memorial Eulogy for Bernard Leach.” Studio Potter 11 (June 1983): 34-36. Clark, Garth. “Bernard‟s Orphans – Searching for Neo in Classical.” Studio Potter 33 no. 2 (June 2005): 6-13. Cooper, Emmanuel. “Between East and West.” Ceramic Review no. 195 (May/June 2002): 4246. _______. “Leach – The Biography.” Ceramic Review no. 201 (May/June 2003): 36-39. _______. “My Dear Mr. Leach…” Ceramic Review no. 168 (November/December 1997): 2124. Curtis, Penelope. “Support/Surface or Sculpture/Craft.” The Journal of Modern Craft 2 no. 1 (March 2009): 33-42. Davis, Frank. “Subtleties of Form and Glaze.” Country Life (London, England) 161 (March 3 1977): 508-509. DeWaal, Edmund. “Towards a Double Standard?” Crafts (London, England) no. 149 (November/December 1997): 30-35. _______. “Homo Orientalis: Bernard Leach and the Image of the Japanese Craftsman.” Journal of Design History 10 no. 4 (1997): 355-362. Harrod, Tanya. “Bernard Leach: Cardiff.” The Burlington Magazine 145 (August 2003): 600601.

_______. “Bernard Leach: Potter and Artist.” Crafts (London, England) no. 152 (May/June 1998): 51-53. _______. “Bernard Leach, Traditionalist or Visionary.” Ceramic Review no. 150 (November/December 1994): 20-23. _______. “Writers and Thinkers: Bernard Leach.” Crafts (London, England) no. 128 (May/June 1994): 18-19. Hatcher, Gary. “A Conversation with David Leach.” Ceramics Monthly 45 (January 1997): 3133. Hluch, Kevin. “Leach: Toward a Universal Culture.” Ceramics Monthly 43 (January 1995): 9698+. Hodin, Josef Paul. “Bernard Leach.” Art & Artists 11 (March 1977): 12-15. Johnson, Brent. “A Matter of Tradition.” Studio Potter 36 no. 1 (Winter 2007/Spring 2008): 615. Mangus, Kirk. “Permission to be an Individual.” Ceramics Monthly 48 no. 7 (September 2000): 114-120. Mason, Peter F. “Bernard Leach‟s Magic Circle.” Crafts (London, England) no. 217 (March/April 2009): 59-60. McLaren, Graham. “In the Shadow of Bernard Leach.” Ceramics (Sydney, Australia) no. 53 (2003): 102-103. Mosley, Linda. “The Leach Tradition.” Ceramics Monthly 36 (March 1988): 22-31. Palmer, David. “Tradition and Originality.” Ceramics (Sydney, Australia) no. 60 (2005): 101103. Peterson, Susan. “Reflections: Leach at Alfred.” Studio Potter 9 (June 1981): 56-59. Schwarz, Dean, and Geri Schwarz. “A Visit with Bernard Leach.” Studio Potter 31 no. 1 (December 2002): 73-77. Shapiro, Mark. “Lyric Functionalism.” Studio Potter 33 no. 2 (June 2005): 30-35. “Visit with Bernard Leach.” Ceramics Monthly 22 (November 1974): 20-23. Whiting, David. “Bernard Leach: Concept and Form. Crafts (London, England) no. 181 (March/April 2003): 61. _______. “‟Leach and His World‟ Conference.” Ceramic Review no. 171 (May/June 1998): 61. Woodruff, Stephen. “Bernard Leach Award Fund.” Ceramic Review no. 170 (March/April 1998): 61.

Video and Other Media Casson, Michael, David Hargreaves, et al. “Talking About Pots.” Chicago: Films, Inc., 1983, 1976. VHS “The Leach Pottery 1952.” Toronto, Canada: Marty Gross Film Productions, 2000, 1952 VHS Newman, Edwin. “The Art of the Potter.” New York: Phoenix Films & Video, 1990-1991. VHS “A Potter‟s World.” London: British Broadcasting Corp., 1966. Film “Revolutions of the Wheel: The Emergence of Clay Art.” Directed and edited by Scott Sterling. Queens Row, 1997. VHS Way, David, and Gillian Miles. “The Rock of St. Ives.” Great Britain: BBC, 1982. Videocassette

GALLERY REPRESENTATION – BERNARD LEACH Garth Clark Gallery, 24 West 57 Street, Suite 305, New York, New York 10019

WEB SITES – BERNARD LEACH http://www.leachpottery.com/ Web site of Leach Pottery studio and museum http://www.garthclark.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=135 Garth Clark Gallery web site for Bernard Leach http://www.frankpishkur.com/lecture2.doc Articles on Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada http://bahai-library.com/?file=scott_bw18_bernard_leach.html Trudi Scott. “Remembering Bernard Leach.” From The Bahá’i World 1979-1983 XVIII. Haifa: Bahá‟i World Center, 1986, 929-931. http://www.csc.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=19922 Crafts Study Centre series of articles and photos about Bernard Leach http://www.ccca.ca/c/writing/w/watson/wat012t.html “Scott Watson in Conversation with Donna Balma” from “Bernard Leach and His Vancouver Students.” Vancouver Art & Artists: 1931-1983, Vancouver Art Gallery. http://www.ceramics-aberystwyth.com/bernard-leach.html Biography and photos of Bernard Leach, Aberystwyth Ceramics Collection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty0ePBZHoUc

Video of Simon Leach Pottery http://www.bahai-library.org/bafa/l/leach.htm Biography of Bernard Leach with photos http://www.oakwoodceramics.co.uk/DartingtonB.htm Articles on the Dartington Conferences 1952, 2003, with references to Leach http://www.uwic.ac.uk/ICRC/issue003/leach_cardew.htm Emmanuel Cooper. “Leach and Cardew – the Early Years.” From the Michael Cardew Centenary Symposium, 27-28 June 2001 http://www.oakwoodceramics.co.uk/Magazine6PR1B.htm Phil Rogers. “The Influence of Korea upon Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada.” Transcript of presentation at Bernard Leach symposium 11 November 2003.

April 2009